Marjorie and I knew we couldn’t go a full decade before volunteering again. It was, after all, the start of our love story.
We both solo traveled to Nicaragua on a Habitat for Humanity trip in 2014 and were randomly assigned as roommates. Immediate friends. Since then we’ve done amazing travel and managed to check off multiple bucket list items. This trip was absolutely another bucket list one for me – I knew I wanted to do another build and now it’s complete!
The best part about this trip is we managed to sandwich our volunteer activities with sight seeing. We spent two solid weeks in Portugal and, I think, really made the most of it.
Day 1 – Lisbon
After a red eye flight, Marjorie and I met up in Lisbon. I landed significantly later so she was able to get more mileage on foot than I ended up with, but I still managed to see a significant chunk of Lisbon for only one afternoon.
This is where free walking tours – like the one we did with Take Tours – really come to the rescue. After I Ubered to our hotel, we made our way to caffeinate me (thank you Copenhagen Coffee Lab ❤ ❤ ❤ ).
Then to the square for the free tour where we got a download on the best of Lisbon and interesting Portugal history. This tour checks off the box of the Santa Justa Lift (below) which was a nice plus.
I’m always completely wiped after a red eye so we took a leisurely walk back to our hotel, stopping at La Terrasse for some food and a drink. We didn’t know at the time, but this place has pretty terrible reviews. Honestly, I thought it was fine but we did both get salads so it was a pretty easy lift. The view was lovely so all in all, I have no reason to avoid this restaurant but be wary that the food doesn’t have a great reputation.
We stopped at Popbar for ice cream on the way back (so delightful!) and then spent the rest of the evening in the courtyard of our hotel. Solar do Castelo was such a lovely little find. We did hope it would be a bit more “castle like” on the interior but it comes off as just an old building overall.
Still, it was such a unique spot in the city and the breakfast is excellent. I loved this unique location so highly recommend, especially if it’s a just a one night stop.
Day 2 – Sintra
If you’ve done any research on Lisbon you’ll know that Sintra is a very hyped day trip. We decided we needed more time in this well loved space so after breakfast we checked out of the hotel and went to the Rossio train station (super cheap and easy) to catch the train to Sintra.
Once in Sintra we walked the short distance to our truly lovely airbnb. This place felt so decadent with two full bathrooms and a cozy living space both indoors and outdoors. Highly recommend this spot as it’s also so convenient to the train and bus that you will likely take around to the sites.
After dropping our bags, we grabbed a quick lunch at Taverna. The outdoor seating and service was nice, decent food too, so no concerns. Energized and ready to go, we decided the best deal was to buy the 24 hour pass for the bus circuit. All in all, this seemed like the easiest way to get around. We did find we had to wait a long time for the lesser used route the following day but overall it was very easy to navigate.
After a little bit of a snafu where I thought we were going to Pena Palace but I was a day off (whoops, my bad!) we opted to visit the Moorish Castle on Friday afternoon. It was a beautiful, clear day which is absolutely a requirement for this site. The Moorish Castle is positively stunning and I’m actually really glad we came to this spot first. In my opinion this is an absolute must do. It’s an extremely well preserved site and the views are endless. It also makes for a really cool spot to get distance pictures of Pena Palace (distance pictures = best pictures. More on that later).
After the Moorish Castle we took the bus back to our airbnb, only to walk half the distance back to our chosen dinner location, a tapas place recommended by our airbnb, Tascantiga. It was a decent location – the view made it worth – but I would say only half the tapas were truly noteworthy. All in all, I bet there are some better places along the route we walked.
Day 3 – Sintra
Breakfast took us to Cafe Saudade where I got my fill of pastries (the Portuguese love their bread, let me tell you) with a sampler of travesseiro (pastry filled with butter almond cream), queijada (pastry with cheese/egg/cinnamon), and, of course, pastel de nata. While perhaps not the best Pastel I had the whole trip, this location and coffee was a good start to the day.
We hopped the very first bus that was going to take us on the longer loop of the day and set off. We didn’t skimp on experiences. Our first stop (and what you should do as it’s the most logical order) was the Quinta da Regaleira which has the famous Well of Initiation.
This was a fantastic stop. The well in of itself is worth the line of tour groups – but the rest of the grounds are also excellent. The whole place is full of little mystical nooks to discover. You truly feel like you are in some kind of faerie land. It’s unique to anywhere else I’ve been.
Once we had our fill there, we got back on the bus to go to Monserrate Palace. This one has a lot of grounds and gardens to walk through before you find the Palace themselves. They were beautiful, though perhaps not quite as majestic as Quinta’s. The Palace itself was lovely and intricate – it’s a lot quieter of a stop. I’m glad we went but this could be skipped in favor of Quinta if you are on a time crunch.
We had to wait a while for the bus after we hiked back to the road, and by the time we got back to town it we had a short amount of time to grab food before getting back on the bus to make our way to Pena Palace. Padaria Saloia was the perfect quick stop with sandwiches, pastries, and coffee.
There are two bus stops for Pena Palace- one low for the gardens and one higher for the entrance to the palace itself. The first one you come up on is the gardens, that wasn’t super clear for us at first. We got off at the first one because we had almost two hours before our timed entry and planned to use it to explore the gardens.
I really enjoyed walking through all the gardens. It, once again, gave off a feel of going back in time and exploring a somewhat magical place. It was pretty tricky trying to figure out the “right” path so if you have time to wander and get lost – do it. We were constantly stumbling over old buildings or sites, often covered in ivy. It was very peaceful and I could see it being really cool in the early hours of the day or late in the evening.
We had enough time to walk all the way up to the High Cross. I wouldn’t necessarily say you need to go there but it was a nice target for our wandering and from there it is an easy walk across to the palace itself.
So – Pena Palace. This is where it gets interesting. We read SO many blogs before traveling to Sintra and while quite a few mentioned that Pena would be busy, everyone said it was worth it. I’m here to say it is 100% not worth it. I strongly, strongly, recommend not buying tickets to tour the palace. It’s a total tourist trap and despite having timed entry, they really don’t limit the amount of people who are doing in at all. We were like cattle. It was truly claustrophobic and we were desperate to get out.
Because here’s the thing – you can still visit Pena Palace without buying an entry to the interior Palace. This is what we would recommend. Buy exclusively the park entry. You can do all the park wandering and walk right up to the palace itself. You can walk the whole perimeter with just the park pass – and the exterior of the palace is really the impressive part. I felt totally bamboozled so take my advice and don’t do the interior at all – and then you don’t have to worry about a timed entry at all.
IF you really want to see the interior (again, not worth it), I recommend buying the very last entry of the day. We were there late in the day and we were able to loiter around for a while to get the best pictures and people started to leave. First entry isn’t going to get you there early enough to get pictures without people or being treated like cattle.
After ripping on Pena Palace for a while, we took the bus back down the mountain and poked our heads into Incomum. This place is nice and if you want to go I recommend a reservation – she managed to squeeze us in because we were early in the day. The food was excellent, if expensive. I bought a bread board and got literally one piece of bread, ha. But it was excellent quality and a delicious meal.
We couldn’t leave without gelato of course so we stopped at Alba Gelato which was a delicious choice. They had a nice outdoor seating space and are right on a park – definitely recommend.
Day 4 – Travel to Porto
It was not easy to say good-bye to Sintra, I could have spent another day in that cute little tourist town. But we rose early to grab the train and start our travel north. We had to train first to Lisbon and then switch trains to Porto, which was easy enough.
We met up with our Fuller Center team after grabbing some really good smoothies at Esquires Coffee. From here we were able to sit back, relax, and let our group do all the planning for us. Our bus took us north past Braga to our guesthouse where we relaxed on the beautiful property and had dinner.
Days 5-9 – Fuller Center Build
From Monday to Friday that week, the vast majority of our time was spent on the build site. Generally, the schedule was to wake up, grab breakfast in the guesthouse kitchen, and then bus to Tadim, an itty bitty down just outside of Braga. We were generally at the work site around 9am and started our tasks immediately.
The best part of this build was the variety of tasks, both skilled and unskilled. Volunteers comfortable with power tools were able to cut and shape things like wood, rebar, foam insulation, etc. Those unskilled folks (that would be me!) were kept busy with all kinds of things. Throughout the week I made concrete by hand, with a tumbler, scooped sand, carried particle board and roofing tiles up to the second floor, tied rebar, cleared out all the demolition rubbish from a side room, sanded foam walls for the drywall placement, cleared off a roof space, and transported SO much concrete in buckets up to the roof.
It was often tough and I was basically always sweating, but it was good work with lots of variety. We got snack each day and lunch at a restaurant (certainly not the greatest, and unfortunately I think an undercooked omelet gave me a terrible travelers bug that lasted almost three weeks!) and typically wrapped up our work day at 4:30.
Two nights that week they took us into Braga. The first night included a thorough and lovely tour of Braga, and then dinner. Another night was just dinner. Both of the restaurants were lovely – Colher D’Pau Taberna and Retrokitchen. They both had great food and excellent service (especially since we were a loud, huge group!). If you spend time in Braga, highly recommend either of these!
Day 10 – Tourism Day with Fuller Center
After our last day of work on Friday, we were treated to a day of tourism coordinated by the Fuller Center. We started the morning with a trip to Bom Jesus do Monte for the amazing views and truly beautiful cathedral with unique steps. I had been waiting forever to see this and it did not disappoint.
Afterward, we hopped the bus to the small town of Guimarães – apparently a long term rival to Braga – and the supposed birthplace of Portugal. There we received a tour of the town. I would have loved to explore it more thoroughly, there were so many little squares full of cute shops and seating. Very cute spot. We had lunch at Churrasqueira do Toural. I wasn’t feeling well so I can’t comment on the food but the others seemed to enjoy it.
Day 11 – Porto
Marjorie and I took out time heading out of the Fuller guesthouse and were able to hop a long-ish Uber ride all the way to Porto. We were still too early to check into our airbnb so we opted to go to Floresta Cafe for brunch. This spot is delightful, don’t hesitate to get their caramel latte (or, literally, anything. All so good!).
We hung out near the river until we were able to get into our airbnb. It was easily one of my favorite airbnbs ever (and I’ve had a lot of amazing airbnbs!) The location is *chef’s kiss* right on the Praça da Ribeira with the most incredible view ever.
I would literally live in this apartment in a heartbeat. I would have loved Porto regardless but having this as our home base gave us such a beautiful and relaxed perspective. Even though we were tired from a week of hard work, we wasted no time exploring Porto. We exercised our calf muscles and climbed to the Church of Saint Frances.
Then we crossed over the top of the bridge (Ponte Luis I). It’s such a breathtaking spot and well worth walking across. We went all the way past the fun Gaia neighborhood park (Jardim do Morro) and checked out the Miradouro da Serra do Pilar.
While not a dramatically different view than the bridge itself, I still found it worth the walk. It was lovely to just stand there and enjoy the view and breeze.
Afterwards we walked to get dinner at Mille Pinsa. The location was a little run down but the big windows provided fun indoor/outdoor seating on a very busy road so people watching was A+. Their gluten free pizza was also really quite tasty. Gelato afterwards at Glanni was a nice choice.
Day 12 – Porto Exploration
We started our morning getting completely bamboozled by the country’s worst tourist trap (yes, even worse than Pena Palace!). If you’ve googled anything about what to do in Porto, I’m sure you’ve heard about the “world’s most beautiful bookstore,” Livraria Lello. As someone who literally goes to as many bookstores as possible, this felt like a must do. But – no – it was truly awful. Just like with Pena Palace, they required timed entry but they didn’t limit the tickets nearly enough. We were packed into the space like sardines.
Despite being absurdly claustrophobic, it made it impossible to see this supposedly beautiful bookstore (honestly, I found it mid) and forget about getting a decent picture. On top of that the book selection was truly bizarre. It was awful and I do not recommend it at all. If you absolutely must go, I recommend booking the very last entry on the hope that you’ll be able to linger long enough to get a decent picture out of it. Otherwise avoid this at all costs.
We stumbled out of the bookstore thoroughly traumatized and sat at the outdoor space at Zenith for brunch. Their food and daily juice did absolute wonders for soothing our spirit. You 100% need to go there instead of the bookstore, I’m telling you.
After Zenith we wandered around Porto, taking in a few sites, pictures of architecture, etc. We did a good amount of window shopping (you have to find something cork to buy in Portugal!) We did pay to enter Porto Cathedral which felt worth it as the inside courtyard has some really beautiful blue tile walls.
After a rest in our airbnb and more wandering we found ourself at Vermuteria for dinner. We loved this little gastropub on such a perfect street with lots and lots of food options. Just be careful how hard you laugh or a Dos Equis doppelganger might give you the stink eye all night.
Also -this cute little spot was right in front of Bertrand, a much more pleasing, if normal, bookstore. After dinner we stopped at Boutique Do Gelato which was decent but not even close to as good as the place across the street, Gelatopia. Epic rivals, I’m sure.
Day 13 – Final Day in Porto
Admittedly, a third day in Porto isn’t entirely necessary but we ran into strange flight situations so we made the most of it. Brunch at Floresta again before walking over to the Porto sign and grabbing a picture. Then we wanted through a few other neighborhoods that were a little more off the beaten path which was really lovely. It felt so nice to just soak in the city.
We wander the Formosa neighborhood, lots of people and places to see. I grabbed a pastel de nata at Manteigaria – very good. We also popped into the Mercado do Bolhão just down the street which felt to us like a much more organized/cleaner version of the Boqueria in Barcelona – take that as you will.
Midday we came back to the airbnb to rest and grabbed food at Bite, which felt like a must as it was literally under our airbnb. The food was good if small for the price but, unironically, a good place for a bite. We then started the walk across the river – we took the lower bridge path this time – to get to the Ferreira Caves to do a Port wine tasting. Because when in Porto, amirite?
The tour was pretty decent though it’s just the final storing part of the process so there isn’t a ton to see. But it was classy and interesting and it’s rounded out with a nice tasting. There are other tours but I actually liked that these caves were the further down from the bridge – it forced us to walk the entire distance which was beautiful and fun.
Overall – our time in Portugal was magical for so many reasons. The highlight, of course, was having the opportunity to support and build a very small portion of a home that will impact so many people. It felt good to put in some sweat equity, meet new people, and make a tiny change to the world. It gave us the opportunity to spend time in a part of Portugal we never would have seen as “just” tourists. I’m always grateful I can do these kinds of activities.
With the endless beauty of Lisbon’s tiled streets, Sintra’s incredible palaces, and Porto’s insane views and I’d go back to Portugal in a heartbeat.
The Roaming Reader 