Fátima and Batalha, the sanctuary and the monastery of victory.

An hour and a half from Lisbon on the A1, Fátima and Batalha are 20 km apart and combine well in a day. Fátima is one of the great Catholic sanctuaries of the world: an immense esplanade where, according to tradition, the Virgin appeared to three shepherd children in 1917. Batalha is a Gothic monastery built to give thanks for the victory at Aljubarrota, a World Heritage Site, with a roofless pantheon that was never finished. Between the two, beneath the Serra de Aire, there are caves with an underground river.

How do you get there from Lisbon?

By car, about 130 km on the A1, the northern motorway, with tolls: a little under an hour and a half to Fátima. Batalha is about 20 minutes further, on the A1 or the Leiria road, and the Mira de Aire caves about 20 minutes south of Fátima. There are scheduled buses from Lisbon to Fátima, but to combine the monastery and the caves in the same day you need a car.

If you fly from Spain, you land in Lisbon and hire a car at the airport: the A1 starts next door.

What to see in a day?

Start early at Batalha, which opens at 9:00. The monastery of Santa Maria da Vitória was begun two years after the battle of Aljubarrota in 1385, and was built over more than a century. The visit takes in the church, the Founder's Chapel with the tombs of John I and Philippa of Lancaster, the royal cloister, with Manueline tracery, and the Unfinished Chapels, an octagon open to the sky with an overflowing portal of carved stone.

At midday, go to Fátima. The esplanade can be explored freely: the Chapel of the Apparitions in the centre, the Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary at one end and the modern Basilica of the Holy Trinity at the other. Eat at Tia Alice, traditional cooking, which on Sundays opens only at midday: book.

In the afternoon, choose: the quiet walk to Aljustrel, the shepherd children's village, and the Valinhos path among olive trees; the Mira de Aire caves, an hour's guided visit underground; or Ourém castle, a walled town on a hilltop 10 km away. If you have time left, the Alcobaça monastery is half an hour from Batalha, on the way to Nazaré.

Where should you sleep?

If you want to see the candlelight procession or start early, sleep in Fátima. The Hotel Fátima is next to the sanctuary grounds, with free parking and a garage; the Hotel Cinquentenário, a few minutes' walk away, has connecting rooms for families.

When should you go?

In spring and autumn. On the 12th and 13th of each month from May to October the great pilgrimages arrive, with hundreds of thousands of people in May and October: hotels fill up and the road grinds to a halt. If you are not going for them, avoid those dates. In summer it is hot on the esplanade at midday; the caves stay cool all year round.