Since moving to Lisbon in 2024, most of our exploring had centered around the city limits because we didn’t have a car. Of course you can still explore Portugal without a car. We’ve taken train trips to Porto, Tomar, Cascais and Sintra, and train travel remains one of our favorite ways of exploring because it’s just so easy and relaxing. However, we also really enjoy taking day trips where we get off the beaten path. Some places are better accessed with a car! One such place is Parque Natural das Serras de Aire e Candeeiros.
Protip: We are currently renting a car until the car we bought arrives to the dealer. In Portugal it takes about 3 months to get your car after you purchase it! Renting cars in Lisbon during the winter months can be extremely inexpensive. We got ours through Booking.com and paid about 115 Euros for an entire month!
My approach to exploring Portugal is similar to how we explored California: every time we learn about a cool place we’d like to visit, we pin it on Google Maps. That way it’s super easy to know what there is to do in a specific area, making it easier to plan a day trip! After living here for 7 months, I have several pins on my map for interesting places I want to visit! For this weekend, we decided to drive to Nazaré to see the big waves. Since Nazaré is only an hour and a half away, we looked for what was on the way so that we could make a couple of stops to check out other places.
After some quick planning, we decided to explore a couple of places in Parque Natural das Serras de Aire e Candeeiros. We chose Pegadas de Dinossaurios to see fossilized dinosaur footprints, and at the Grutas de Santo Antonio and Grutas de Alvaro to explore caves. After those two stops, the plan was to continue on to Nazaré. Spoiler alert: we don’t always stick to plan!
Pegadas de Dinossauros de Vale de Meios
After a bit under an hour and a half, we reached the Pegadas de Dinosaurs. The fossilized footprints were awesome! Even in the rain, we took our time looking at the many (over a hundred!) footprints made by dinosaurs 160 million years ago! This site is really casual. There is no entrance fee or self-guided tour. You simply park your car and walk inside. There’s a short boardwalk, and you can also walk around the quarry area around the boardwalk.
One benefit of being there when it was raining was that the footprints actually filled up with water, making it easier to see them. We were all super excited about seeing this site. I mean, you could literally walk in the footprints of dinosaurs!
Grutas de Santo Antonio
After the Pegadas de Dinosaurios, we drove 20 minutes to the Grutas de Santo Antonio. There we bought tickets for both Santo Antonio and Alvados caves. If you buy tickets to both caves together, you get a discount. (Children under 12 pay crianças price). The tours start on a rolling basis, meaning you simply wait for the previous tour to be over, and then you head to the caves with your guide. We waited no longer than 10 minutes before starting our tour.
The ticket office doubles as a gift store, and they sell lots of interesting trinkets, including agates, which they told us was used by soldiers as protection during the war. Story has it that when the soldiers went to war, they left a piece of agate with their families to keep them safe!
The Gruta de Santo Antonio was simply stunning!. Not just that, but they were so well preserved too. I had never seen caves as beautiful as this one! Our guide explained that the cave had been discovered in 1955, and had been carefully preserved since then. Our tour guide only spoke Portuguese, and he spoke slowly, so we were able to follow along for most of it. But even if you do not understand Portuguese, the beauty of the cave speaks for itself!
During out tour we learned that stalactites formed at a speed of about one centimeter ever 100 years. We saw some columns that were about 4 meters long. That means it took about 40,000 years for them to form! Just incredible!
The Grutas de Santo Antonio are also home to a colony of bats. Don’t be frightened if one or more flies by you! If you are lucky, you’ll see them hanging from the ceiling in some areas. Our kids got especially excited about seeing the bats just hanging out in the caves!
One cool fact is that our guide, a man in his 70s, shared that he had been one of the kids who went in to explore more of the caves when they were first discovered. He shared stories of him climbing through narrow passages when he was about 9 years old! And 70 years later, he’s still connected to the cave and sharing its beauty with others!
Overall, we spent about one hour exploring this first cave. Before heading to the Grutas de Alvados, we decided to grab lunch to recharge energy. It took us 4 tries before we found a restaurant that had space for us for a Sunday lunch. Pretty wild for small towns! First we tried a pizzeria recommended to us by the nice woman working at the ticket desk in the caves. That place was super busy and they had about a 2 hour wait! Our next try turned out to be closed, and the third was expecting a tour bus so they were not taking more people.
All of this was fine, because we ended eating lunch at Restaurante Sabores da Carvalha. This lovely family-run place served delicious Portuguese food at really great prices. At this restaurant, the wine and couvert were included with the meal, and so was dessert! They also had a nice play space for kids, including toys, board games, and art supplies.
Grutas de Alvados
After lunch and a good rest, we headed to Grutas de Alvados. This cave had deeper passages and taller ceilings, but having been discovered about 400 years ago, it wasn’t in as good shape as the first one. The stalactites and stalagmites had been broken. According to our guide, they were broken by shephards who used the cave as shelter back in the day. Despite this, the cave was still super impressive and beautiful! I especially loved all the little underground freshwater pools and the calcite formations in them.
We walked through this cave in about 30-40 minutes. Our guide spoke English so she did the description in English and then in Portuguese, which was very nice. Our kids asked her a lot of questions and she was super friendly and responsive! The ticket counter at this cave also doubles as a souvenir store, and it had a small area where you could get a snack and refreshment. Both caves had public restrooms.
By the time we were done with the caves it was past 4pm, so we drove back to Lisbon. We decided to leave Nazaré for another day, and went home to get ready for the week.
We definitely want to go back to Parque Natural das Serras de Aire e Candeeiros. A family we met on the first cave tour told us about other caves in the area. They especially recommended Grutas de Mira de Aire, so we’ll have to check that out next time!
Other places to explore in Parque Natural das Serras de Aire e Candeeiros on my list are the castle in Porto de Mós, and the hike to Porto do Vento.
We are a family of four who moved to Portugal in July 2024. We love exploring our new home country, and enjoy sharing our adventures with others. To learn more about our adventures in Portugal, click here.
