Lisbon Region hotels collection

Sintra is often in mist while Lisbon lies in sunshine: the serra catches the Atlantic clouds, the kings' summer palaces gather moss, and tree ferns thrive in the gardens of Monserrate. Lower down, the vines of Colares grow in dune sand so deep that one must dig to the clay to plant them; phylloxera never found them. Lisbon lays its pavements in white limestone and black basalt. There the Tagus widens into an estuary known as the Sea of Straw; in the evening, the water takes on its colour.