How To Get There

I left from Rossio Train Station, in Lisbon’s city centre, where you can catch a train directly to Sintra every 30 minutes (on week days). The journey takes about 40 minutes, with little to see from the window. Single tickets, for those of you not returning to Lisbon, cost just €2.30. Get to the station as early as you can, to beat the group tours. The train station is right next to the bus stop to the castles and a five minute walk from the town centre.

How To Get Around Sintra

The three main attractions of Sintra are Pena Palace, The Castle of the Moors and Quinta da Regaliera. All of which are on the 434 bus route. Catch it from outside the train station, and buy a day ticket from the conductor for €10 (only type available).

There are also tuktuks all over the place for hire, but they can get pricey if you’re not in a group.

| CASTLES & PALACES

So how did little Sintra become the hill kingdom of palaces and a World Heritage UNESCO site?

The Moors’ Castle was built first, in the 9th century by Moroccan Berbers. Next the Pena Palace was constructed around the ruins of a monastery destroyed by the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. At the same time the London Underground was being completed in 1863, work was just starting on the Palace of Monserrate. Eventually, In 1904 construction began on the Quinta da Regaliera along with many other stately homes in the neighbouring hills. As these incredible palaces were built so were smaller extravagant estates for royals and the wealthy, carpeting the surrounding hills and forests, creating the magic of Sintra as we see it today.

Everybody heads straight for Pena Palace, so you could be forgiven for thinking that was the most beautiful attraction. Sintra is in fact, a land of palaces and home to one castle, five palaces and a few smaller palatial estates. The key ones you shouldn’t miss are Pena Palace (the colourful one), The Castle of the Moors (the fortified one) and Quinta da Regaliera Palace (the garden one).

TIP… Buy your tickets in advance with Headout or Get Your Guide to skip the long queues! Plus a 15% discount if you have the Lisboa Card.

| PENA PALACE

The Colourful One

TIP: Arrive as early as humanly possible! Everybody is trying to get there for 9.30am!

Tickets | €7.50 (Adult Entrance to Park & Palace) | Park opens at 9am, Palace opens at 9.30am

Pena is certainly an unusual name for a palace, especially as it translates as ‘The Feather Palace’. But then, this is not a normal palace. The vivid Pena Palace, also known as ‘Adult Disneyland’, was built at the command of King Ferdinand II, who desperately wanted a palace that had as many architectural styles as it did colours. He raised it in the ruins of the Pena Chapel, destroyed by the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. It was stayed in the Royal family until 1910, when Portugal became a republic. The last queen of Portugal, Amélie, spent her final night in Portugal at the palace, before fleeing the country in exile.

King Ferdinand II didn’t complete the castle until the last year of his life, yet his vision lives on, and has inspired other fairytale castles in Europe. It was Pena Palace that inspired King Ludwig to build Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany, which in turn inspired Disney’s famous castle. King Ferdinand’s Pena Palace is now protected as a UNESCO site and is one of ‘The Seven Wonders of Portugal’.

I arrived beneath the palace gates, just a few minutes before 10am. There were other people there, but it was still relatively calm. I was able to walk straight up to the terrace and have a wander, but within 10 minutes, there were crowds everywhere. So many, that I decided to walk around the less crowded courtyards and balconies, but completely gave up on the queue for the upper terraces.

The queue was already at least 80 people long, and you could see that the terraces were filling up with people taking selfies. I ended up laughing to myself, as the best view had actually been cleared as people joined the line, meaning I had it all to myself (photo above left).

The take away is either embrace the crowds or start queuing before the palace has even opened.

TIP: Save some money by buying a ‘Park & Palace’ ticket and not the interior one. Many people I talked too, said the interior hadn’t been worth the money or the queue.

To get away from the crowds, I took myself on a tour of the park, which was much more peaceful, and found some amazing viewpoints. The two most rewarding were the view from Cruz Alta (the High Cross), and Estátua do Guerreiro (the Warrior Statue) – photos below. Some people climbed up onto the cross for a better view, but I felt this is a little disrespectful. Especially, as there are two easily accessible boulders high enough to make excellent miradouros!

If you enjoy bouldering, I really recommend trying to navigate the rocks beneath the Warrior Statue. Between myself and another girl from Holland, we managed to work out a route to the top. If you climb around the back of the rocks, over the tree and climb onto the flattish boulder you have you can have yourself a private picnic and a perfect view of the palace! It is a viewing point and you are meant to climb it, BUT there are zero directions, so go careful on the boulders!

I would recommend exiting the park through the lakes entrance, as this way you can enjoy the downhill walk from the palace, through the tropical fern garden and pass by the ponds.

TIP: If you want to catch the bus back to town, you have to catch it from the main entrance. I found this out after watching many buses go past got very frustrated.

| CASTELO DOS MOUROS

The Castle One

TIP: If you like hiking, you should walk the forest trail to the castle. It’s part of the magic.

Tickets | €8 (Adult Entrance) | Castle opens at 9am

The castle was not only breathtaking, but also the least busy, making it perfect in my mind! I started out late for this one, as it was my first day, and I had just dropped my things at the hostel. I started the walk from the old town centre, at roughly 11.30am, and walked up to the castle by 12.10am. It is a gruelling walk, but I’m glad I walked to at least one of the palaces, and this one has the most enchanting path.

To do the same, start from the centre of the old town, and follow the signs up the road, to what seems like a separate little village. Here you will find the Church of Santa Maria. From there, the zigzagging cobbled path through the forest starts and doesn’t end till you’re at the castle gates. This second half of the walk, winds in-between large boulders and up steps that go on forever, but you will be so proud of yourself for having made it. Coincidently, this walk will train your legs for the rest of your time in Sintra. After completing this 40 minute hike, everything else will seem like a breeze!

Whilst I got to enjoy the walls and the views of Sintra below without the crowds, I would suggest not going at midday as I did (I was impatient to start my castle viewing), as the midday sun is directly above you as you climb the hill, and obviously not the best time for photos.

The castle has a very different vibe to the other palaces, much more peaceful. Possibly, as it is essentially, a fortified walled garden on a mountaintop, and is much older (8th Century) than the other sites. Despite, its obvious age from the palaces means not as much remains of the original construction, none of the magic is lost. King Ferdinand actually restored it during Pena Palace’s construction as a ‘romantic ornament’ for his palace gardens. In my mind, it is much much more than that. I really recommend bringing a picnic and enjoying the shade after your sweaty climb. There is a small, but well stocked cafe within the walls, but you are free to bring your own supplies too.

Click here to see another of Portugal’s impressive castles, in Lisbon.

| QUINTA DA REGALIERA

The Garden One

Tickets | €10 (Adult Entrance to Gardens & Palace) | Gardens & Palace open at 9.30am

For the love of tropical plants alone, this was the one I was most excited to visit, but it became overshadowed by the number of people taking selfies in tight spaces. Do keep in mind, I get grumpy when I’m hot, and I did go too late if I wanted to avoid crowds (2pm). Despite this, the gardens were still magical, and there are always quiet places to be found. The highlights of the garden were the Initiation Well, the Torre da Regaliera which is primed for a re-enactment of Rapunzel and the walkway above the exit. Otherwise, the garden is simply a beautiful place to wander around on a sunny day, you could easily spend hours there.

The Quinta Palace is so full of secrets and hidden tunnels that it would be very tempting to get locked in overnight to explore just a bit more. It was brought to life by an Italian architect, who worked with the owner, Carvalho Monteiro, to build a palace that would be just as shrouded in mystery as the misty forests that circle Sintra. Before long, the house and its owner earned the nickname of “Palace of the Monteiro Millionaire”.

The architect was instructed to include all kinds of grottoes and secret tunnels, embellished with the symbols of the Free Masons, The Knights Templar (bad Nicholas Cage film flashbacks) and dark alchemy! In other words, secretive international brotherhoods, which you become part of via a mysterious initiation process. For a while, initiations were believed to have been carried out in the grounds of Quinta.

It’s all these secret passageways and grottoes which make Quinta Regaleira so exciting to explore. The main draw, is the nearly 30m deep well dug beneath the garden. This twisting subterranean staircase reaches down nine levels, whispered to represent the 9 levels of Dante’s Inferno. If this is true, then any new initiate would have to descend through the 9 levels of Hell, before meeting his brothers at the bottom of the well, where the ritual would take place. At the bottom of the well, you enter stone tunnels splitting off in different directions, leading you out to secret exits, one of which is the waterfall.

Your ticket also gains you entrance to the palace/house itself, which in itself isn’t too special but the outer balcony lets you enjoy a view of the entire garden. You many also be surprised to find the Palace bricks are actually painted on!

| SAVE A FEW DAYS FOR SINTRA OLD TOWN

Click here to read my post on must-sees, food and stays in Sintra.

If you really want to enjoy Sintra, I cannot stress enough how important it is to book a few nights there, and NOT visit as a day trip! The reason being, so many people flock to Sintra from Lisbon every day, that the only way to comfortably get ahead of the crowds is to start your day early from Sintra. The evidence is clear, arriving as little as 30 minutes early to Pena Palace can make the difference between just walking in, and queuing for 2 hours (no exaggeration). It also means, you can enjoy gazing up at the castles in the evening from your room or cafe table, as the lights turn on and all the tourists have left. *mini rant over*

If you have time to spare, there are also other palaces and estates to visit. Such as, the Park and Palace of Monserrate, which combines Portuguese, Moroccan and Indian architecture in to its design. The overall effect is so otherworldly, writers and artists have visited for centuries, including Lord Byron. Another unusual attraction, is the Cappuchos Convent (Named after the friar who founded it, not the monkeys). Isolated in the Serra de Sintra National Park, it’s definitely one to save for a separate day trip.

| MORE TO EXPLORE DOWN THE COAST

Click here to read my post on must-sees, food and stays in Sintra.

If you are looking for somewhere to travel on to, check out Cascais, Azenhas do Mar or Peniche and the Berlenga Islands.