Visiting Sintra Portugal’s Fairy Tale City

How To Get There:

To get to Sintra from Lisbon, you can take the CP train. The train station nearest our hotel was Entre Campos; we took that all the way to Sintra (train station). If you are staying in a different part of Lisbon, make sure to get on the Sintra line and that will take you directly to Sintra. How easy is that!? We used the Viva Viagem green card for all our transportation and topped it off for the three days we were in Lisbon (around $16).

Sintra is about an hour or so from Lisbon and you can enjoy the views of the city as you go! You can get off at the very last station (Sintra) or the Portela de Sintra station. After getting off the train, you can take the bus for the rest of the way.

(We got off at Sintra and took the bus 434 and ended up back at Portela de Sintra lol). So why don’t I just recommend getting off at that station? Well, the maps don’t say that bus 434 or 435 comes to Portela de Sintra, and I can’t say for sure why they did that day.

What Route We Took:

Of course, there are many ways to explore the city: motorbike, renting a car (parking would be difficult to find), or finding a tuk-tuk (they are everywhere, but be sure not to get haggled and charged a hefty price).

We thought the best way was to take the bus. There are several bus lines that run through Sintra. Two of them go to the Palaces – lines 434 and 435. Unfortunately, you will have to buy another pass for the day (around $17), but this is good for all the buses in Sintra. We thought we would go first to the Pena Palace, as this was the most popular of the Palaces in Sintra.

I have written up our route below, along with some pictures as guides. You do not have to choose the route we took; but if you want to visit all the Palaces in one day, I highly recommend great walking shoes and a lot of energy! lol

You can mix up this route any way you would like and if you have more time, you can split it into two days – which would be ideal! You can always opt out of some palaces, to make it shorter as well.

Breakdown of Sintra:

Starting on bus 434, we took that all the way to the Pena Palace. The bus stop will let you off at the bottom of the park; You will have to walk the rest of the way up to the palace or take another smaller bus. (Yellow route).

After you make your way back down from Pena Palace, walk to the entrance of the Castle of Moors (orange route).

If you are looking to save a few coins, this would be the perfect spot to have that packed lunch. If you do not pack your lunch the Moorish Castle has a small café that offers sandwiches and drinks. We grabbed a few for a few euros.

We made our way back to the bus stop at the Pena Palace and took bus 434 to the center of the town.

As we walked through the center of Sintra, we passed the National Palace (and also stopped for some gelato). Following the blue route on the map above, you can make your way to the Quinta de Regaleira. (There is a bus stop at the National Palace; however, when we were there it was not running).

After exploring Quinta de Regaleira, we took bus 435 (green route) to the Monserrate Palace. (We had actually gotten off at the wrong bus stop and ended up waiting at least 30 minutes before the next bus came. We have a lot of rookie mistakes lol). Tip: there will be a parking lot in front of the entrance and a ticket booth for the palace, so you know it is the Monserrate Palace.

It was a full day of fun! We were able to take bus 435 all the way back to the train station and back to Lisbon.

What Palaces Can You See?

In Sintra, there are a total of 5 palaces or castles to see. Being the crazy explorers we are, Sam and I decided we wanted to see them all when we were there! Not that we didn’t enjoy it; but we definitely exhausted ourselves trying to cram all the palaces in one day.

I would suggest picking the top two or three you love and just seeing those. Or spend the night/go back the next day! Of course, if you are a go-getter and love seeing just the highlights, by all means, visit them all in one day!

The Total Cost of All Palaces: Around $38

Because we had planned to see most of the Palaces in Sintra, we bought a few tickets ahead of time. Pena Palace – is around $14, Castle of the Moors, and the Palace of Monserrate – are around $8.

For Quinta de Regaleira – around $7, we figured we would buy the tickets there. In case we didn’t have time to visit all the palaces, we wouldn’t be out any money. 🙂

Pena Palace

The most “want-to-see” palace in Sintra, is the colorful Pena Palace! It is such a fun place to explore! Straight out of a fairytale, the Pena Palace reminds me almost of a dollhouse! From the yellow and red towers to the quirky arches and classic draw bridge!

The stunning views and amazing tile work; The Pena Palace is the perfect photo op! The one thing we were most surprised by is the crowds! We got there a little after opening (10 am) and there was already a huge gathering and a line to get to the inside palace – because of our full schedule, Sam and I opted out of waiting in a long line and just enjoyed the view of Sintra from the Palace.

Castle of the Moors

If you are into hiking/exploring ruins, the Castle of Moors is for you! Deep in the heart of the Sintra forest, lies the defending walls of the Castle. Just a quick walk downhill from Pena Palace is the entrance to the Moorish Castle. Enjoy a scenic nature walk before hitting some smaller ruins and Castle Walls! (Opening time 9:30 am).

Because of the vastness of the park and the many paths you can take, we did not notice the crowds too much. I am not that fond of heights, however, the views from the walls are just stunning! At the very top of the walls, you are able to see a gorgeous view of Sintra – and all the way out to the Atlantic Ocean!

National Palace

Sam and I, unfortunately, had to skip this one, due to time. However, it is very easy to get to; and we did pass by it on the way to the other castles. Right in the center of town, the National Palace costs about $11 to enter and opens at 9:30 am.

Quinta de Regaleira

This was by far the most unique palace we visited in Sintra! It is not technically a palace, it was a house constructed and owned by a wealthy man; After his death, the property was passed to his family until it was bought by a Japanese company. In 1997 it was reclaimed by Portugal and opened to the public in 1998.

From the time you are walking on the road that leads to the mansion, you can see the Gothic influence in the design. It is such a large property, you hardly notice the crowds.

Tips:

The main reason I wanted to visit Quinta de Regaleira, was the Initiation Well. Its mysterious purpose and mystical designs will have you captivated! I’m going, to be honest, this was definitely one of the moments where all the pictures on Instagram had me fooled. Not that the well wasn’t amazing! But I had seen all these wonderful shots of the well and figured you could spend all day making wishes – I was wrong!

The lighting in the well was not great and I barely got a shot of it. Because we were told to “keep moving”, I was practically pushed the whole way down by an over-zealous tourist.

Monserrate Palace

This one I thought was the prettiest of all the Palaces in Sintra!

The Monserrate Palace has a beautiful park walk before you get to the palace – it has some of the most unique flora and fauna I have seen! I’m not sure if it was the time of day we went or just because this is not one of the more popular palaces – but we basically had it to ourselves! The Monserrate Palace has so many beautiful spots to photograph – seriously just look at this place!

Sintra is such a great city and we highly recommend going, if ever you are in Portugal! If you are looking for more places to travel to Portugal; be sure to visit Lisbon or Cascais!