Sintra
Royal palaces on a mountain the mist keeps cooler than Lisbon
- When to go
- October 18° · 13 rainy days
- Per day
- €€€price 3 of 5
- How many days
- 1days
- For you
- 6 questions →
- Nearest airport
- 9 km Cascais · 21 km Lisbon
- Right now
Sintra is a day from Lisbon, forty minutes by train from Rossio, and that day fits two palaces, three at most — so you decide which before you leave, and buy a slot for the ones that need it. Kings spent their summers here because Atlantic mist keeps the mountain cooler than the city, and the same mist can hide the view you climbed for.
Pena Palace admits you only in the slot you bought, and Quinta da Regaleira also sells tickets on its own site for a date and time, with an hour's grace. So the day is built backwards from the slots: the first train from Lisbon, bus 434 from the station to Pena, then everything else downhill, on foot.
A second day only makes sense with a night in Sintra, and then it goes on what a day trip skips: Monserrate park and the Capuchos convent, or bus 1624 over Cabo da Roca to Cascais.
What to see in Sintra
Pena Palace
The Romantic palace King Ferdinand II raised in the mid-nineteenth century, a mix of neo-Gothic, neo-Manueline and neo-Moorish on the top of the mountain. The Essential ticket, €20, gives you the palace in your slot and the park — on a first visit to Sintra, this is the one fixed item.
Quinta da Regaleira
A four-hectare estate Luigi Manini built in 1904–1910 for António Carvalho Monteiro, full of alchemical, Masonic and Templar symbols. The Initiation Well is a 27-metre spiral staircase in nine flights, and tunnels link it to grottoes and the chapel — for anyone who finds gardens and underground passages more interesting than state rooms.
The Moorish Castle
A fortress from the Moorish period, taken by Afonso Henriques in 1147. There is no interior; you walk the walls along the ridge; entry is €12, last admission 5.30pm. It's a walk downhill from Pena, so it needs no extra bus.
Sintra National Palace
A palace in the town itself, with the two conical kitchen chimneys that are Sintra's emblem. No bus needed, and it's the pick for a day when the mountain is in fog: everything it offers is indoors, not in the view.
Monserrate
A palace and park that the English merchant Francis Cook laid out from 1863, with plants arranged by continent — tree ferns from Australia and New Zealand, agaves from Mexico, Japanese camellias and bamboo. Byron was here in 1809 and wrote it into Childe Harold. For a second day, or for anyone more interested in a garden than a court.
- T
The historic centre
Queijadas and travesseiros, the pastries Sintra is known for, are made by the old Piriquita bakery among others. A break between the morning palace and the afternoon one, on the way from the station.
Two things you probably did not know
Quinta da Regaleira has a well you go down rather than water: nine spiral levels underground, with masonic symbolism at each. It was built in the early twentieth century as a place for initiation rites.
Sintra has a climate of its own: the ridge traps Atlantic mist, so it is several degrees cooler and damper than Lisbon half an hour away. That is why Portuguese kings built their summer palaces here.
Ready for Sintra?
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