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Sintra is a UNESCO World Heritage site about an hour away from downtown Lisbon by train, and makes a great day trip. It is filled with castles and houses displaying a variety of architecture, from Gothic to Moorish to Renaissance styles. You can easily spend two to three days there if you have the time, though if you’re like me, after a couple castles you need a break.
You have a few options for how to visit the sites in Sintra. First, you could book a hotel or Airbnb in Sintra for a couple days and go to the various sites at your leisure. Second, you can book a day trip tour from Lisbon, such as this one from GetYourGuide, which covers most of the sites I recommend below, and handles all the logistics, tickets, and transportation so you just have to show up and don’t have to plan anything yourself (full disclosure, I have not taken this exact tour, but I do use GetYourGuide often to find local experiences). Or, the last option, you can plan your own day trip from Lisbon so you get to see exactly what you want to see, but you get to do all the planning too. I took the third option.
I actually went twice from Lisbon, and spent two whole days seeing four of the sites and spending considerable time in each of their gardens and grounds and taking hundreds of pictures. If you don’t take as many pictures as me, you could probably see all four sites in one day.
All of the sites have their own entry tickets, and you buy them separately. You can buy them online ahead of time, or there were automated machines at the Palace de Pena where you could also purchase tickets to other sites (except the Quinta de Regaleira, which is on a separate ticket system. The machine for that ticket was at the tourist information center across from the Sintra train station.) I recommend getting your tickets ahead of time, as the ticket lines can be long.
I recommend seeing these four attractions, in this order:
- Quinta de Regaleira
- Monserrate Palacio
- Palace de Pena
- Moorish Castle
Make sure you pick up a map (or scan the QR code) at each site so you can see how extensive the grounds are and plan your wanderings accordingly.
Quinta de Regaleira
Entry fee €10. The palace itself is beautiful, and definitely check out the interior, but it’s the grounds of this palace that are the real attraction. The highlight is the Initiation Well. I suggest putting this first on your itinerary because the Initiation Well draws a huge crowd and once you wait in line and are inside, it’s hard to stop for pictures, or get pictures without other people in them. So if you want a clean shot, you’ll need to arrive early. The palace opens at 10am, so getting there for opening isn’t too hard. After you get your shot of the Initiation Well, make sure you spend more time exploring the rest of the grounds; its maze-like layout has surprises around every corner. On your way out stop at the cafe for a pick-me-up while admiring the exterior of the palace.
Monserrate Palacio
Entry fee €8. I visited this palace last, but I recommend you have it second on your list. The reason is because of the bus lines in Sintra, which I’ll talk about more below. But this is on the same bus line as the Quinta de Regaleira, so it makes sense to go here second.
I’m not sure why Monserrate Palacio doesn’t see more traffic, it was not very crowded when I was there. It is relatively small, but here you definitely have to go inside! The symmetry and intricacy of the whole structure is really amazing. I also thoroughly enjoyed the grounds; make sure you go all the way down to the fern garden.
At the end of your time here take the bus back to town for lunch. After lunch you’ll take the other bus line to the Palace de Pena and the Moorish Castle.
The Palace de Pena
Entry fee €14. The Palace de Pena is the top attraction, and requires a timed admission ticket to go into the palace. It is the only site in Sintra that has timed entries. They have limited tickets per half hour entry block. When I went in the middle of the week in March, I was able to get a ticket at the gate for the next entry time. But I wouldn’t count on that in the summer or on weekends, so I’d encourage you to purchase this ticket ahead of time online, and then to plan your day around your entry time. I’d suggest early afternoon, after lunch.
Make sure to note that the timed entry is to enter the palace, not just the grounds. Give yourself at least ten minutes to walk from the street entrance up to the palace before your entry time. It’s better to get there early and wander around the outside of the palace and the grounds until your entry time. Don’t miss the Caminho de Ronda, the wall walk, around the outside of the palace, with spectacular views of the valley below.
I can’t speak to the inside of the palace, because I did not know all of this ahead of time. I did it wrong; I didn’t realize the time on my entry was to enter the palace itself, and I missed my window. I was busy taking photos of the view and the outside of the palace, and by the time I noticed the line of people and realized I was supposed to be in that line, I was about an hour past my entry time. As I don’t usually find the inside of palaces as nice as the outsides, I’m not too upset about it. But if you want to see inside, make sure you pay attention to the time on your ticket!
Don’t forget to visit the Gardens!
All of the sites in Sintra have amazing grounds; don’t skip them! At the Palace de Pena, the Valley of the Lakes was actually pretty cool, though a bit of a hike down through the gardens. I wish I’d stayed longer and seen more, but when the day began I was still under the delusion I could visit the four sites I wanted to see in one day, and I rushed a little. You can exit the Palace de Pena grounds to the road at the bottom of the gardens, so you don’t have to walk all the way back up the hill.
If you exit the gardens at the bottom, you’ll find yourself back on the main road and close to a bus stop that will take you to your last location, the Moorish Castle.
Castelo dos Mouros (Moorish Castle)
Entry fee €8. The ruins of this 10th century Moorish Castle make this last stop very different from the rest of the locations you’ll visit in Sintra. You can climb the ruins in a couple places, including to a lookout high up on a hill overlooking Sintra, where you’ll get a clear view of the Palace de Pena in the distance. There are steps up along a remaining wall that will take you to this height. But if the word “height” made you break out in a cold sweat, there’s an alternative way to the top.
I tried to climb the steps, and I got probably about three quarters of the way up before the wind got to be too much for me and I decided I was not going to make it to the top. I was disappointed because I wanted that view. But as I headed back down I saw a path off to the side into what I thought was just another garden. Turns out it was an alternate way to the viewpoint at the top that didn’t involve precarious steps on the edge of a mountain. After admiring the view I headed back down on this alternative route, and realized there was a path from the very beginning of the steps (not the halfway point where I turned off) that went all the way to the top. So, if you decide climbing that staircase isn’t for you, try one of the alternative routes to the top.
I went to the Moorish Castle second on my first day trip but if you are squeezing everything into one day, I recommend making this you last stop. After visiting the castle you can walk the mile back into downtown Sintra, which is a nice walk through the Moorish Castle gardens and then through the streets of the town. It is almost all downhill on cobblestones, which can be a little tough on your calves and knees though.
Getting There and Getting Around
I recommend taking the train from Lisbon to Sintra around 8-8:30 so you can get the most out of your day. That should get you there with enough time to get to the Quinta de Regaleira for it’s 10am opening time. The train to Sintra leaves from Rossio train station (a separate building from the Rossio Metro Station) and you can use your Lisbon Viva Viagem metro card or buy a ticket to Sintra using the machines at the train station. Trains leave regularly, so you can just show up and get on the next train.
Sintra has recently restricted the road to Palace de Pena and the Moorish Castle and no longer allows private vehicles, so once you get to Sintra, taking the bus is your best option.
When you arrive in Sintra you can buy a ticket for the hop-on hop-off buses that go to all of the sites. The two main lines are the 434 and 435, and they go to different locations, but one ticket will work for both bus lines. The ticket is €11.50 as of March 2022. If you will be hitting more than three sites in one day, it is probably worth it. Both lines leave from the train station. The 434 goes to the Palace de Pena, the Castelo dos Mouros, and the historic center of Sintra. The 435 goes to the Quinta de Regaleira and Montserrate Palacio and then back to the center of Sintra.
If you follow my itinerary above, when you arrive in Sintra, take the 435 to the Quinta de Regaleira and then hop back on it to Montserrate, then again to head back to town for lunch. After lunch and a look around town, (and depending on when your Palace de Pena entry time is), take the 434 bus to Palace de Pena. When you’re done with the Pena gardens, walk to the Moorish Castle, or take the 434 from the bus stop outside the gardens (I think it’s just one stop). After you explore the Moorish Castle you can take the 434 back to the train station, or walk downhill back to town. The train station is a little away from the historic center, so if you walk to town you may still want to hop back on either bus to take you back to the train station, for the train back to Lisbon.
Another option is to ride share, as in Uber. Ubers are not very expensive, and it means you get taken directly to your destination, without all of the other bus stops, or the crowded bus where you might need to stand. You also avoid arriving at the same time as a busload of people. My first day I took the bus, the second day I Ubered to each site. One challenge with Uber is you may have to wait a while for your Uber to arrive. I had trouble calling an Uber from Quinta de Regaleira; a few cancelled on me and then I had to wait about 10 minutes once one finally accepted the ride. It’s a long, one-way road and the driver who picked me up explained that was why a lot of drivers don’t like taking those fares.
Cost of a Day Trip to Sintra
Adding up the transportation and entry fees for this itinerary:
- Round trip train ticket from Lisbon to Sintra – €4.30
- Hop-on/Hop-off bus (434 and 435) – €11.50
- Quinta de Regaleira – €10
- Monserrate Palacio – €8
- Palace de Pena – €14
- Moorish Castle – €8
Total = €55.80
And don’t forget to budget a few euros for lunch, snacks, and souvenirs! Overall this do-it-yourself itinerary is cheaper (the guided tours don’t include lunch or all of the entry fees, and don’t cover as many sites) and you can spend as much time at each location as you want. There are other sites and museums in Sintra and you can modify your day or few days as your time allows. But if you are visiting Lisbon or Portugal, make sure a visit to Sintra is part of your itinerary!
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