Each and every year for the past 5 years I have been blessed to travel with my Husband for my birthday. Truth be told, the gift of travel and experience is the best gift I could ever ask for. Last year, I celebrated my big 31 in none other than Portugal! Given just a little over a week, I knew that I wanted to see the most that I could and hit some spots that I have been dreaming of visiting. Here is my personal itinerary on how I saw Portugal in 9 days 🙂
Now, before I continue onto how magical this trip was, I need to clarify a few things. Firstly, I am Portuguese myself…but I have NEVER been to Portugal so this was super important and made planning this trip that much more special to me. A few days before my departure, I lost my beloved pup, Ruby. She was nearly 17 years young but I was extremely distraught over it, how could I possibly enjoy such a place when my heart was hurting so much?
I promise the rest of this post won’t be filled with depressing news but when I say how magical and soul feeding this trip was, I want you to understand why. My visit to Portugal would also be the last time I would ever speak to my younger brother who passed just a few weeks later. 💔 Now, let me recount for you the most sentimental, special trip I have ever taken so far…
Pias, Monção, Portugal
Pias is the name of the town where my family is from. After landing at the Lisboa Airport, we grabbed our rental car (rental cars are super expensive so plan wisely!) and headed for the almost 4 hour car ride there. We did make one quick stop at my aunt’s house and what a joy that was, I hadn’t seen her in almost 20 years!
This photo above is a great genuine depiction of the lifestyle in Pias. Very easygoing, relaxed and overall absolutely stunning anywhere you look. The streets are narrow and the food is delectable. I couldn’t say enough about the time spent at my grandfather’s home there. I definitely didn’t want to leave!
Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Monção, Portugal is just a hop, skip, and a jump from Spain as it lies on the northern tip of the country. In an effort to really see everything possible, we of course headed to Spain for lunch on day 2 of our vacation. The town of Santiago de Compostela is absolutely beautiful with all of its amazing architecture, quaint cafes, cobblestone streets, and wonderful shops!
I seriously cannot tell you how many espressos I consumed on this trip, I feel like I had at least 3 a day though. For someone who doesn’t drink coffee at all back home, I was wired this whole trip, probably why it was good to have me in charge of the daily schedules! lol I think drinking espresso was also another way I could connect with my father during this trip so I was completely ok with it 😊
Vale de Cambra, Portugal
Making our way back down the coast from my families house to reach our second destination of Vale de Cambra took about 2 hours by car. This town is lots of rolling hills, like much of the other parts of Portugal I had seen so far. I booked us an amazing AirBnB and I highly recommend it if you’re in the area!
The link to our amazing AirBnB can be found here: https://bit.ly/2F7gZLo. How gorgeous is this rustic little home?! The road here was very mountainous with some very narrow dirt paths but the view out my little bedroom window was beyond breathtaking! You know I had to have my husband walk down the dirt road below to get this awesome shot 😎
Can you really say you were in Portugal if you didn’t attend a soccer game?! lol Last minute my husband and I decided to grab tickets to a game for ourselves and my father. After attending this high intensity game (seriously I haven’t had that much fun in a while!), I couldn’t bleed more blue! Força Porto! ⚽️
Aveiro, Portugal
Aveiro is a city on the coast of Portugal set along a lagoon called Ria de Aveiro. It’s known for its canals and beautiful colorful boats, think Venice! We drove about 40 mins south to reach this little town for lunch one afternoon. It is bustling with tourists and I can totally see why. There are street markets that sell all sorts of knick knaks and so many wonderful opportunities to do what I like to do best while on vacation, EAT! You must visit Gelados de Portugal and have some of the Pasteis de Nata ice cream, I promise it won’t disappoint!
Lisboa, Portugal
For the final leg of our trip, we headed back down the coast about 2 and half hours to Lisboa. This was the perfect ending to our trip because it left us in close proximity to the airport 👍🏽. Here we stayed in a part of town called Belém. View our stunning affordable AirBnB here: https://bit.ly/2TJW8ru . I wanted to stay on the outskirts of the center of Lisboa but have the opportunity to take transit in and out of center city quickly, this was the perfect home!
This home was just a ten minute walk from the metro and the Main Street with all of the delicious restaurants and most importantly, Pastéis de Belém, the famous producer of the original Pastéis de Nata custard tarts!
Sintra, Portugal
Sintra was a magical little town that I kept hearing about, so much so that I had to find a way to fit it in our trip before we left. Just a 20 minute car ride and we arrived in the land of castles!
After catching a tuk-tuk on the streets of Sintra, we were brought up the steep hills of the side of the Palacio da Pena. This is known for its gorgeous colorful colors that can be seen from far in the distance. Once we paid for entry at the foothill of the castle, it was now time to hike to the top, the entrance. ⚠️ This hike requires proper shoes and stamina, otherwise get ready for many many stops along the way, it is long and steep at times!
I wasn’t particularly looking forward to center city Lisboa. I have heard that it is overcrowded and filled with tourists, not something I really like when traveling. I did, however, delegate one afternoon to taking the train from Belém into the city and did the “tourist” thing lol
What better way to end my dream Portugal vacation than with more food! We grabbed dinner and dessert in Lisboa and they didn’t disappoint!
When a place looks this rustic and beautiful and the food is equally as amazing, well, I must recommend it! They have a great sirloin steak on a wooden plank 🥩 that my husband and I got and loved!
You are seeing this correct, I am enjoying cereal with ice cream and milk! 😱 I read about this place in a travel blog and as an avid fan of all things unique, I figured I would make the trek over to it if time permitted. This place is located a little further up the hill from the busy area of town which made grabbing a table and getting service super easy! I ordered the “For Fruity Froot Loops” bowl which consists of Froot Loops, Rice Krispies, mini marshmallows, dried strawberries and strawberry sauce, wafers, and topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Talk abut heaven in a bowl! 😍
My Final Thoughts
Wow, this was a long post, and to think, there is still so much of Portugal that I have to see! I wanted to be as comprehensive as I could to really give insightful information along with photos. If you made it this far, thank you for your time! I hope you get the opportunity to travel down the coast of Portugal one day, I promise you will love it, especially if you take on my suggestions 😉
This trip was emotional and sentimental to me for many reasons, and would be even more sentimental once realizing that I would no longer have the opportunity to speak to my brother after the short call we had during this trip. I want to stress the importance of doing things that truly make your soul happy. Feed your mind, body and soul with goodness in the form of rich experiences. What started out as a birthday trip, ended up being my “eat, pray, love” trip, and an experience I will cherish and never forget for the rest of my life. ♥️ 🇵🇹
“Actually the best gift you could give her, was a lifetime of adventures.” -Lewis Carroll
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.