I hadn’t realised quite how cold the Atlantic is. As I was about to dip my toe in, I was stopped — with some alarm — by a Portuguese woman. She told me that having spent years living abroad, after returning to the motherland it took her five years to relearn how to deal with the icy water. And yet, despite this very “refreshing” water in the height of summer, the town of Cascais is one of the most perfect seaside towns that I have yet discovered.
Only a 40-minute, €2 (£1.75) train ride from Lisbon is a town that King Luís I (1838-89) chose as his summer retreat. Thanks to its royal history and proximity to cosmopolitan Lisbon, it doesn’t feel like a rustic port town. It’s very glam, with a mix of large and expensive manor houses alongside pretty bungalows covered in azulejos (blue and white tiles) with bougainvillea spilling over their walls. And, of course, it has world-class beaches, in the centre and farther out; heading north out of the town, cycle paths follow the coastline.
We rented bikes from a small shop in the train station (€10 for the day) and set off for Guincho beach, a 45-minute pedal away. This vast swathe of sand and grasses waving in the wind is popular with surfers. The sea, however, is no less icy here — it may be 30C in the sun, but the surfers are in wetsuits. There’s a surf shop if you want to try; we opted instead for a long lazy lunch (Bar do Guincho or Furnas do Guincho are the spots to hit).
There are charming restaurants in town too, but make sure you head along the cobbled backstreets away from the main tourist drag. I loved the bustle of Dom Diniz, where they serve a mix of Portuguese tapas: queijo de Azeitão (a cured cheese), pork cheeks with matchstick crisps and bacalao (salted cod — the local delicacy) with chickpeas were big hits. Best of all, the bill for two with plenty of local wine was €55.
The next day, sun streaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows of our very cool and luxurious lodgings at Farol Hotel, we headed up the mansion-lined backstreets to Boca do Inferno — “hell’s mouth” — an enormous cavity in the rocky cliff. Where else to eat there than Mar do Inferno, a legendary seafood restaurant next door.
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Go for the buttery sizzling shrimps in garlic instead, or the seafood platter (from €39.50), washed down with a bottle of crisp, fruity alvarinho, a snip at €16. Then walk back into town on the coast road, stopping off at Casa da Guia, a 19th-century mansion that houses a mix of galleries, restaurants, market stalls, and wooden chairs and tables on the sandy floor among palm trees overlooking the wide open sea.
Sundowners are a big part of the evening in Cascais. Our favourite spot was Villa Cascais, a hotel overlooking Cascais harbour, where we paid only €3 for a glass of delicious rosé. Then we moved to the terrace restaurant in the enormous five-star Grande Real Villa Italia, where we enjoyed chicken breast stuffed with pistachio and trofie pasta with pesto for €14.
For the best fish of the weekend, however, we found Marisco na Praça in the corner of the Mercado da Vila (Cascais’s covered market), a favourite spot for locals. Choose your fish or seafood (all caught fresh that day) and they’ll cook it as you wish. My garlic and coriander clams (€13.50) and tiger prawns were outstanding.
For all the eating, we managed some solid hours testing out Cascais’s primary attraction: those amazing beaches. I only wish the sea hadn’t been too rough to stop us joining the yoga on a paddleboard at the enormous Praia Duquesa, the largest of four beaches in town. It sounded like great fun.
The budget hotel
Hotel Londres
The very decent three-star Hotel Londres has pool and is close to the beach. Double rooms with a balcony cost from €44 (hotellondres.com)
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The luxury hotel
Farol Hotel
Perched on rocks descending straight into the sea, the Farol Hotel is an oasis of chic calm and luxury. Doubles with sea view are from €156 (farol.com.pt)
Need to know
Harriet Addison was a guest of Visit Lisbon (visitlisboa.com). TAP (flytap.com) has returns to Lisbon from £84