The aromatic forest is crisscrossed with trails, dotted with crumbling chapels and graced with ponds, fountains and exotic trees from palms to sequoias. Popular paths lead to the pretty Vale dos Fetos and the Fonte Fria , where swans swim beneath a grand staircase. Among several fine viewpoints is Cruz Alta (545m).
What most visitors come to see is the fairy-tale Palace Hotel do Buçaco .
Now a luxury hotel, it was built in 1907 as a royal summer retreat on the site of a 17th-century Carmelite monastery. This wedding cake of a building is over-the-top in every way: outside, its conglomeration of turrets and spires is surrounded by rose gardens and swirling box hedges in geometrical patterns; inside (nonguests are more or less prohibited entry) are neo-Manueline carving, suits of armour on the grand staircases and azulejos (tiles) illustrating scenes from Os Lusiados (The Lusiads), in which Portuguese armies win glorious battles at sea amid the dismayed looks of their stupefied opponents.
Tucked away behind the hotel, Santa Cruz do Bussaco is what remains of a convent where the Duke of Wellington-to-be rested after the Battle of Bussaco in 1810. The atmospheric interior has decaying religious paintings, an unusual passageway right around the chapel, some guns from the battle, and the much-venerated image of Nossa Senhora do Leite (Our Lady of Milk), with ex-voto offerings.
By road the Portas das Ameias, the nearest gate into the forest, is 900m from the centre. The hotel is 2.1km from the Portas das Ameias.
