2025 // Portugal on Film
Lisbon, Cascais, PortO & Nazaré
Portugal, FEBRUARY 2025
Portugal has always lingered at the back of my brain. Friends have raved about it, and with it being on the west side of Europe and on the more affordable side, it felt like a no-brainer when Eli and I found cheap flights. It has taken me so long to realize that I need to get out of Seattle in the first quarter of the year to make it through the winter without complaining.
We toyed with so many versions of our itinerary. Lisbon for 3 days, fly to Morocco for 4 days, on and on it went. Eli pointed out how insane it was to be on the move every 1-3 days for a two week trip, especially when we’d be road-tripping and he’d be the primary driver. I could see his point. We scaled back and revised the itinerary to dedicate time to the major cities: Lisbon and Porto.
Lisbon
The flight over was rough, with an unruly toddler behind us and underwhelming British Airways food, but we made it! The journey into the city was a quick 20-minute car ride and we checked right into our Airbnb, which offered a bird’s-eye view of the city. Our hosts were so kind, giving us a bottle of port wine and pastéis de nata from Manteigaria to kick off our Portugal experience. We quickly discovered that we don’t like port wine and that the bar had been set high for pastel de nata.
To beat jet lag, we wandered our neighborhood to gather our bearings and admire the tiled facades. The buildings burst with geometric shapes or delicate pastels. While we had mapped out a general itinerary and must do items, we went off script and tackled some of the activities on the fly.
We walked everywhere. I think visitors are deterred by the hills, but it allowed us to stumble upon scenic miradouros (lookout points) and even catch glimpses of the iconic yellow tram squeezing down tight streets. Our eyes would determine the destination and we’d weave our way as best we could towards it. It brought us to Castelo de São Jorge, where we climbed the ancient walls for sweeping views of the city. Between snacking on pastéis de nata and figuring out what to explore next, we were jiving.
Lisbon is small. Portugal itself is much smaller than I had anticipated. It felt like we were blowing through all the items on our list, then BAM, Eli came down with food poisoning. Never ideal, but thankfully we were visiting for two weeks and had extra days to allow for recovery. While he rested, I took myself on a solo adventure to find all the ceramics of my dreams. Luckily, it was a 24 hour illness and he gradually returned to touring.
Belém
After making some adjustments to accommodate the unexpected sick day, we settled on making our way to the western outskirts of Lisbon to an area called Belém. The city sits on the Tagus River, closer to the Atlantic Ocean than Lisbon, and in the 16th century, served as the ceremonial gateway to Lisbon for Portuguese explorers. Nowadays, the Belém Tower, amongst other historic landmarks in the area, is revered for its architecture. We wandered around the district, admiring the intricate mosaic sidewalks and quaint attitude. A trip to Belém is surely incomplete without a stop at Pastéis de Belém for their famed version of a pastel de nata; the crust is CRUNCHY.
From there we visited the MAAT admired the contemporary architecture of the museum. It reminded us of the sea waves with the dazzling undulating curves of the building. Afterwards, we drove back into Lisbon to explore LX Factory, a former textile complex converted into art shops and restaurants, where we stopped for a late lunch and some shopping. I appreciate this trend of turning old factories into useable spaces and facilities of art and wish Seattle would take to doing this more.
Sintra
With a restorative night, Eli was fully back. We road-tripped to Sintra in an early morning drizzle. The city of Sintra is about 45 minutes away from Lisbon and was historically known as a royal sanctuary perched atop a hill with Moorish influence and architectural design. We started at the ever popular Palácio da Pena making our way up the hill. Despite the fog enclosing us, the riot of red and yellow palace walls were a spectacle to behold.
Next up was the Castelo dos Mouros (Moorish Castle), my personal favorite part of the day. It was less crowded and more playful as we walked along its ancient stone wall like tracing a spine. By this point, the fog and mist had cleared and we could see all of the valley below us.
We capped off our time in Sintra at Quinta da Regaleira, a sprawling royal manor with expansive grounds. The pièce de résistance was the Initiation Well that created a dizzying optical design with the descending spiral staircase. At the bottom of the stairs, we were led to an underground cave and waterfall.
The funniest part of all of this was looping around the town three times because we did not realize where each destination was located.
Cascais
A morning in Sintra, and an afternoon in Cascais. Eli navigated the tight streets of Sintra to the beach district called Cascais. We spent the afternoon eating al fresco for a late lunch and sipping sangria and beers along the water. The morning drizzle had subsided and we took advantage of the sunshine like the other lively beach goers.
Back to Lisbon
With Eli on the upswing, we bounced around to more bars and wine shops on our list. Maybe we were overly optimistic, but now it was my turn to fall ill and I came down with some sort of nasal congestion. It didn’t prevent us from exploring, but it did put a damper on my energy levels and by the end of each day, I was wiped.
Still, we made the most of it. We carved out time for the National Tile Museum, which highlighted the history and artistry of azulejos. One morning, we wandered through flea markets set in the shadow of Church of Santa Engrácia, one of Lisbon’s massive, iconic churches. We browsed stalls of vintage wares and ceramics.
And of course, we ate. We spent mornings at charming bakeries like Do Beco, a trendy spot with windows into the kitchen making fresh pastries for the day. One of our best meals of the entire trip was dinner at Magnolia, where everything from the wine to service made it feel so cozy. We ended another night at Rocco, a swanky hotel cocktail bar with maximalist flair. One of our favorite and cheapest meals was at Bifanas do Afonso, a hole-in-the-wall spot known for its namesake pork sandwich. It was arguably the best Portuguese food we had the whole trip.
Porto
After spending a week in Lisbon, it was time to make our way up north to Porto. The train was quick and easy. Our Airbnb was right in the heart of the city and we could immediately discern that it lively and fun. We kicked things off with a francesinha for lunch. Out on the patio waiting for our food, a smiley, old man spoke to us in Portuguese and I think he complimented us on being a beautiful couple.
Ready to explore a new town, we grabbed a pastel de nata and beer to go as we walked around. We stopped at a wine bar housed in an old church and took a gondola ride for sweeping views of the river and the city.
I was starting to feel better though I may have passed my congestion to Eli. But again, it felt like we had done the things we had wanted to in record time.
Nazaré
In our original itinerary, the crazy one, we had written down spending a night in Nazaré in hopes of seeing the giant waves. Nazaré is a beautiful, sleepy, coastal town tucked away in the center of the country that has been thrust into the spotlight as THE destination for big wave surfing. See, the city sits near an underwater canyon that allows for waves to reach up to 100 feet high.
Our timing was lucky. Late February is the prime time for giant wave season and we had just missed a big wave competition by a few days. We decided to just send it and book a rental car to make the 2 hour drive.
It started to rain as we got out of the car, but as Seattleites we were undeterred and obviously prepared with our raincoats. Making the walk down to the lighthouse was an experience in the rain and wind, but we were riding the high of being in Nazaré and witnessing the massive waves in the distance.
The waves are mesmerizing. All the pictures and videos can’t do it justice. The scale of it all doesn’t fully translate until you see someone try to surf one and we were lucky enough to witness that.
The tradeoff was getting absolutely soaked to the bone. Our jeans were sopping wet. We attempted to dry our clothes to no avail and had a late lunch in our wet clothes. This is the part of the trip where things really turned for me. We were starving and ate a seafood medley at a questionable restaurant. Turns out it didn’t sit right with me, and I came down with food poisoning.
I sat out the next day while Eli had his turn at a solo adventure which sadly, was our last full day in Porto. Thankfully, my episode was only 24 hours as well and I was feeling much better for the train ride back to Lisbon.
We wandered Lisbon one last time, hitting a few more shops to stock up on last minute souvenirs and squeeze in a pastel de nata. I convinced Eli to stop at Landeau for their famous chocolate cake. Our last memories of Lisbon were in my favorite area, Praça das Flores (Principe Real), walking around the square and drinking beer from the kiosk in the park.
Obrigado, Portugal
Social media is very different from reality. We quarreled. We got sick. We thought Portugal was cute, but not our favorite.
It’s been awkward to regale friends with deflated stories of our seemingly illustrious vacation. “It looked so fun!” friends exclaimed when I was back; yes, it was at times, but not every moment was so fun.
I was thrown by how widely English was spoken and I think it took away from the experience. In recent years, Portugal has become a popular expat destination for the affordable cost of living. We encountered more foreigners than I anticipated. I think that diluted some of the cultural immersion I was hoping for. We also didn’t enjoy the food. Maybe we went to the wrong places or the fact that we both got food poisoning, but we were left disappointed.
I think another part of the reason we didn’t love Portugal was because it’s very similar to Seattle: there is access to water and maritime activities, wine country and tastings, seafood galore! If we were from a different part of the U.S. I think we would probably be more astounded. Again, maybe this is an error in our exploration, but we had trouble figuring out what makes Portugal uniquely Portugal past the pastéis de nata, port wine, and azulejos.
The country itself is much smaller than I was anticipating and we covered a lot of ground, leaving us with a ton of extra time. If we could do it again, we’d probably spend a week in Portugal then bounce to Morocco.
Still, it wasn’t all bad, just not what I was expecting. I miss walking everywhere and how quickly we could get from one side of town to the other while admiring the vibrant homes. I miss the pastel de nata. I miss counting how many flat caps I’d see. While it was far from the trip of a lifetime, I’d be eager to visit other towns like Coimbra or Lagos, even venture to the islands like the Azores or Madeira, and find that Portuguese magic.
This trip was a humbling reminder that things can go wrong and you can still make the most of a situation. I don’t have to love every place I go. It’s hard when I don’t want to overlook the privilege of traveling and ability to take extended time off, but I think I’d be doing myself a disservice too if I weren’t being honest.
So until next time! Hopefully Portugal will have a redemption arc for me.
