Shannon O'Brien Travel Itineraries

The best destinations

Photo of Portugal
Photo of Portugal

The Best of Portugal

#13 best destination in the world

Map view

Padrão dos Descobrimentos, Lisbon

Photo of Lisbon

Best time to visit: March-May, Sept-Oct

Cost: $

  • Monument on the bank of the Tagus river estuary, in Lisbon
  • Located along the river where ships departed to explore and trade with India and the Orient, the monument celebrates the Portuguese Age of Discovery during the 15th and 16th centuries

São Bento Railway Station, Porto

Photo of Porto

Best time to visit: May-Sept

Cost: $

  • 20th-century railway terminal located in the Historic Centre of Porto
  • This building was constructed over a number of years, starting in 1904
  • The large panels of azulejo tile were completed in 1916
  • The murals represent moments in the country's history and the multicolored panels depict rural scenes showing the people of various regions

Praia da Marinha - Arcos e Algares Naturais - Praia da Morena

Photo of Praia da Marinha

Walk difficulty: Moderate

Best time to visit: June, Sept

Cost: $

  • One of the most emblematic beaches of Portugal with a hot-summer Mediterranean climate, located on the Atlantic coast in Caramujeira,
  • The beach itself is fairly small and sandy, and orange limestone cliffs border it
  • The beach also has some difficulty to get there, it is a little off the main road and the foot path takes a sharp descent downward

Cabo da Roca - Praia da Ursa, Parque Natural de Sintra-Cascais

Photo of Parque Natural de Sintra-Cascais

Walk difficulty: Moderate

Best time to visit: March-May, Sept-Oct

Cost: $

  • Cabo da Roca, or Cape Roca is a cape which forms the westernmost point of the Sintra Mountain Range
  • Notably the point includes a lighthouse that started operation in 1772
  • It was the first new purpose-built lighthouse to be constructed in the country; the older lighthouses in existence at that time were constructed on existing platforms or from pre-existing beacons

Rota de Xertelo e as 7 Lagoas, Peneda-Gerês National Park

Photo of Peneda-Gerês National Park

Walk difficulty: Moderate

Best time to visit: May-Sept

Cost: $

  • Park created in 1971, it is the oldest protected area and the only national park in Portugal
  • It is one of the last strongholds of the typical Atlantic European flora of Portugal, contrasting with an evolving Mediterranean biome

Quinta da Regaleira

Photo of Quinta da Regaleira

Best time to visit: March-May, Sept-Oct

Cost: $

  • Quinta located near the historic centre of Sintra
  • The property consists of a Romantic palace and chapel, and a park that features lakes, grottoes, wells, benches, fountains, and a vast array of exquisite constructions

Park and National Palace of Pena

Photo of Park and National Palace of Pena

Best time to visit: March-May, Sept-Oct

Cost: $

  • Romanticist castle in Sintra, on the Portuguese Riviera
  • The castle stands on the top of a hill in the Sintra Mountains, and on a clear day it can be easily seen from Lisbon
  • It is a national monument and constitutes one of the major expressions of 19th-century Romanticism in the world

Belém Tower

Photo of Belém Tower

Best time to visit: March-May, Sept-Oct

Cost: $

  • 16th-century fortification located in Lisbon that served as a point of embarkation and disembarkation for Portuguese explorers and as a ceremonial gateway to Lisbon
  • It was built during the height of the Portuguese Renaissance, and is a prominent example of the Portuguese Manueline style, but it also incorporates hints of other architectural styles
  • The structure was built from lioz limestone and is composed of a bastion and a 30-metre (100 ft) four-story tower

Jerónimos Monastery

Photo of Jerónimos Monastery

Best time to visit: March-May, Sept-Oct

Cost: $

  • Former monastery of the Order of Saint Jerome near the Tagus river in Lisbon
  • It became the necropolis of the Portuguese royal dynasty of Aviz in the 16th century but was secularized in 1833 by state decree and its ownership transferred to a charitable institution
  • The Jerónimos Monastery is one of the most prominent examples of the late Portuguese Gothic Manueline style of architecture in Lisbon
  • It was erected in the early 1500s near the launch point of Vasco da Gama's first journey, and its construction funded by a tax on the profits of the yearly Portuguese India Armadas

São Jorge Castle

Photo of São Jorge Castle

Best time to visit: March-May, Sept-Oct

Cost: $

  • Historic castle in Lisbon, located in the freguesia of Santa Maria Maior
  • Human occupation of the castle hill dates to at least the 8th century BC, while the oldest fortifications on the site date from the 2nd century BC
  • The hill on which Saint George's Castle stands has played an important part in the history of Lisbon, having served as the location of fortifications occupied successively by Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, and Moors, before its conquest by the Portuguese in the 1147 Siege of Lisbon

Livraria Lello

Photo of Livraria Lello

Best time to visit: May-Sept

Cost: $

  • Opened in 1881, the Livraria Lello & Irmão, is one of the oldest bookstores in Portugal and frequently rated among the top bookstores in the world, due to its architectural beauty

Dom Luís I Bridge

Photo of Dom Luís I Bridge

Best time to visit: May-Sept

Cost: $

  • Double-deck metal arch bridge that spans the River Douro between the cities of Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia
  • At its construction, it was the longest bridge of its type in the world

Santa Justa Lift

Photo of Santa Justa Lift

Best time to visit: March-May, Sept-Oct

Cost: $

  • Elevator, or lift, in the historic center of Lisbon
  • Among the urban lifts in the city, Santa Justa is the only remaining vertical (conventional) one
  • Others are actually funicular railways, and the other lift constructed around the same time, the Elevator of São Julião, has since been demolished