Portugal palaces and coast walks holiday

Planet

We believe that walking trips are the best way to experience a destination; because you have more time to appreciate the changing landscapes and get to know locals in the villages and towns that you pass through. Travelling on foot has minimal impact on your environment, but we encourage clients to stay on the marked trails to avoid erosion.

This slow style of travel not only affords you more time to appreciate Europe but, just as importantly, positively contributes to the regions that host you.

In 1995, UNESCO classified the area a World Heritage Cultural Landscape, so it is important to preserve the uniqueness of the region.

Our Waste Management Policy encourages our travellers to take their own reusable water bottles, coffee cups and reusable stuff sacks to avoid single-use plastics. We follow this same philosophy in our office as well as on the trail: in our London office we have banned single use coffee cups and water bottles. We use recycled paper in our office and we are working towards reducing the amount of paper we use, as well as recycling all of our paper and plastic waste.

In 2000 we developed the award winning Responsible Travel Guidebook, which presented our Travel Group’s comprehensive policies on sustainable travel. Over the years our Responsible Travel Guidebook has evolved to meet the ever-changing landscape of sustainable travel. In March 2018 The Thoughtful Traveller booklet was launched, which is an easy-to-read document that empowers travellers with suggestions about how they can be part of the solution and collectively make the world a better place when they travel. Everyone is encouraged to read the Thoughtful Traveller ebook before departure.

We prioritise working with hotels and guesthouses with strong environmental policies, including the Hotel Baia in Cascais. This hotel has been awarded a “Green Key”, an international award that promotes Sustainable Tourism in Portugal. To gain this award they have put policies in place including the use of only low energy lightbulbs, all taps all have water economizers, water leak detectors have been installed, towels are only changed on request, and have a policy at times of low occupancy to host all the guests on the same floor to save energy used on lighting and air conditioning.

People

Our preferred accommodations we use on this trip are locally owned and not part of big international hotel chains; this way we ensure your tourist spend is staying within the area and benefiting local people. The hotel we use in Sintra has been run by the same family since 1946, and in Cascais is run by the 3rd generation of the same family.

We encourage you to visit local cafes, and purchase your lunch from local village shops whenever you can. Stopping at a neighbourhood or village café, will give you a chance to meet the local people, and helps to ensure some of your tourist spend stays within the local population. Plus the pastries are a delight, including the famous ‘queijadas de Sintra’, made with cheese and once used as a currency! In your route notes you will find suggestions for locally run restaurants for your evening meals too, who employ staff from the area and serve authentic cuisine from Portugal