Wandering Works for Us PodcastDate: 2 May 2026 Title: Day Trips Beyond Lisbon: Cascais, Santa Cruz, Vimeiro, Lourinhã Summary of Episode Looking for the best day trips from Lisbon? In this episode, we explore five destinations within easy reach of the capital — from the upscale coastal town of Cascais to the dinosaur fossils of Lourinhã, a Napoleonic battlefield at Vimeiro, and one of our favourite beaches on the Silver Coast. Three years of living in Portugal and we're still finding new places to love. In part one of their day trips series, they wander through the upscale-but-welcoming coastal town of Cascais (including a stunning seafood platter at Baía de Peixe), explore the charming beach town of Santa Cruz, uncover the little-known Napoleonic battlefield at Vimeiro, geek out over dinosaur fossils in Lourinhã, and sing the praises of Areia Branca, one of their favourite beaches on the Silver Coast. Lesser-known doesn't mean less worth visiting. Grab your car keys. Key Topics [03:10] Why Cascais deserves more than a half-day stop — and why Shelley and Beth almost missed it after three years of living in Portugal [04:35] Getting to Cascais: driving vs. the commuter train from Lisbon (both about 40 minutes) [05:40] The best bakery find in Cascais: Padaria Brunch & Specialty Coffee [06:15] Walking the Cascais waterfront — the ocean path, Boca do Inferno rock arch, and what they'd do differently next time [08:40] Museu Condes de Castro Guimarães and the gorgeous Parque Marechal Carmona (peacocks, turtles, and chickens who ignore the "do not feed" signs) [11:18] The Citadel of Cascais — repurposed as galleries, restaurants, and shops, Fortress of Our Lady of Light and the statue of King Carlos I at the marina [13:50] Lunch at Baía de Peixe: a seafood platter for two at €35 per person that was worth every euro [19:10] Santa Cruz: a beach town with great cliffs, a walkable waterfront, a Saturday market, and a small chapel worth stepping into [23:30] The accidental discovery — the river trail to Porto Novo beach that led them straight to a Virgin Mary statue on the cliffs [26:45] Vimeiro and the Battle of Vimeiro Interpretation Center: the first major Napoleonic battle in Portugal and Wellington's first significant victory [32:30] Lourinhã's surprising dinosaur heritage — and why they recommend the Museu da Lourinhã over the Dino Park (unless you have kids) [35:30] Areia Branca: one of their favourite local beaches, with restaurant recommendations including West 23 by Chakall, Alta, and Ansom Brewery Important Links To follow all of our antics and adventures, please visit our social media pages and our website at wwforus.com! You can send us a message at any of these places, and feel free to email us at wandering@wwforus.com Like what we are doing? Buy us a gin and tonic and help us keep going! InstagramFacebookTiktokYouTubeLooking for a tour guide in Portugal? I have a whole list!Check out our travel guides! WWforus.com Thanks to Everyone who has been so supportive!Special thanks to all of you who have listened, subscribed, followed us on social media and just took the time to say hello and tell us how much you enjoy our podcast and blog. YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST!! RESOURCES & LINKSLooking to plan your next trip to Portugal? We can help! Check out our guides and Itineraries at wwforus.com Free Lisbon ItineraryPacking ListEssentials for every tripRenting a car in PortugalLooking for a tour guide in Portugal? I have a whole list! Transcript: Hello everyone and welcome to our podcast wandering works for us. I'm Shelley And we're finally back again We keep taking breaks And I'm Beth. Even though we don't, you know, we take the breaks, it doesn't mean we're just sitting around doing nothing. no, we're partially taking breaks because we're so blessed busy. And part of that is because we've now been here three years. Yes. We have more friends, we have more social stuff, we've joined a couple of card groups, you know. Where? Speaker 2 (01:05.089) We are doing things. Yeah, we're grooving over here. It's big fun. But that also means that we still get out for the occasional day trip to go explore Portugal some more. And so last month we had Eli here. Hi Eli. And we did a couple of things with him. And then we've done a couple of things before he was here. And I don't know, we did one thing after. Yes! Speaker 1 (01:22.634) Bye Eli. Speaker 1 (01:36.488) him yeah so and all of them are kind of lesser known in a way maybe yeah and so we decided we should put together a podcast with all of those things yes and it's kind of part one because we're gonna have more after our next visitor Short trips here Speaker 2 (01:56.13) Probably so. Well, I don't know. She's wanting to do stuff we've already done. Well, see? You never know where we might escape to. Plus, any of you out there listening have any suggestions on places, know, lesser known places we can go? Let us know. We still haven't really explored the eastern part of Portugal very much. And we'll see. Speaker 1 (02:20.406) We have not, and summer's not the time to do it. So maybe this fall we'll pop over there. And we also have not spent nearly enough time in the Alenteju. Alan Taju or the Algarve really? We've, yeah, yeah, we need to do more. All right, we'll get on that. We'll make a list. But today we're to talk about a few places that are kind of lesser known to the day trip people out there. Although the first one we're going to talk about is actually a very popular day trip from Lesbians. It is, but we hadn't been before. Speaker 2 (02:57.567) We've been here three years and still hadn't made it out to cash cash. Which took us a long time to figure out how to pronounce. Yes, but it's such a beautiful little town. my gosh. How did we miss it? It is. Someone described it to me as the, what did they say? The, not the Hollywood Boulevard. No, it wasn't that either, but it was something like that of Portugal because it is, it's upscale in general. Rodeo Drive. Speaker 2 (03:29.774) It is very, but it's so easy to get to. And it is a simple day trip that is usually, I wonder if any of y'all could hear the roosters in the background. Can y'all hear them? Anyway, it's one that's usually paired up with like Sintra and Cabo da Roca, Rocha rather, da Rocha. And so, you know, it's kind of one of those. Rocha. Speaker 2 (03:56.63) trips that you pop in and you see the beach, maybe you walk around downtown and then you leave to go to Sentra or do something else. And we decided we were going, it was kind of almost spontaneous. We were dropping Eli off at the airport and we had talked about going back into Alfama and spending the day since we didn't get a chance to do that when he was here and just mess around since we were in Lisbon. And I was like, Ooh. Speaker 2 (04:25.336) Why don't we go somewhere we haven't been? And it was an easy 40 minute drive out to Keshkais. Now we drove because we have a car, but you can take a train, a commuter train out there, and it takes about 40 minutes still to get there. But that train apparently drops you off like two blocks from the beach. it does. Speaker 1 (04:46.198) Yeah, yeah, it comes right in. And we, I can't remember now how we found parking. Did I look it up? I think you did look it up because we wanted to go to a bakery first and have some breakfast. Oh, that's right. And so I found a garage, an underground garage, and then we just walked down from there. So we just parked and then we walked. So the whole city is walkable. I mean it took us 20 minutes to get back down to the ocean from where we were and 20 minutes to get over to the marina area. It was and then yeah. Yeah. I would say it's very walkable. Speaker 2 (05:22.688) Yes, very walkable. It's not as hilly as it is in Lisbon and it's a beautiful city. So when we got there, we of course stopped at a wonderful bakery and had some pastry. And do we even remember the name of that bakery? Yes. Speaker 1 (05:40.768) No, why don't you pause? And so the name of the bakery is... crust and it's really Padaira, brunch and specialty coffee. specialty coffee but they had such lovely pastries. were good. The coffee was amazing. It was very worth going up in there. It's kind of like up in the business district of college. A lot of apartment buildings or condo buildings were kind of thing, but it was definitely worth seeking out. Highly recommend it. Speaker 2 (06:06.85) I didn't work. Speaker 2 (06:15.34) And then from there, we walked down to the waterfront. Now, the whole waterfront area has a great place for people to walk and bike. Sidewalk, biker lane, and you're right there on the ocean where the cliffs, well, they weren't really cliffs, there were a lot of rocky places where. Yes. Speaker 1 (06:32.782) Yeah, they've done a really good job of getting you, giving you access to be on a sidewalk, if you will, or in the bike lane and still be right along the ocean all along to see it. Yeah, people were out walking and being all healthy and stuff. Walking their dogs. There were a lot of runners. saw it. We don't see runners very often. We see a lot of cyclists here. I mean where we live in the areas where we are. We see a lot of cyclists. We see a lot of surfers of course. But we don't see tons of people running for exercise like we did in the United States. But we saw many of them in Kashkais, which makes me wonder if those were people that have moved in there and aren't from there because it does have a very large immigrant or expat population. It does from what we understand. Yeah. But we we didn't make it to this particular place along that area called the Boca do Inferno. And apparently that is a beautiful rock arch that you can see. And it kind of starts, I think, I think the walk kind of starts up that way. And then it gradually goes downhill through the town, you know, to the marina out to th
