Sintra is one of the most visited day trips from Lisbon, which is both its appeal and its problem. On a busy spring weekend, the road up to Pena Palace backs up for an hour and the ticket queue adds another. The palace itself is genuinely impressive, all fairytale turrets and vivid ochre and claret paint, but you will spend most of your time shuffling through it shoulder to shoulder with tour groups. There is a better way to do this.
Start early at Quinta da Regaleira (9am)
Trains from Lisbon Rossio run regularly and take around 40 minutes. The first service leaves just after 7am. Aim to be at Quinta da Regaleira when it opens at 9am and you will have the grounds largely to yourself for the first hour. Tickets cost around €10 and cover the full estate including the Initiation Well, a spiralling stone tower that descends underground and connects to a network of tunnels and grottoes. It is strange, theatrical, and completely worth it. By mid-morning the selfie queues at the well get long. Get there first.
Walk the Sintra forest (10:30am)
From Regaleira, head into Parque da Pena on foot rather than taking the shuttle bus. The park covers around 200 hectares of forested hillside and the marked walking trails are well-maintained and largely ignored by day-trippers. I spent a quiet two hours on the green trail last April without seeing more than a dozen other walkers. The entrance to the wider park area is included with a Pena Palace ticket (around €18), or you can buy park-only access for around €7.50. The tree ferns and giant sequoias in the lower sections are genuinely unusual for Europe.
Palácio da Pena: go or skip? (12:30pm)
If you want to see the palace interior, book online in advance and choose the earliest available slot. Without a pre-booked time, expect a wait of one to two hours in peak season. The views from the battlements over the Serra de Sintra are the real reward. If queues are already heavy when you check the app that morning, skip the interior and walk the park walls instead. You see the same views for less money and no waiting.
Lunch in the village (2pm)
Back in the town centre, the main drag is tourist trap territory. Walk two streets back and prices drop noticeably. A simple lunch of grilled fish or a bifana (pork sandwich) with a beer runs around £8 to £12 at the quieter spots. The Adega das Caves on Rua da Pendoa is reliable and does not try to upsell you on a tasting menu.
Botanical Garden of the Palace of Monserrate (3:30pm)
Monserrate is the most overlooked stop in Sintra. The 19th-century palace is beautiful and the gardens, which mix subtropical plants with Moorish architectural details, see a fraction of the visitors that Pena attracts. Entry to the palace and gardens is around €10. It is a 3km walk from the town centre or a short taxi ride. Allow 90 minutes. The last train back to Lisbon leaves Sintra station around midnight, so there is no rush.
Getting there
Return train from Lisbon Rossio costs around £4 to £5. Booking palace tickets online before you travel is not optional in spring. Same-day availability at Pena and Regaleira runs out by mid-morning on weekends.
