Stunning capital has it all

Back to the golf and Quinta Da Marinha, in the Cascais area on the west coast, is the type of course that players of all abilities can enjoy.

Good golfers will relish testing themselves on difficult holes such as the par-four second and tough par-five 11th, while the view as you approach the third green, along the Atlantic coast, is about as good as it gets.

The 18th, a par-five which weaves its way through two huge lakes, is a classic finishing hole, and I was glad to make a six having somehow dodged all the water.

We hired clubs from MyCaddy Master, which is great if you don’t want the stress and expense of travelling with your own equipment. We used top-of-the-range Callaway gear for 40 euros for three days.

Three other courses which should be on the agenda for any Lisbon golf trip itinerary are Oitavos, Estoril and Penha Longa.

The first two have previously hosted European Tour events, while the undulating Penha Longa, a Ritz Carlton resort, offers the sort of spectacular scenery which makes the front pages of holiday brochures.

While Lisbon’s golf was making a good impression, so was the food.

Seafood fans will love Ibo, a former warehouse just feet from the Tagus, which celebrates Portugal’s links to Mozambique. It offers dishes such as piri-piri Tiger Prawns, fish loins in coconut sauce and crab curry.

A few streets away is Rib, a magnet for meat and red wine lovers.

Another fine restaurant with super service close to Rossio Square is Gambrinus, where the seafood bake served in a scallop shell was superb.

Meanwhile, the locals outnumber the tourists at Granja Velha, an authentic Portuguese restaurant.

The speciality fish dish, which was somewhere between a paella and a risotto, was delicious and I knew this was my kind of place when the waiter put the pan containing the leftovers on the table for us to pick at.