Sintra, Portugal: Take a Day Trip From Lisbon

Sintra, Portugal is located 45 minutes outside of Lisbon. Take a quick train ride to get to this amazing area of Portugal. Don’t wait in long lines… try visiting Sintra as we did!

Gina and Logan in front of a cream colored mansion in Sintra Portugal

These are phrases that we heard from every single friend that had ever visited Portugal:

You must go to Sintra….

Don’t you dare miss Sintra when you visit Portugal!!

You’d be disappointed if you go all the way to Portugal and NOT go to Sintra!!!

There are not many things that blow us away, but the day we spent in Sintra (while we were visiting Lisbon) was one of the best days we have spent traveling.

What we learned however is that we did Sintra the RIGHT way, while others did it the WRONG way; and we didn’t even know we had done it the right way until we returned to Lisbon!

Colorful Castle
Pena Palace

We were under the impression that Sintra was a small area, that had one colorful castle within that area and you could see the town in a few hours.

Sintra is MUCH more than that.

Sintra is known for its Romantic 19th-century historical monuments, as it was the summer retreat for Portuguese royalty years ago.

It houses palaces, hiking trails, gardens, a convent, and a Moorish castle. You can also visit the most westernmost point of Europe overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

There are two ways to visit Sintra in a few hours:

The Wrong Way

  • Buy your train ticket on the morning of
  • Wait in line for up to an hour for the city bus
  • Only see the Palacio National de Sintra (Colorful castle)
  • Wait in line for up to another hour for the city bus
  • Leave after 4 hours of barely scratching the surface of Sintra
Woman jumping

The Right way

  • Buy your train ticket in Lisbon the day before to avoid long lines
  • Rent a small vehicle/ electric bike/ mode of transportation to take you around
  • Explore Quinta Da Regaleria, the 4 palaces, the Convent, and the Moorish castle
  • Drive along the coast to see 3 main picture spots, including the most western point of Portugal

Before heading north to Sintra, we asked the staff at our hostel to give us a basic idea of what to see and do.

Luckily, they told us not to miss the Quinta Da Regaleria and that the lines for the buses would be very long. We are forever grateful that we listened to them.

How Do You Get The Most Out Of Your Sintra Day Trip?

Full view of Sintra
The view from the Pena Palace overlooking Sintra

To get to Sintra, take a train, avoid driving

If you drive, parking will be hard to find. Take the one-hour train from Lisbon to Sintra. The train is clean and comfortable and costs €4.80 for a round-trip ticket.

Buy your ticket the day before

Don’t make the mistake of purchasing your tickets the day of, and ending up missing the train time you want to take due to the long lines at the station. If you are staying in the city center, walk over to the Rossio train station and buy your tickets the day before, you will thank us later.

Forget about taking the city bus in Sintra

There will be very long lines at the city bus terminal.  Stop at Go Sintra to rent an electric car.

The Go Sintra staff inputs all the must-see locations into your Google Maps, provides you with a mi-fi (so your WIFI works on your smartphone), and even checks in on you every few hours to see how everything is going.

There are also jeeps, electric bikes, and other modes of transportation you can rent. They offer multiple routes you can choose from. We opted for the route that took us to 3 locations, as well as the coast.

We had to stop and charge the car mid-way through, but that was when we ate lunch so it wasn’t a problem. There are shorter routes you can take, that will not force you to charge the vehicle.

Gina and Logan in a small car in Sintra
Our ride for the day

Costs

Each location has an admission fee to enter, ranging from €15 – €25. We opted to see the Quinta Da Regaleira, the grounds of Palacio Nacional de Sintra, and the Moorish Castle and spent time driving along the coast to explore the beaches. The car was €110.

Schedule

First, tour the grounds of Quinta da Regaleira which is a maze of trails to get lost in, beautifully crafted buildings, and caves to explore.

Quinta Da Regaleira, white castle
Quinta da Regaleira palace

Next, drive to the beach for some lunch and breathtaking views. There are three different stops along the coast, at two of the stops you can put your toes in the sand, and the third is the westernmost point in Europe located on a cliff.

Selfie of Gina and Logan in front of a colorful building

Last, you have a few options. You can go to the Pena Palace (colorful palace) which has a sprawling garden that surrounds the grounds. There is a fee to enter the grounds, and a fee to enter the castle. But the lines can be very long to get into the castle (as of 2024), so you may want to opt to see another location. We opted to see the Moorish castle instead which was a lot of walking upstairs, but it has amazing views.

Once we returned to Lisbon that day, we learned that our fellow housemates took the train, and waited for the city bus an hour each way, just to only see Pena Palace!

The total time they spent in Sintra was six hours and they saw only one of the many beautiful sites to see.

Sintra is too beautiful for words.

Gina sitting on a cliff looking at the Atlantic Ocean
The Westernmost Point of Europe

We spent 7 hours in Sintra, visited 5 sites, ate a delicious lunch, and even had a chance to put our feet in the ocean!

Follow our plan, take as many pictures as possible, and you will be VERY happy, trust us!

Sintra is for individuals, couples, teens, families, and even the young at heart. No matter what age, you will be sure to enjoy Sintra!

If you would like to spend more then one day in Sintra, check out the Chalet Saudade. It is a beautiful Vintrae guest house in the heart on Sintra and near public transport.

Check out the map below to see where we went!

sintra portugal day trip

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14 thoughts on “Sintra, Portugal: Take a Day Trip From Lisbon”

  1. Hi guys, great review.
    I agree with you, that is the right way to visit it.

    Just two small mistakes:
    Quinta Da Regaleria, instead of… Regaleira (just a typo at the top)

    Palacio Nacional de Sintra is not the colorful palace, that is the one in the village, quite white in fact. The colorful one is Palacio Nacional da Pena.

    Reply
  2. Followed your direction on how to do Sintra and have to say we regretted it! I think this is the most expensive (45 Euro p/p), most uncomfortable way to do Sintra. Agreed with catching train and buying ticket day before but the rest no way. There are so many options once you get to Sintra, buses, tuk tuks, cute hire cars.

    The thing I hated most was the lack off flexibilty. Even if you wanted to skip some sites you still had to follow the route and visit anyway, and if you veered off course at all due to slow map refresh they text you. Not to mentionthe stress at the end of the day as the power level was dropping on your electrical “double pram” despite following all instructions about not breaking down hill etc.

    Sintra is great, the cost was blah with expensive restsurants.

    In future a few more details like cost would have been helpful ( 45 euro = $AUD180.) Pretty rude for a poor experience.

    Reply
    • That is unfortunate that you had a poor experience. The three times I have gone, having the electric car was by far the best experience. Parking is a nightmare there and yes, it is more expensive than other options, but I value my time way more than money and stress. Not really sure why you had to follow a specific route, we just drove around to each spot and decided right then and there if we wanted to see it or not, it was 100% flexible, way better then waiting for an hour for the bus to get you around. To each your own I guess!

      Reply
  3. Hi,
    Nice article. after doing some research we decided to stay a nt. next to Regaleira Castle . *6 min walk . Thinking of Ebike Day 1 visit Pena, Rega and Moorish castle..Enjoy grounds surrounding area etc. as a full Day 1 No rush as we have a hotel close by . Hoping awesome sunset over Castle 8) . Day 2 get the E_ car see some other castles, mansions etc on way to coastline ride. I was wondering what your thoughts were on this and any input on parking or restaurants bar etc. along coast. Also was insurance extra when u got Ecar? thanks for help. Best Wishes, Bill

    Reply
    • Hi Bill, thanks so much! This is a great plan, you will really love it. There weren’t a ton of spots to eat on the beach, and there are also about 4 stops, plus the food at one of the locations didn’t look that great, I think you are better off planning to eat “downtown” the small strip in Sintra of restaurants. Parking was fine, we found spots everywhere we went but we also had that tiny car :). Insurance was not extra, everything was included. Have a great time!!

      Reply
    • I would go get the Top 10 Portugal book by DK, its honestly the only book I use. Stay in Lisbon for a few days, then Porto (rent a car), then the Algarve region. You will love it!

      Reply
  4. I think it’s awesome that you posted this article and shared your experiences and photos! I agree, Sintra is a must see!!! I visited Sintra and am returning again this month. I’m glad you mentioned to visit Quinta da Regaleira first. I took a train from Lisbon, visited the shops in the city center, went to Palacio da Pena (and spent a lot of time there) and then went I went to visit Quinta Da Regaleira, it had just closed! It closes around 5:00-5:30pm, whereas the Palacio da Pena closes around 7:30pm. I had to make a return trip the next day to see Quinta da Regaleira.

    Reply
    • It’s so amazing there, and I am sad that we only had one day to see it all so luckily we got a lot in with that tiny car! Well worth the money spent.

      Reply

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