The National Palace of Mafra is the largest Baroque building in Portugal. Its architectural beauty and its colossal proportions are unique. It was declared World Heritage by UNESCO.

You will need several hours to visit it, since it has more than 1,200 rooms and 150 flights of stairs.

Do not forget to visit the library, with its pink and gray marble floors and its immense collection of ancient manuscripts. A curiosity: a colony of bats inhabits this library, helping to preserve the books by predating the insects that eat the paper.

If you like nature, do not miss Tapada, a national park with more than 800 hectares of forest. It was declared as World Heritage by UNESCO.

This green area is home to a multitude of animals such as deer, wild boars, foxes and numerous plant species.

Tapada is the perfect place to practice active tourism. It has different hiking trails and activities such as archery or horseback riding, among other options.

Mafra is only 8 kilometres away from the coast, so it is highly recommended to visit also one of the fishing villages and its sandy areas.

The village of Ericeira is one of the favourite of the visitors, since there is a wide range of cuisine and leisure, as well as a lively nightlife.

In Ericeira it is very typical to surf, since the waves are ideal to practice this sport, but there are also many other beaches perfect for swimming and sunbathing.

In the Garden of Cerco, woods and flowers are all around 8 hectares with waterfalls and a garden to see medicinal flowers, the Horta dos Frades.
Water mirrors, long paths, leafy trees and a centenary nora, still working, are some of the attractions of this garden inspired in Versailles.
The garden is the perfect transition between the vast wall of Tapada Real and the majesty of The National Palace of Mafra, located in one of the sides of the garden.