Paula was an excellent host, and the apartment is huge, nice, and in a great location. Highly recommended!
Paula had great, fast communication with us. We arrived earlier than expected and she was able to let us in early, which was greatly appreciated. She gave us a detailed tour of the house, which included everything we needed -- two sets of keys, very nice kitchen, TV, private reserved parking space in the garage in addition to free outdoor parking, etc. She had a nice info sheet of places to visit in the area, and she even connected us with help for our house search as we were house-hunting in the area.
For checkout we simply were able to leave the keys in the apartment and close the self-locking door (this was useful since we had to leave at 4am to catch a flight).
The two main things we liked nearby were:
1) A huge supermarket, Auchan, just a block away, which was really nice for groceries, toiletries, etc. We made our flight easier by not bringing liquids; we just bought shampoo, toothpaste, etc. at the store on arrival. It was nice to walk to the store instead of driving.
2) A short walk (5 min) to the beach and the downtown Cascais area. We were able to do all the downtown Cascais tourist things on foot instead of having to drive.
Thanks again to Paula for a great trip!