Sintra to Cascais via Cabo da Roca

About this drive

The drive from Sintra along the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park coastline to Cascais visits two of the most distinctive landscapes on the Portuguese coast: the Sintra Mountains dropping into the Atlantic on the Cape Roca section, and the open coast from Guincho beach south to Cascais. The road covers about 35 kilometres but varies dramatically along its length — from the wooded and damp northern slopes of Sintra through the exposed cliff headland at Cabo da Roca to the windy north-facing beach at Guincho. Cabo da Roca is the most westerly point of continental Europe: a lighthouse on a granite headland above the Atlantic, with nothing between the headland and the coast of Brazil. It is appropriately exposed — the wind is reliable, the horizon is very far away, and the location carries the particular weight of having been the eastern edge of the navigable world for European sailors before the fifteenth century. Sintra itself is worth a full day before or after the drive — a UNESCO World Heritage Site with a cluster of nineteenth-century Romantic palaces (Pena Palace, Monserrate, Quinta da Regaleira) built into the forested hillsides. Cascais, at the drive's southern end, is a coastal resort town with a well-preserved old town centre and direct train connections back to Lisbon — useful if you want to leave the car in Sintra.

Stops along the way

• 🏛️ Cabo da Roca · Historical

  The westernmost point of mainland Europe, marked by a lighthouse and a stone cross above the Atlantic.