L L.
Yelp
* * * WESTERNMOST POINT IN MAINLAND EUROPE!!! * * *
* * * WESTERNMOST POINT IN MAINLAND EUROPE!!! * * *
* * * WESTERNMOST POINT IN MAINLAND EUROPE!!! * * *
No admission fee, just show up! Now, getting there, will cost you, but usually not much.
The most common route is taking the train from Lisbon to Sintra (which you will want to visit anyway) for about 4€. From there, the line 403 bus will take you 38 mins to get to Cabo da Roca from Sintra for about another 4€.
You can also rent a little car-type vehicle in Sintra, which allows you the freedom to go where you please, at your own pace. One such company we saw there was LAS tours Sintra, but the tourism office in Sintra will be able to present you with all the options.
You can take an Uber from Lisbon all the way out to Cabo, but it is a lot more costly than the train and bus.
We drove from Lisbon in a rental car, and it took us about 40mins. There are tolls on the major highways (most, but not all take credit cards). Tolls are under 2€ each.
If you are up for hiking, you'll want at least an hour here, but there are beaches nearby (Praia da Ursa and Praia da Adraga) with amazing natural rock formations, that are a much better bang for your hike effort than the trails along the Cabo cliff. So, for us, we wanted to just show up, look around, and leave. Taking a bus would have forced us to be stuck there longer than we wanted, and many people mill around, check out the cafe (which has bad reviews), and end up wasting some of their day.
Just to clarify, Cabo da Roca is the westernmost point of MAINLAND Europe, just as when we visited Tarifa, Spain, it was again, the southernmost point of MAINLAND Europe. The Azores Islands are much more to the West, just as the Gavdos Island is farther south, but the novelty of the mainland factor is still there.
It is definitely a site worth seeing, I just recommend realizing that you'll want either a lot of time, or very little time here, and to plan transport accordingly. Either way though, it is a pristine place of natural beauty, especially on a sunny day, and is a special experience to think of the generations of Portuguese explorers who looked out from this coast, conceiving of some of the most significant exploration of our world, that written history has ever known!
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Nearby breathtaking beaches to visit are Praia da Ursa, 1km to the north by road, then a difficult hike to the beach, but all reviews say it's worth the work for the amazing rock outcroppings. Another 4.4km to the north from there, is Praia da Adraga, another memorable beach with more crazy geo forms.
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Hungry? Just up the road are a bunch of quaint restaurants. Don't rely on the obvious tourist trap cafe right at the site...much better options a short walk up the road.
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40 min drive in car (or via bus) from Lisbon