30 Mar 2023
This tour was booked for us by our travel agency and we didn’t really know what to expect apart from a private tour! The answer was a lovely day with Andre, who was a super, friendly and very knowledgeable guide with superb English.
We were sent an email a couple of days before the tour advising us that if we wanted to visit Pena Palace, we should book the earliest slot in advance. Luckily there were still spaces so we did just that and it was indeed excellent advice. Andre gave us plenty of history and information whilst we waited to go in and then left us to visit in the interior on our own, allowing a decent amount of time but not too much - spot on!
Next he took us to the historical centre of Sintra, where we had enough time for a good wander around and some shopping.
From there we went first for a brief stop at Cabo da Roca and then to Cascais, where we had asked to have lunch. Andre gave us a couple of restaurant recommendations - the one we chose was great - and then we had enough time for a walk around before coming back to Lisbon.
The day as a whole was very good and Andre’s sense of timings needed was spot on.
My only niggle was that I would have loved to see one of the other major sights in Sintra, but this was clearly not the plan on this tour and as I said we had had this booked for us so was just not to be.