A Fun Jaunt Along The Portuguese Coastline - Omkar Joshi

Portuguese Coastline Unadkya

Notes for the readers/viewers:

To share as much information as possible, I provide hyperlinks to the Point of Interest(POIs), important events, geographical features and so on. I recommend readers to spot these hyperlinks in the post and visit those.
To avoid cluttering the post with details of every POI, I do NOT write the detailed reviews of the same, please check my reviews on Google Maps / TripAdvisor.
Though I like to document my trips, it’s a drudgery which causes some information to be left out or the post ending abruptly. Feel free to contact me in case you need more information.
I try to post as many distinct pictures/photos as possible, to give a fair idea of the entities but the objective is not to provide a photo album. Google Maps or, in general, on the Internet, aplenty pictures are available for the viewers

Prelude

The arrival of Antik and Sourabh(popularly and henceforth referred as in the post, ‘Golu’) in Sweden and Italy respectively had encouraged me to plan, at least, a short trip. After much of swaying between a couple of destinations, it was in late January that we finalized Portugal. Then followed the excruciating formalities of booking flights, accommodation etc. Over conference calls, sharing documents via Google Drive and quick communication through WhatsApp ensured that we were not having any eleventh hour challenges.

We had the following constraints:
1. Each of us could afford maximum one day of leave, hence, we had to fit the entire trip within 3 days(weekends+1 day leave). So it was February 15(Friday) – 17(Sunday).

2. Golu was going to fly from Milan from where there weren’t any flights to the Faro airport. We decided that we will make a round trip(Lisbon-Lagos-Benagil-Lisbon) from Lisbon. It turned out that there was another, better approach.

3. There were limited flight options as I was adamant to reach Lisbon on Thursday night itself and return by Sunday evening/night to avoid wasting a day.

Day-1 : February 14, 2019(Thursday)

Note: The readers can skip this day(night!) unless they want some tips about car rentals.
Objective(s)/Plan/Itinerary for the day
1. Drive from the Lisbon Portela airport to Lagos
We took the 1445 hours Iberia flight from Arlanda, bound to Madrid. Then after a brief layover, another flight from Madrid to Lisbon. We landed around 2000 hours. Golu joined us at the Lisbon Portela airport and we straightway headed to the nearby Avis car rental.
There was some confusion regarding the cost that we had calculated and the actual payable cost but we nevertheless took the car.

Bear in mind the following points:
1. The card to be used for payment has to exactly match the name of the person booking the car, a mismatch will lead to denial.
2. Portugal has aplenty tolls, it’s recommended to take an ETC card.
3. Zero-deductible is the way to go, even if it costs more.
4. Most of the petrol pumps(petrol was €1/litre) that we came across didn’t have any card payment slots at the machines. One has to note the pumping machine(where your car is located) number, go to the office/reception(open almost 24/7), tell either the amount or the litre you need, pay accordingly and then the the fuel starts flowing from the pipe. I think we paid by card everywhere but when you leave the airport, ensure you have some cash and you know the fuel type acceptable for the car that you have hired.
5. Based on excellent experience with the TomTom GPS in the earlier trips over years, I opted for GPS device here as well which was a Garmin device. It turned out to be the most woeful navigation device till date and we had to rely on Google Maps for the rest of the journey. Be prepared for such a mishap and have sufficient data available on your mobile network plan.
6. While 99% of the terrain on our routes was flat, sites in Sintra do require to drive on a bit steep gradients and narrow roads, having an automatic transmission car will ease up your life. 🙂

While aplenty restaurants were open in Lisbon, the constraints of having vegetarian food and the crunch of parking spaces. We finally settled for McDonald’s and gobbled our food in the car. It was past 2300 hours when we started to drive towards Lagos, which was almost 300km far. After some initial misdirection by the GPS device, we switched to Google Maps. Antik stepped up on the gas as we hit the E1 and we were cruising at speeds between 120-150 kmph. The traffic was sparse. We stopped at a petrol pump when Lagos was some 50km ahead. I was already worried about the time crunch we were going to face on Saturday!
We reached the hotel Dom Pedro Lagos around 0130. It’s a bit far from the city centre but if you have a car, it’s not an issue. We had informed them well in advance about our arrival at ungodly hours but since they have a 24/7 reception, it wasn’t an issue. We slept around 0230. I must admit that it was a long day!

Approx driving distance : 330km

Day-2 : February 15, 2019(Friday)

Objective(s)/Plan/Itinerary for the day :
1. Benagil Caves(Algar de Benagil)
2. Sagres Fortress(Fortaleza de Sagres)
3. Lighthouse of Cabo de São Vicente(a torre de Farol do Cabo de São Vicente)
4. Ponta da Piedade (Passeios às Grutas)

We woke up at 0700 .We had not ordered breakfast. We were at the reception around 0815 when (the first) disappointment (of the day) struck us – most of the Benagil tour operators were either closed for the off-season (winter) or were not operating for the day due to rough sea. The reception guys made several calls in vain. They asked us to check in Portimão and other towns by the sea for operators. Since none of the operators would start working before 1000 hours, we decided to cover Ponta da Piedade which was nearby. The parking was free and the walk around for sightseeing would be barely a km. This was a captivating POI. A combination of sediments brought in by the rivers and limestone, the Algarve region being located on an active tectonic plate, the erosion caused by the strong winds blowing over the Atlantic and the ferocious waves of chemically varying Atlantic waters have given a unique, mesmerizing hue to the coastal cliffs of Algarve.

Started from ponta da Piedade at 0945. While returning, paid a quick visit to Praia Dona Ana, which I found too small to be an impressive beach. We drove towards Portimão. While Portimão-Benagil-Portimão round trip would have taken at least 4 hours, we wanted to ensure that at least the operators are running tours. After some initial confusion, we headed to the tourist office(Tren turístico portimao). Our plan was that if no tours were operating from Portimão, we would have lunch, then head to Benagil and check for the operators departing from there. There were aplenty orange plantations by the roads. As per the tourist office lady, there weren’t any operators nearby, she suggested us to check in Benagil. We flipped through the menus of a couple of restaurants and were unimpressed.

With empty stomachs, we headed to Benagil where we met the next disappointment at Praia de Benagil(1145 hours) – due to rough sea, the tours for the day were postponed to the next day!

We ascended a steep gradient and reached the plateau atop the cliffs under which the Benagil caves are located. We parked at the parking lot and at a walk of about 5 minutes/500m, there’s a hole from which one can peep into the caves, sadly but for safety, it was barricaded.

The walk on the plateau, by the edge of the cliffs dropping into the ocean was a pleasant one, especially, for me as the Swedish winter had been piercing my skin and making it’s way to my bones 😛

There aren’t much restaurants around and we settled for Litoral. I wanted to try the traditional ‘Cataplana’ but it was a humongous dish that serves two people! I skipped the plan and settled for a fish platter which was eatable but unimpressive, the price too was on the higher side.

Now we had two options(1400 hours):
1. Given the previous day’s drudgery, head straight to the hotel, sip on tea while seated in the balcony and watch the sea.
2. Drive to Sagres, which is around 75km, for the sunset view.

Keeping up the tradition, we chose the tiring option-2. En route(A22), we read the signs ‘Autódromo’(meaning racing track) and decided to have a sneak-peek. The detour didn’t pay off as the guard didn’t allow us even to have a look at the racing cars/bikes as it was reserved by a team for private testing (we could just hear vrooming of the vehicles from a distance).
First miss: Antik’s objective to take a dip in the Atlantic.

With a minor entry fee, we entered the ‘Fortaleza de Sagres’(1600 hours). Within minutes, we got disappointed – there weren’t any preserved structures, the information was scanty and the views were far too ordinary after having visited Lagos and Benagil. The Lighthouse of Cabo de São Vicente was also visible further west but we decided to drop it. After some drama for getting pics in the reformat of ‘Dil Chahta Hai’!

We headed back to the hotel in Lagos. We dropped-in a Lidl store on the way which turned out to be the biggest disappointment of the day – they didn’t have fresh milk! We now raced on the N125 to execute our Option-1. We picked up fresh milk from a store on the Marina road. While we weren’t blessed with the sunset view, we felt a bit relaxed while sipping hot tea(English Breakfast).

I had not taken a good look at Google Maps and simply plotted the driving directions to the well-known restaurants. These were located in the old town and we struggled in the narrow gullies. Finally, we drove back to marina, parked there and walked to the restaurants. Golu and Antik headed to some restaurant which served veg. I was determined to have the Cataplana, so based on the TripAdvisor reviews, I reached a bistro-cum-restaurant ‘Casinha do Petisco’. After standing in the waiting queue for 20 min., got a place. I was again alarmed at the quantity of cataplana and I could clearly see that the rest of the visitors had ordered a single cataplana for 2 people. I requested the waitress, a kind, elderly lady, to serve me reduced quantity. She (seemed) to understand my predicament and assured me that she will order a cataplana enough only for one person. Sipping on fresh orange juice, I waited for 30 min. Before the order was placed and to my horror, it was still a humongous quantity!

I recalled the waitress and she said that it’s the half-dish, a full one has the steel container filled to the brim. A group of elderly couples was seated besides me and they started to laugh at my situation, gave me a thumbs-up to give my best shot at eating(finishing!) the entire dish. I laboured my way towards that objective for the next 30 min but could only eat 70% of what was served. Again, this place accepts only cash. They had charged me only half the price of cataplana but for a person of my appetite, 1.5 more people like me would have easily eaten to satisfaction. The taste, again, was acceptable but not palatable.
We headed back to the hotel and turned in by 0015, some rest before the upcoming long day.

Approx driving distance : 186km

Day-3 : February 16, 2019(Saturday)

Objective(s)/Plan/Itinerary for the day:
1. Castelo dos Mouros
2. Iniciatic Well(Poço Iniciático)
3. Cabo da Roca

We started from the hotel around 0745. The crucial step was to reach Lisbon/Lisboa, and further to the POIs, ASAP, thereby, having as much time for sightseeing as possible. We reached the entrance of Castelo dos Mouros by 1100, thanks to Antik’s fast, safe driving. We bought the entrance tickets, picked up the map of the castle and started walking. Owing to shortage of time, we decided to walk by the edge fortifications, get a clear view of the castle from some vantage point and get moving. The views around weren’t impressive but the castle itself is worth visiting, despite of the heavy restoration work. IMHO, needs entire day.

The castle is connected quite well with public transport, buses, ‘tuk-tuk’.
After munching on whatever eatables we had(courtesy: Golu), we started from the castle around 1300 hours, next POI was the Poço Iniciático a.k.a Iniciatic Well. En route, we passed by the Pena Palace. Due to utter lack of reading about POIs for this trip, I had no idea that this well was within the premises of the Quinta da Regaleira. After some navigational mishaps, we reached the palace, only to waste half an hour or so just to find a parking spot. As it turned out, the palace and the surroundings deserve an entire day, even if none of it is historically significant. One can get a view of the Castelo dos Mouros from the premises. The Iniciatic Well is enthralling, nevertheless, it’s not a well in conventional sense – it was a secret place for rituals and tunnels from the bottom go all over the area.

It was 1500 hours, we were famished but there weren’t any feasible options within the palace premises or nearby. There are several other sites, seemingly redundant, in the vicinity but we had not planned for any of those. Our lead driver, Antik, insisted on a warm, full meal so we decided to look out en route Cabo da Roca. After the initial disappointments, we found one restaurant in the town of Várzea de Colares. The food was utterly disappointing. There was ample space and seating options, the staff friendly. A larger group of middle-aged people were seated besides us and their dogs kept on pestering us, at times, even climbing up on our tables. We spent an hour.

By the time(1630) we reached Cabo da Roca, the place was crowded, cars were lined-up for parking and we immediately lost interest in going ahead. I had hastily searched on Google Maps for a beach nearby so that Antik can tick-off his Atlantic dip. The nearest one was Praia Da Ursa. Since I had not checked the terrain or satellite view and the maps also showed walking directions, I assumed that it was a beach where one can simply walk. Turned out that there wasn’t a motorable road to reach it, albeit one had to descend a 100+ meter high cliff via a steep track which was full of gravel. Antik decided not to descend but Golu and I decided to have quick look(in Antik’s words, we had a ‘sulemaani keeda’).We hastily descended, had a look around and climbed back.

My cheap shoes were severely damaged and I had sore feet the rest of trip due to the swelling. We gazed at the sunset and started our return journey. Since people were now falling back from Cabo da Roca, we decided to hit-and-run the spot. I wasn’t impressed at all, especially, after the views in Lagos. Proved to be another hyped destination.

Second(final)miss: Antik’s objective to take a dip in the Atlantic

We then raced back to Lisbon in a desperate attempt to view whatever of the city we can in 1-2h. We reached the Hotel Dos Anjos, around 1900 hours, quickly checked-in. Our plan was to get moving by 2000 hours but the bathroom door got jammed and 30-40 minutes were wasted in fixing it. It turned out that the hotel was more than 2km from the Lisbon’s centre where all the POIs and real city hustle and bustle was! We decided to drive again but then struggled to find a parking slot. Finally, we entered a basement pay-and-park facility. We didn’t really start our walking before 2100 hours. Lisbon reminded me of Mumbai – awake till late, youngsters and adults roaming and chatting, restaurants open till late hours, promenade by the sea etc. Tired of the fish food which had failed to impress me, I joined Antik and Golu in their visit to a vegan restaurant named ‘Veganpati’. We spent almost an hour here. I paid a quick visit to the bakery/cafe Manteigaria famous for it’s custard pie, known as Pastel de nata in Portuguese. It costs only €1 per tart and simply melts in your mouth. I gulped one and took away two.

After some more wandering, we rushed back to the hotel around 0015 hours. The day had been hectic, there had been several mishaps, large time was spent in restaurants and too much was planned for too less time. We didn’t get even 4h to have a walk around the Lisbon centre.

Approx driving distance : 390km

Day-4 : February 17, 2019(Sunday)

Nothing eventful on this day, simply a return journey. There was light fog cover over the city. We returned the car at the airport and proceeded for the check-in(NO web check-in) and security formalities. Thankfully, we had a direct flight operated by Norwegian Airlines. The airport is too small to rely for food or shopping. This blog won’t be complete without mentioning ‘Bagwati’ (which I bought for my wife) 😀

Approx driving distance : 10km

Lessons learned/revealed again, trip highlights

We should have started from Faro/Lisbon and ended at Lisbon/Faro. This would have saved us an extra run of approx. 350km and half a day. We could have asked Golu to take a train from Lisbon Airport to Faro or to some nearby station.
Keep at least 5 days for this trip.
Walk/drive along the coastline, one can find aplenty beaches, there is no compulsion to restrict self to the ‘known’ beaches.
All the restaurants we visited served fresh fruit juices.
In Lagos old town restaurants, ice cream shops, cash is the boss!
In Lagos and Lisbon, watch out for the one-way roads which are already narrow, compounded by roadside parking.
Do NOT blindly trust the reviews on TripAdvisor, Google Maps etc. Do visit places based on those reviews but ensure to provide honest reviews after the visit, this helps to get the factual picture about the POI for the future visitors.
It can get a bit chilly in the evening, owing to the substantial winds. It’s recommended to carry a head cap and wear a thin windcheater.
Avoid greed: Allocate more days and amidst the trip, relax for a day or so at a location which you find idyllic or appealing. This allows you to better absorb the experience and appreciate the surroundings.

NOTE :

COVID-19 Related Government Imposed Restrictions Prevail At A Few Locations.
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