Text provided by the Portuguese Tourist Office (with minimal corrections)

Situated close to the capital, the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park houses the tourist centres of Cascais and Sintra, the town of Colares, the Raso and Roca Capes, the  ‘Mouth of Hell’ and the Sintra Mountain. As well as a string of holiday beaches from Foz do Falcao to Forte da Cidadela. From the northern edge of the Park to the Roca Cape there are beaches below the cliffs, such as the Praia das Macas or Azenhas do Mar.

At the most westerly point of the continent of Europe, ‘where the land ends and the sea begins’ the granite prow of the Roca Cape rises. To the south, around the Guia Lighthouse and the Mouth of Hell, is an expanse of sands and dunes, such as the Consolidated Dune of Crismina in Oitavos, considered to be the largest in Europe.

From the sea to the mountain, the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park is full of amazing contrasts.  The Sintra Mountain, which rises to an altitude of 529m at Cruz Alta, houses around it a series of climatic phenomena that create exceptional natural conditions.  Nature’s exuberance made it a place of cult worship for the primitive Iberian people, who called it the Mountain of the Moon. It later became the area of summer residence for the nobility of Lisbon, who built palaces of rare beauty there.

The microclimate of the Sintra Mountain also served to create exotic gardens, with the Monserrate park displaying the greatest concentration of species of vegetation introduced. The strength of the thuja firs and the enormous sequoias and arucarias contrast with the rustic modesty of the indigenous species