Cascais Travel Forum

Hello,
I'm 28, and this fall I will be travelling to Cascais. It is my first time travelling overseas and I am very excited about it.
My question is: Do you have any tips/advice about travelling to Cascais/ travelling overseas in general? We are travelling on a limited budget, so we have to stick to memorable, cheap experiences. We already have to accomidations paid for, so we don't need to worry about that. We are flying into Lisbon, planning on taking the train to Cascais then a cab to our hotel. Is that a good move, or should we consider getting a cab from Lisbon? Also, we were planning on spending a couple of days in Lisbon. Would it be a waste of time to stay in Cascais then train it to Lisbon and back for a couple of days, or should we plan on getting a hostel room in Lisbon for a night. Any websites that would be able to help me plan?
Any advice is much appreciated.

Hiya mate. great to hear that you are travilling to portugal. you will definitely love the country. regarding about cascais, you should take the train as it will be very expensive to travel by taxi from lisbon to cascais. From what i heard from my mate, cascais a beautiful place. Regarding about staying in lisbon, i guess you should take a hostel so as to minimise your expenditure. With the money on travelling thru and fro lisbon, you can use it for a day in the hostel. Find one with kitchen so as you can save money by doing your own cooking. Some hostels provide breakfast and packed lunch. For cheap groceries, go to LIDL supermarket. Finally, if you are going to go around portugal, the best is still to rent a car. It's way, way cheaper. however, the down side is you have to pay for tolls. I will try to get back to you about the hostelling websites in portugal soon. Good luck for your trip and enjoy the sights of portugal.
Regards
Roslan

I agree and would also recommend the train. However, as mentioned before, the best way to get around is certainly by rental car. From Cascais you can easily go to Sintra, which is really beautiful and a World Heritage of UNESCO. Can be a bit crowded with tourists though....
Less tourists, but also a really nice day-trip from Lisbon is Evorà!
The tolls which are mentioned are only for the use of Highways, all other roads are for free and most of the time a lot nicer to drive (however slower).
I would absolutely advise to stay in Lisbon overninght, it is a gobsmacking city! To be honest, I would not think that you need a kitchenette in your room, there are plenty of small but excellent restaurants which are not expensive at all.
Have fun,
Tom

Another who agrees on taking the train, but make sure you know where your stop is in Cascais..we took the train to Cascais from Lisbon and were confused as to why everyone left the train at one point..turns out it was on it's way back to Lisbon after that stop..we had to transfer to another train..no one told us that, we didn't have to transfer on our way to Lisbon..still find that weird..thank god there was an english speaking person on board that overheard dh and I questioning each other lol...Caiscais was a nice city, we didn't get a chance to explore it enough I would also suggest getting a rental car,something we didn't do while there for 2 day's ..wish we had.

Hello,
I live in Lisbon, so I know what I'm talking about.
To get the train from Lisbon to Cascais the Station (Cais do Sodre) is far from the airport, so you have to pick a taxi or a bus. Taxis inside Lisbon city are not too expensive.
From Cascais to Lisbon the distance is more or less 20Km, so I don't see the need to change accomodation just for a distance of 20Km, you can sleep in Cascais and spend the entire day in Lisbon. The frain tickets are completely unexpensive and during rush hours there are trains each 3 min.
You can go also to Estoril and to Sintra, completely different but both nice.
Enjoy your stay.
Regards
Jorge

Yes, this is Elisa, have a look on http://www.portugalvacances.com/english/default.php

Bye, and good luck !