Daytrip from Lisbon to Sintra: The Best of Sintra

If you’d like to take a daytrip from Lisbon, Sintra has to be your first choice! Sintra is less than an hour from Lisbon but on arrival, you feel like you’ve entered a different world. This is a world of old castles, colourful palaces and mysterious, myth filled gardens. Whether visiting Sintra with kids or not, your travel group will easily find many activities to fill a day in Sintra.

If you can stay overnight in Sintra, it would be even better as you’ll have the opportunity to explore the village in the evenings when the bulk of tourists return to their accommodation in Lisbon. You’ll also have more time to explore some of the less visited Sintra sights that many visitors miss.

The Plan for our Daytrip from Lisbon to Sintra

While we had originally planned to stay overnight in Sintra, I realized early that we really only had one day to visit. We wanted to make the most of our daytrip from Lisbon and since we were travelling to Sintra with the kids, we decided to hire a guide for the day.

Now, those that follow us regularly know how much we love hiring local guides when we travel. There are so many advantages to hiring a local guide but for Sintra, the biggest advantage for us was being able to easily get from one place to another without having to worry about bus schedules and crowds.

There are many companies offering group tours from Lisbon to Sintra but most include a visit to the beach village of Cascais and a stop at Cabo da Roca on the Atlantic coast. We wished to do neither as we really wanted to spend our daytrip from Lisbon just in Sintra itself. Further, the cost of a private tour or group tour from a Lisbon company was exponentially more expensive than hiring a local guide in Sintra itself. So that’s what we did!

In immersing myself in the Tripadvisor forums, I repeatedly found reference to a local Sintra guide named Sergio Mata. I reached out to him on his Facebook page and we made arrangements for him to meet us at the Sintra train station. Sergio, at the time, did not have a company website which did concern me a bit (to the point that I did look into local Sintra bus schedules in case he didn’t show up at the train station!) but there was absolutely no need for concern. He was at the station when we arrived and we couldn’t have asked for a better guide. He absolutely made our list of the best private guides in Europe!

Being young himself, Sergio immediately hit it off with our teens. They loved his sense of humor and his focus on sights and stories that they would grab their attention. Having grown up in Sintra, he was incredibly knowledgeable of the area and its history. He even told us stories of his youth growing up there which we all loved.

We discussed with Sergio our options for the day. The end decision was for us to visit the Castle of the Moors, Pena Palace, the gardens of Pena Palace, the village of Sintra and Quinta da Regaleira. We knew in advance that, while being an official guide of Portugal, he is not an official guide for the Parques de Sintra organisation which includes Pena Palace and the Castle of the Moors.  As such, he was not permitted to enter those particular sights with us but he did have skip the line privileges for tickets. Further, he was able to guide us through Quinta da Regaleira.

How to get from Lisbon to Sintra

Sintra is easy to visit as a daytrip from Lisbon. The best transportation option is to travel by train. Having a car in Sintra is difficult due to the narrow roads and lack of parking so if you have hired a rental car, you’re best to leave it in Lisbon.

While there is a train from the Orient station, most Lisbon visitors will take the train from Rossio is as is more central to the tourist district. There are numerous trains per day. To find out the recent schedule, we recommend visiting the official transportation website for Lisbon. Due to crowds in Sintra, it is best if you plan to leave for Sintra on an early morning train.

We had arrived in Lisbon a few days before so we had already purchased our Viva Viagem transportation pass (also called ‘zapping’). For our 6-day visit, we had 20 euros placed on each card (one for each member of the family) which enabled us to just tap the card when entering the buses and trams of Lisbon. It was great for exploring all the great Lisbon activities but it also could be used for the train from Lisbon to Sintra. If you don’t plan to have a Viva Viagem pass, you can purchase your train tickets for less than 3 euros each way. Remember though, train tickets cannot be purchased in advance and lines can be long. This is another reason to plan to take an early train from Lisbon to Sintra.

Starting our day in Sintra & Visiting Castle of the Moors

Our train from Lisbon to Sintra departed and arrived right on time!.

We met Sergio at a nice little coffee shop just across the street from the train station at 9am. We walked to his wonderfully spacious car and headed towards the Castle of the Moors, our first stop on our daytrip from Lisbon.

En route, Sergio stopped at a wonderful location where we could see both Pena Castle and the Castle of the Moors in all their beauty.

We all had fun taking pictures of our first views of these amazing structures.

Sergio also took some great family pics of us all. Coming from the family’s main photographer, it was nice to be in a vacation photo!

In a short time, we were off to the Castle of the Moors. Sergio assisted in getting our tickets and left us to our own devices to explore the area for as long as we wished.

But we just loved walking the walls of this incredible Moorish Castle. The views were stunning and you could envision the history that took place here.

It was an incredibly windy day!! Be warned, even in mid summer Sintra can be very cool. Oh how I wish we had brought our fleece with us! That wind was very chilly!

Many people skip the Castle of the Moors and opt instead to view it from afar. Yes, it is visible from many locations in Sintra but I would not have traded a stop here for anything.

In total, we spent about an hour wandering the walls of the Castle of the Moors. Once finished, we returned down the short path to where Sergio awaited.

Next stop: Pena Palace!

If you’ve ever seen photos of Sintra you’ve no doubt seen the beautiful, colourful Pena Palace. It is truly like no other palace we’ve ever seen. Covered in bright yellows and pinks, set in the middle of lush green gardens, it is the most fairy tale palace we’ve ever visited.

What you may not know is that these beautiful colours had faded over time and by the early 1990s, the entire castle was more of a dingy grey colour. In 1996, the palace was renovated and the exterior was painted with its original colours. These are the colours seen today.

As a visitor to Pena Palace, you have a two ticket options. You can visit the interior of the Palace along with the terraces and gardens or you can purchase a ticket for just the terraces and gardens. There is also a discount for purchasing in advance online and/or purchasing for more than one location (we purchased our ticket for the Castle of the Moors and Pena Palace together to obtain the discount).

Sergio does have skip the line access for tickets but no tour guide, other than perhaps the official guides working at Pena Palace, can skip the line to get into the interior of the castle. Even with a ticket, you must line up to visit the inside.

I had read that the interior of the castle was not worth the length of time it takes to get into the palace itself and honestly, my teens have seen many castles and they didn’t mind missing this one. Therefore, we decided to skip the interior of Pena Palace and just visit the terraces and gardens. Do I regret it? Not at all! The line to get inside was incredibly long and it was hot. Many children in line (and adults!) were having melt downs and while our kids are now teens, I expect they would not have been very happy.

We had purchased the combination ticket at the Castle of the Moors so once Sergio ensured we had the information pamphlet with a map, we left him with the car and wandered up the hill to the palace. It was beautiful!

The walk to Pena Palace is a gradual uphill march. There is also a small bus that can take you from the entrance to the castle but the wait can be long.

The entrance of the gate is reminiscent of the key shaped entrances we saw when we visited the Alhambra in Granada, Spain a few years ago.

The exterior of Pena Palace is covered in motifs from the sea and the kids enjoyed looking for shells, coral and sea monsters. The architecture is stunning and filled with symbols from the Age of Discovery.

The details are just amazing!

While it could definitely use a new coat of paint (I was actually really surprised by this!), the colours are bright and beautiful.

Oh, and remember, I warned it could be incredibly windy!!!

The Gardens of Pena Palace

Once we had explored all the terraces of Pena Palace, we headed to the park. I was equating parks with gardens which have flowers and pretty plants. We expected beautiful French and English gardens like those outside the Palace of Versailles. This is not what we found.

While I hear there are some further away, the park areas near the palace are actually paths in the woods. Not a flower to be seen! Pretty but absolutely not what I expected. We wandered so much looking for the ‘gardens’ that we realized about 25 minutes in that we were hopelessly lost! We phoned Sergio who tried to direct us but without knowing where we were, it was pretty hard. We came to the conclusion that we were in the opposite direction of where we planned to be so we attempted to backtrack … mostly uphill.

In retrospect it’s all pretty funny but at the time, not so much. We were eating into the time we had planned for the rest of the day because we got lost in the woods! And we were hungry!

If I could change one thing about our daytrip from Lisbon to Sintra, it would be our plan for Pena Palace. I would have visited Pena Palace first. Because we didn’t plan to visit the interior it wasn’t essential to avoid lines but I longed to have those beautiful photos without the tourist crowds and that was near to impossible when we arrived late morning. The terraces were packed with people from one end to another. In retrospect I also would not bother with the gardens unless we were staying overnight and had more time to wander and explore.

A Visit to the Town of Sintra & Lunch

Once we finally found Sergio, he whisked us away to the town of Sintra. He let us explore while he found a place to park.

We wandered the narrow streets and explored the exterior of Sintra National Palace where Sergio found us.

The side streets of Sintra actually remind me a bit of Lisbon’s Alfama district except it was rather flat in comparison.

We explored a bit more and wandered to Cantinho Gourmet which Sergio recommended for lunch. Behind the little shop is a small terrace with tables.

The menu is simple but everything we tried was absolutely delicious. We started with a cheese and meat platter. The port jam included was incredible! I had the salmon tartare, John had the fish salad, Sydney had a salmon sandwich and each of the boys enjoyed a beef sandwich. All so good! While we finished eating, Sergio ran out to a nearby bakery and returned with pastries local to Sintra. One was a pillow pastry and the other was similar to a pasteis de nada but with cinnamon.

As we left, we realized that the shop attached to the restaurant sold its own ginjinha. We had heard so much about ginjinha in Lisbon but hadn’t tried this wonderful cherry liqueur yet. They had two beverage dispensers set up for tastings at 1 euro per sample: one alcoholic version of ginjinha and another non-alcoholic version.

We absolutely had to try it and it was delicious! In fact, it was so good that we bought some to bring back to Lisbon!

Quinta da Regaleira

After lunch, we travelled to Quinta da Regaleira. As this was our last stop, we knew that we could totally relax and truly enjoy it without feeling the need to rush.

En route, Sergio brought us to the Tivoli Palacio de Seteais. While now a hotel, this one time beautiful palace is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of the Cultural Landscape of Sintra. The views from the terrace and looking out towards Pena Palace are just stunning.

Once we arrived at Quinta da Regaleira, Sergio got our tickets and entered with us as our guide.

The Quinta da Regaleira is truly the best thing we did on our daytrip from Lisbon to Sintra! Even the entrance was incredible.

Regaleira Palace

While Quinta da Regaleira is a UNESCO world heritage sight, it is not a part of the Pena Palace group of sights. Originally owned by the Countess of Regaleira, it was purchased in the late 1800s. The new owner developed the property with symbols, statues and buildings meant to reflect his ideologies and beliefs related to masonry, knights templar and others. It had several owners afterwards and was eventually purchased by the town of Sintra.  

Regaleira Chapel

Note that the floor of this Roman Catholic chapel has the armillary sphere and the Order of Christ cross. To find out more about these symbols check out our day in Belem where the Age of the Discoveries started. Our day in Tomar also will provide quite a bit of history on the Templar Knights and the Order of Christ. So fascinating!

Regaleira Park

The park itself is massive. If not for Sergio we would have been lost for sure. He told us stories about the Freemasons and the Knights Templar as we explored turrets, wells and caves. It is such a unique spot.

The kids had such an amazing time here. My wonderful teens turned into kids chasing and running after each other. This place is magical!

Of all these amazing sights, the initiation well was one of our favourite stops. Sergio was great and showed me the best places for photos!

This deep well is more like an inverted tower. It is surrounded by a spiral stone staircase that brings you from top to bottom where you’ll find an incredible decorative base.

We also really enjoyed the small lakes linked by tunnels. There are so many of them. The kids just loved poking through to see what we’d find.

The waterfall lake is stunning and we really enjoyed walking across the stones so that Sergio could try and get a great family photo of us!

After waterfall lake we made our way through other tunnels to the Labyrinthic Grotto. The incredible green covered lake is linked by a series of tunnels that we all loved exploring.

After exploring the Labyrinthic Grotto, Sergio brought us to an incredible little spot that we never would have found on our own. By the exterior walls of the palace grounds, is this amazing set of exquisite tiles. Sergio told us stories about spending his youth in and near the Quinta da Regaleira.

We finally meandered our way to the Regaleira Palace. This is a phenomenally beautiful building! Think to what it would be like to live in this amazing location!

The End to our Day in Sintra

By the time we left Quinta da Regaleira it was on its way to 6pm. We were so tired!! Yet Sergio was like the energizer bunny and was still happy to continue touring. He even offered to bring us to visit Monserrate Palace! Instead, we drove past to just have a look and returned to the train station. Before leaving us, he ran inside to make sure the train would be here soon.

Bottom line: You will never regret spending a day in Sintra. You will experience sights like none you’ve ever seen before and while it would be nice if you could overnight there, if you do a daytrip you can return to Lisbon in time to enjoy one of Lisbon’s amazing restaurants!

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