ITINERARY:

 

Pick up at 9 am. wherever you are in Lisbon / Sintra / Cascais.

We leave Lisbon and head to Sintra, one of the most beautiful villages of Portugal. There you will have free time to explore the historic streets of Sintra village.

With a taste of flavors in the typical pastry "Piriquita", we continue to the Monserrate Palace, it's one of the most beautiful architectural and romantic landscape creations in Portugal, a unique representation of 19th century eclecticism. 

Next to the Colares Cellar for a wine tasting. Colares is a wine producing region since 1908. Located right on the coast, the vineyards are perched on cliffs 200 meters high, overlooking the sea. The resultant wines are impeccably balanced with a sandy texture and vivid, fresh flavors that could only come from the influence of the Atlantic.

Now it's time for lunch and in Sintra, if you are a meat fan, must taste the local cuisine: the "Leitão de Negrais" (roast piglet over a wood fire) or the roasted lamb. Then, crossing the rural landscape we arrive to the Palace and Convent of Mafra. The foundation of this Convent of Franciscans friars was due to a promise made by King John V, if the queen give him a son. This promise was fulfilled in 1711, the year that was born the Princess Maria Barbara.

The initial design was sized to accommodate thirteen Franciscans friars, but in the end the building was home to more than 300. A very ambitious project which employed 52,000 workers. The king's quarters were built at one end and the queen in the other, at 232m away, the longest palatial corridor of Europe. At the center, it's the Basilica, covered by a dome and surrounded by two imposing towers. Among the numerous rooms, the highlight goes to the Library, the balance, monumentality and clarity are some of the attributes of this immense library, gathering in its two-storey bookshelves some of the most remarkable books printed, with about 36000 volumes.  The conservation works of the literary is made by bats, they feed on the larvae that "attempt to" destroy the books, preventing this from happening. The Palace of Mafra is a fantastic masterpiece, but the biggest impression is the contrast of the ostentation of the richest period of the Portuguese crown, with the simple and humble life of Franciscan friars who inhabited the Convent.

Time to return from a fantastic day trip.

 

 

Price per person:

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 2 Pax ------  100 €

 3 Pax ------    90 €

 4 Pax ------    75 €

 5 Pax ------    65 €

 6 Pax ------    60 €

 7 Pax ------    55 €

 8 Pax ------    50 €

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(average price of all tickets included per person/adult ----- € 29,00)