Throughout the year, the Estoril coast presents an ideal climate for spending a holiday with more than 300 days of sun, and with temperatures surrounding 30 degrees during the day in the summer time, while the temperatures in winter time can get between 12 to 16 degrees. The temperatures at night are milder but are not extreme. The months when the temperatures are more unstable are November and December and the highest heat are in July and August.
In the Estoril coast, the climate and natural conditions have been extremely favorable, both to man - whose first traces back to the Lower Paleolithic - and even long before, to dinosaurs, whose footprints were etched indelibly in several points of the region. Later, it has become clear the strategic importance of the most western point of continental Europe, successively followed by Phoenicians, Romans and Arabs.
Of the lasts, in particular, the region inherited many architectural influences, not forgetting the popular windmills, whose first literary reference is due to Ibn Mucane, Alcabideche, situated a few kilometers from Cascais.
During the Christian Reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula, the region finally fell on a Christian domain in 1147 and, given its closeness to its capital, Lisbon, never ceased to be at the center of all events of military and political life of Portugal's history, especially, during the Portuguese Discovers carried out by Infante D. Henrique.
15 Km from Cascais, the village of Sintra has become one of the most retreats attended by the royal family and all the Portuguese nobility.
The riversides areas of Cascais were the first settlements to be seen by the ships that were sailing in the bar of the Tagus when they arrived and the last picture taken by the Portuguese discoverers in its demand throw the four corners of the Empire.
Thus, their people saw the first discoverers getting away and they have seen the first Portuguese ships that came full of treasures from Africa and Brazil, and spices from India.
In 1588, views parade, off the beaches, the largest-ever naval training until II World War: the Spanish Armada, on the way to their destination on the shores of England.
The coastal fortifications remind us attacks by pirates, attempts to force landing of Spanish, French and English, at different times of Portugal's history.
In 1913, Estoril project, begun to be the center of tours of major international ambitions.
During the period after I World War, Cascais entered in a period of intense construction in areas of pine, land, farming and quarrying, facilitated, since 1940, by the easy accessibilities by road provided by the marginal road, near the sea.
Thus, the county took as a tourist center of the first order, receiving during and after World War II a huge number of refugees and exiles of political views, sports and culture to which we should highlight the King Umberto II of Italy and Count of Barcelona. It was a sophisticated and cosmopolitan atmosphere that still remains today.
Cascais continues to maintain this vocation of space and host, orienting its tourism and cultural quality by the demands required by their visitors. Well in the center is located the Natural Park Sintra - Cascais which presents an astonishing diversity of environments and landscapes, where it includes the most western point of European Continent, the Cabo da Roca. At two steps of Lisbon (the capital of Portugal), the region is served by its international airport, Lisbon Airport.
Costa do Estoril is also located near the majestic Sintra, the UNESCO World Heritage region of mountainous landscapes and rural areas.
The Cascais Cultural Centre, the Sea Museum, the Counts of Castro Guimarães Museum and the São Jorge Fort at Oitavos are cultural references of Cascais.
If you look for night life in Cascais, bet on Estoril Casino and Coconuts. Not to be missed.
Visit the website of Cascais City Hall