For just a taste of Portugal's past consider taking the half-day tour to Sintra and Castle Pena. The tour is run by the same company that runs the cable car tour and is about 40 Euros. While researching day trips from Lisbon one can see much criticism of this particular tour. The general complaint is that there is too much time spent at Castle Pena and not enough time spent anywhere else. These criticisms are not really justified. The tour started on time and the tour guide was very organised and friendly, juggling between languages smoothly. The choice between the Castle Pena or the town of Sintra was a good one as it was not possible to do both. Castle Pena is an outstanding and a very unusual hodge-podge of styles. And the town of Sintra is lovely with many cafes and museums. The guide was quite slow going through the rooms of the castle but those impatient to see more could go ahead of her. The castle tour really could not have been shortened to allow more time in the town or at Cabo Roca, Cascais and the coast. Portugal is beautiful and this 5 hour tour will whet your appetite for more. One could easily spend a full day in Cascais, and a half day picnic and hike in Cabo Roca. For a half-day tour the pace and time alloted to each stop was perfect. The only criticism would be that the guide was very repetative, stating many obvious facts several times as if she had little else to say. A statement like,"There are many pine trees" should be followed by an real explaination of the vegetation of the country and whether this is natural or not. This lack was not due to poor language skills. The Portuguese was as brief and uninteresting as the French and English. The gaps could have been filled with a little bit of Portugese history. The few historical crumbs thrown in were very interesting. It would have been nice to know how the countryside evolved, what is/was the major industry. One will learn very little from this half-day tour but, in all, it is not a dissappointing tour. This is an easy way to see this part of Portugal effortlessly and come back with an idea of what to visit at length.