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Trip report: Cascais & Sintra

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 HakanT 13 Mar 2015
I figured I would share some information on our trip last weekend as a lot of people here are looking for destinations for climbing trips.

If you are looking for destination for a long weekend or even a week-long trip, you should take a look at Cascais in Portugal. Cascais is located just west of Lisbon, about a 30 minute drive from the airport. It’s a charming town with lots of restaurants, bars and cultural activities. Cascais is well known for surfing and kite surfing beaches

But what about the climbing? There is great limestone sport climbing on the ocean at Farol da Guia (http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crag.php?id=3881) on the outskirts of town. It’s a beautiful cliff with grades from 3+ to 8. The bulk of the climbs are in the 5-7 range. We spent two days there and left a lot of routes undone.

Sintra is completely different climbing experience. The granite cliffs (http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crag.php?id=8891) are about 25 minutes North of Cascais, above the historic village of Sintra and just at the foot of a Moorish castle from the 10th century. The climbing is mostly slabs and tends to be well bolted. A few of the lines require gear, but the bulk are sport.

We flew out of Heathrow at 08:15 on a Thursday and still managed to get a full day of climbing in in Cascais. We returned on Sunday at 16:05 and still managed to do a three-pitch route in Sintra that morning with plenty of time to spare.

The Jingo Wobbly Portugal guide book covers both areas well: http://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/book.php?id=179

We stayed at this condo: http://www.ukclimbing.com/listings/info.php?id=651&t=stay
It’s a wonderful place that would easily sleep 8 if you want to go with a group. It’s five minutes from Farol da Guia and 25 minutes from Sintra.

You’ll find some photos from our trip here: https://plus.google.com/+HakanThyr/posts/KsW53ngUrNY

If you have any questions, feel free to DM me.

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