Sintra in a Day From Lisbon: A Complete DIY Guide

Stunning Sintra with its fairy-tale castles, estates and gardens should be on your to-do list while in Lisbon. It’s one of the most beautiful places in Portugal. You can get from central Lisbon to Sintra within 40 minutes by train, and a Sintra day trip from Lisbon is easy to do for independent travellers.

Sintra served as a mountain retreat for Portuguese royals and as a result, is now a UNESCO World Heritage site of castles, palaces, mansions and gardens. As rich people do, these aristocrats tried to outdo each other which can be seen in the over the top buildings and gardens.

Sintra is quite spread out and it has so many different castles and mansions to see. So if you are only here on a day trip, you’d better choose two as it will be madness to try and see it all in a single day. We decided to see Pena Palace and Quinta da Regaleira, which took up most of the day of our trip to Sintra.

Also, if visiting in summer, as we did, brace yourself for crowds. We live in China and dare we say that the Sintra crowds are on par with what we know in China. These palaces and gardens are truly magnificent though, and we can understand that everyone wants to see them.

Make sure to include Sintra on your Portugal trip, as it’s quite sublime.

How to get to Sintra from Lisbon

We visited Sintra during our 4 days in Lisbon. Trains leave regularly (about 4 an hour) from Rossio station in central Lisbon. Before going we had to decide whether to get the Lisboa Card for 4 days, or 3 days and then get the Viva Viagem Card (AKA Sintra Pass) for our day trip. Jin crunched the numbers and in the end, it makes more sense to get the Sintra pass before or after getting the Lisboa Card.

The Lisboa Card only gives you free transportation to and from Sintra. This means that you’d be paying for a whole day’s worth of Lisboa Card while you will not be in Lisbon to use it.

So, go to the ticket counter at Rossio Station and get yourself a Viva Viagem card (Sintra pass). This gives you free return transport on the train, as well as rides on the buses in Sintra. You will still need to buy entrance tickets for the sights in Sintra, though.

If you’re looking for a transportation and entrance fee combo, the handy Lisbon-Sintra Pass includes transportation between Lisbon and Sintra, as well as entrance to Pena Palace and Castle of the Moors.

With the Viva Viagem card, you simply scan when getting on, and you can hop on and off as many times as you want. The cost of the Sintra Pass is € 15.50. This basically gives you free transportation for the whole day in Sintra. You will need to pay entrance fees to the sights in Sintra on top of this.

If using your Lisboa Card, you will still have to pay for the buses in Sintra. Using the Lisboa Card in Sintra is a false economy. It is however quite good if exploring only Lisbon.

The sights in Sintra are spread out over a large, hilly area so don’t think that you can walk from the station to the palaces. Pena Palace is 5 km up a steep hill away from the Sintra station. Trust us, you do not want to walk there.

How to get around Sintra

Buses leave from in front of the station. There are several colour-coded routes that don’t necessarily connect the places that you want to see. In this case, you’ll need to complete the loop back to the station before getting on another bus.

Bus 434 will take you from Sintra station to Pena Palace. To get to Quinta da Regaleira you can take Bus 435. Bus 435 is a small minivan and the stop is a little harder to find. The bus stop for bus 435 is across the road from that of 434 in the parking area

Pena Palace

Colourful Pena Palace is the most iconic sight in Sintra, and one of the most visited sights in Portugal. The yellow, red and blue tiles, turrets and domes are straight out of a fairy tale. Sitting right on top of the highest hill in Sintra, the setting and colours are astonishing.

We really like how the palace is a mishmash of themes, elements and textures. From spikes to domes, from plain to way over the top. The palace itself and the surrounding gardens make for a stunning backdrop for your photos…if you can angle out the thousands of visitors.

As one of the most popular landmarks to visit in Portugal, Pena Palace gets incredibly busy. Save yourself a lot of time and get your skip-the-line entry tickets before coming here. Or stand in line for at least an hour…it’s your choice.

Entrance fee:
€ 7.50 for the Palace exterior and gardens
€ 14 for the Palace interior and garden
Hours: 10:00-18:00

Quinta da Regaleira

This mystical Garden of Eden is another highlight of your day trip to Sintra. Spread over the hillsides of Sintra, this Quinta (estate) is all about the gardens. You’ll see and climb over and under towers, wells, fountains and grottoes as you walk through this spectacular garden.

Excentric owner António Augusto Carvalho Monteiro, or ‘Monteiro the Millionaire’, spared no expense in turning his summer palace into never-never land. While the layout is carefully planned, plants are left to grow as they please. It seems as if the lushness almost swallow up the structures in the garden.

The big draw (and long line) here is the initiation wells or inverted towers. The true purpose of these wells is unknown, but some suggest it might have a connection to Masonic and Templar Knights initiation rights. The well contains 9 levels which also refers to Dante’s 9 circles of hell.

Entrance fee: € 8

Sintra Day Trip: The Short & Sweet

Incredibly beautiful but incredibly busy ( we went at the end of July). Like almost anywhere it’s possible to avoid the crowds by wandering off in another direction for a while. Or just wait a bit. Tourists come and go in swarms, so you might have a small gap to get your perfect picture.

Sintra is a stunning day trip from Lisbon though, despite the crowds. People flock here for a reason: SINTRA IS A KNOCKOUT! It’s pretty hard not to be impressed by these fairy tale castles and gardens.

Your turn: Which place did you like most in Sintra. Tell us in the comments below.