Things to do in Cascaisthe old town, Boca do Inferno, Guincho, Paula Rego, with kids and in winter

Checked on 11 October 2026. Museum hours and prices come from the municipal museum site, bike prices from MobiCascais, train facts from CP. They change: check the official page before you go.

Short answer: Cascais is a seaside town at the end of the train line from Lisbon, about 40 minutes from Cais do Sodré [2]. Spend the first day on foot: the old town and the town beaches by the station, the coast road west to Boca do Inferno, the Casa das Histórias Paula Rego museum and the Citadel, with Marechal Carmona park for the children. On a second day, ride the bike path to Guincho to watch the surfers and kitesurfers. Guincho is a wind and wave beach, not a place to swim with small children [15][17].

This page is research, not first-hand: it is built from official sources and our own Cascais pages. The town as a base for a longer stay: Cascais.

The town centre and the beaches

1. The old town and the seafront. Cascais has been a seaside resort since the late 19th century: from the 1870s until 1908 the royal family spent September and October here, in the Citadel [7]. Most of what is on this page, the beaches, the Citadel, the museum quarter and the park, sits in or near the centre, so plan the first day on foot rather than by car.

2. The town beaches. Conceição and Duquesa are a few minutes’ walk from the station and usually sheltered; a local guide describes them as having no waves or currents [16]. Two stops back towards Lisbon, Tamariz in Estoril has its own station. Lifeguards work from 1 May to 30 September in Cascais in 2026 [19]. Which beach for which day, and the Blue Flag list: best beaches near Lisbon.

Along the coast: Boca do Inferno and the lighthouse

3. Boca do Inferno. West of the centre, the sea has carved a chasm into the cliffs, and on a rough day the waves boom and spray through it. Visit Cascais describes accessible viewpoints and a coastal walkway that connects it to the town centre [14]. It is free. On calm days it is much quieter, so go when there is a swell, and hold children’s hands at the edge. More: Boca do Inferno.

4. The Santa Marta lighthouse museum. On the way, the Farol Museu de Santa Marta shows large Fresnel lenses and the lighthouse keepers’ story, with free entry. The municipal site lists short hours, 10:30–12:00 and 14:30–16:00, and closes it on Mondays [13]. Check the hours before you plan around it.

Museums: the Paula Rego house and the Bairro dos Museus

5. Casa das Histórias Paula Rego. The museum dedicated to Paula Rego, one of Portugal’s best-known painters, opened in 2009 in a building by Eduardo Souto de Moura with two red pyramid towers. It shows her paintings, drawings and prints, works by her husband Victor Willing, and temporary exhibitions [6]. It opens Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 18:00, and closes on Mondays, Easter Sunday, 1 May, 25 December and 1 January [5]. Entry is €5, and children and teenagers up to and including 18 go free [4]. There is a café with a terrace on the garden [5].

6. The rest of the Bairro dos Museus. The council groups its museums as the “museum quarter”. The Museu do Mar Rei D. Carlos (sea museum, with shipwreck finds, natural history and fishing life) and the Museu Condes de Castro Guimarães (a mansion whose gardens are part of Marechal Carmona park [9]) are both free, open Tuesday to Sunday with a lunch break from 13:00 to 14:00 [11][12]. A €7.50 day ticket covers all the paid venues [4].

Train plus museums ticket. CP’s Cascais line ticket offices sell a €9 integrated ticket: a return train between Cais do Sodré and Cascais plus four venues (the Centro Cultural de Cascais, the Casa das Histórias, the Casa Duarte Pinto Coelho and the President’s palace in the Citadel). The council says it is sold only at CP Cascais line ticket offices [4]. The palace part is a guided visit by appointment, so book it first [7].

The Citadel

7. Cidadela de Cascais. The fortress by the marina holds three things. The Palácio da Cidadela, the old governor’s house that became the royal family’s holiday home and is now the President’s summer residence, opened to the public in 2011 [7]. Palace visits run Wednesday to Sunday by appointment only; its exhibition gallery opens Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 13:00 and 14:00 to 18:00 [7]. Tickets: gallery €5, palace €5, both €10 [4]. The rest of the fortress is the Pestana Cidadela Cascais pousada, whose Cidadela Art District has galleries and artists’ studios you can visit by appointment [8].

Parque Marechal Carmona

8. The town park. Joined to the gardens of the Castro Guimarães mansion, Marechal Carmona park has lawns, lakes, big old trees, a picnic area, a playground, a café-restaurant and a children’s library, and an organic market on Saturdays [9][10]. Free. Hours: 8:30 to 19:45 from April to October and 8:30 to 17:45 from November to March, every day [9]. A good shady break between the museums.

Guincho: wind, surf and the bike path

9. Praia do Guincho. About 5 km beyond Cascais, Guincho is a long, wild beach in the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park, with dunes and the Sintra hills behind [15]. It is a surf, windsurf and kitesurf beach. What the sources say about the water:

• Wind and waves: APA’s bathing-water profile describes it as characterised by strong waves and wind [17]; strong northern winds blow in June to August [15].
• Currents: a local guide warns of constant strong winds and powerful currents [16]. Wikipedia calls it not suitable for swimming, particularly for people with young children [15].
• Lifeguards and flags: Guincho Norte and Guincho Sul are on the 2026 Blue Flag list [18], with lifeguards in the 2026 season, 1 May to 30 September [19]. In Portugal a yellow flag means swimming is prohibited, red means do not enter the water, and a chequered flag means the beach is temporarily without lifeguards [20].

So go to watch, walk and, if you surf, take a lesson with a school. Swim with children at the town beaches instead. More: Praia do Guincho.

10. The bike path to Guincho. A cycle path runs along the coast from Cascais to Guincho; a local guide puts it at about 14 km there and back [16]. The council describes 16 km of cycle paths from Guincho to the seafront promenade, past Boca do Inferno, the Oitavos fort and the Guia lighthouse (a page dated 2016) [21]. Bikes: the MobiCascais kiosks, one by the station, rent classic biCas bikes at €2 an hour or €6 a day and electric ones at €4 an hour or €10 a day; a helmet or a lock costs €1 [22]. In the high season (late March to late October) the kiosks open 08:00 to 20:00, in the low season 08:00 to 18:00 [22]. The price page is from January 2024, so check the current prices at the kiosk. Without a bike, a local guide names buses 405 and 415 from Cascais bus station [16]; check the timetable on mobi.cascais.pt.

Things to do in Cascais with kids

Cascais works well for a family day: sheltered beaches by the station, a big park and free museums. Our shortlist from the sources, not from experience:

• Beaches: Conceição and Duquesa for sheltered water, in the lifeguard season only [16][19]. In Estoril, Tamariz is right by its own station. Skip Guincho for swimming [15][16].
• Marechal Carmona park: the playground, the lakes and the children’s library, free [9].
• Free museums: the sea museum (shipwreck finds, shells, fossils) and the lighthouse museum [11][13]. At the Casa das Histórias Paula Rego visitors aged 18 and under go free [4]; Visit Cascais describes her world as intense and often provocative, so look first if your children are small [6].
• Bikes: the coast path towards Guincho [21]; remember that the open coast near Guincho gets strong northern winds in summer [15].
• Prices for children: visitors aged 18 and under go free at the municipal museums [4]; on CP trains, children aged 4 to 12 pay half [1].
• Health: Hospital de Cascais runs a 24-hour paediatric emergency department for patients up to 18 [25].

More for families on the whole coast: Lisbon with kids.

Cascais in winter

Mild, wet and quiet. Cascais has no station in IPMA’s published normals; the nearest one, in Lisbon, gives December to February highs of 15.1–16.4 °C, lows of 8.6–9.4 °C and 8–10 rain days a month [23]. The sea off Cascais is modelled at about 15–16.5 °C [24]: walks and surfers in wetsuits, not swimming. All months: Lisbon weather by month.

What changes in winter:

• Outside the bathing season (it ended on 30 September in 2026) do not count on lifeguards [19]. The town beaches are for walks.
• Big waves at Boca do Inferno and Guincho are the point of a winter visit; keep well back from the edge [14][17].
• Museums keep their hours all year (most close on Mondays) and close on 25 December and 1 January [4][5][11].
• Shorter days outdoors: Marechal Carmona park closes at 17:45 from November to March [9], and the bike kiosks close at 18:00 in the low season [22].
• Evening trains: under CP’s notice of 21 September 2026 (works since 6 April), replacement buses run between Caxias and Cascais on weekday evenings from 21:50, Saturdays from 20:50 and Sundays from 19:50 (and on Sunday mornings from 05:30 to 08:50), and they take no wheelchairs, bikes or scooters [3]. Check whether the works are still on.

Christmas and New Year in Lisbon, with the extra New Year’s trains to Cascais: Lisbon in December.

Getting to Cascais from Lisbon by train

CP suburban trains leave Cais do Sodré for Cascais. In October 2026 the trip took 40 minutes (33 on some weekday rush-hour trains), with a train every 15–20 minutes in the weekday daytime and every 20 minutes at weekends [2]. A return costs €5.10 and a single Zapping trip €2.05 in 2026; children aged 4 to 12 pay half [1]. Under CP’s notice of 21 September 2026, buses replace the evening trains between Caxias and Cascais, and they take no wheelchairs, bikes or scooters [3]; with any of those, come back earlier. From 8 November 2026 this changes: work at Oeiras station brings a new Cascais-line timetable, with trains in CP’s data running 00:00 to 23:30 every day. Recounted figures and the caveat about the night trains are in getting around Lisbon and the coast.

• The beaches on the way (Santo Amaro, Carcavelos, Estoril): best beaches near Lisbon.
• Cascais against Sintra and the other day trips: day trips from Lisbon.
• Tickets, the Navegante card and the whole network: getting around Lisbon and the coast.
• Straight from the airport: Lisbon airport to Cascais, Ericeira and Sintra.

Staying in Cascais

A day is enough for the centre; Guincho, the museums and a slow beach day make a second or third. If the beach is the daily plan, staying in Cascais and visiting Lisbon by train is often easier than the other way round. Areas compared: where to stay on the Lisbon coast; Cascais or the surf town up the coast: Cascais vs Ericeira.

Sources

Numbered references match the source list on this page. Read on 11 October 2026 unless stated.

1. CP: Lisbon urban train fares 2026 (PDF), read 10 October 2026
2. CP: GTFS feed
3. CP: Cascais line replacement bus service
4. Bairro dos Museus: Bilhética
5. Bairro dos Museus: Casa das Histórias Paula Rego, hours
6. Visit Cascais: Casa das Histórias Paula Rego
7. Bairro dos Museus: Palácio da Cidadela de Cascais
8. Bairro dos Museus: Cidadela Art District
9. Bairro dos Museus: Parque Marechal Carmona
10. Visit Cascais: Marechal Carmona Park
11. Bairro dos Museus: Museu do Mar Rei D. Carlos
12. Bairro dos Museus: Museu Condes de Castro Guimarães
13. Bairro dos Museus: Farol Museu de Santa Marta
14. Visit Cascais: Boca do Inferno
15. Wikipedia: Guincho Beach, read 9 October 2026
16. cascais-portugal.com: The best beaches in Cascais (2026)
17. APA: Guincho bathing-water profile (PDF, 2022)
18. ABAE: Blue Flag beaches 2026, read 10 October 2026
19. Portaria n.º 204-A/2026/1: bathing seasons 2026 (PDF), read 10 October 2026
20. AMN: Edital de Praia, beach flags (PDF), read 10 October 2026
21. Câmara Municipal de Cascais: Ciclovia
22. MobiCascais: Quiosques
23. IPMA: Climate normal 1991–2020, Lisboa / Instituto Geofísico (PDF), read 9 October 2026
24. seatemperature.org: Cascais sea temperature, read 9 October 2026
25. Hospital de Cascais: paediatric emergency, read 10 October 2026