Our Portugal & Andalucia Trip
Lisbon | Sintra | Lagos | Seville | Granada | Ronda | Cordoba
The picturesque beauty of Pena National Palace and the roaming, rugged Moorish Castle make Sintra the perfect day trip for visitors to Lisbon.
With seven hours, we were also able to take a gorgeous forested hike down to the town center, and visit the eclectic and playful Gothic gardens of the Quinta da Regaleira (though we didn’t have nearly enough time there).
In early November, the weather was wet and romantic. I wore nice rubber boots but was still covered in mud from all the hiking, and grateful for a waterproof coat and umbrella.
Getting there from Lisbon:
A train runs about every 30 minutes from the Rossio Station in Lisbon to Sintra, takes 40 minutes, and can be paid for with the reloadable Viva Viagem card, if you used other public transportation in Lisbon.
We took the 8 am train to make sure we were there as early as possible. So did everyone else! This is going to be crowded no matter how you dice it, as tour groups flood the morning hours and if you come any later, you cut yourself short on time to experience everything.
Our greatest decision was hailing a cab from the Sintra train station to take us to the Pena Palace. It was inexpensive, fast (I mean, really, really fast — these guys do this trip all day and know every swerve in the road), and we beat everyone waiting for the buses.
Order of Sights:
To minimize backtracking up hills, see the sights in this order: Pena Palace, walk down the street to Castelo dos Mouros (Moorish Castle), then walk into town via the beautiful Vila Sassetti hiking trail. From the end of the trail, Quinta da Regaleira is a short (but steep) ten-minute walk to your left.
Pena National Palace
Book your tickets online in advance. If you’d like to tour the residential interior of the palace, which I’d recommend if it’s not peak season when the lines get lengthy, opt for the Park and Palace ticket. You’ll hop in line at the gate here, get scanned in, and then hike uphill about ten minutes to the entrance. It’s steep but manageable, and a better option if possible for you than waiting in the big lines for the bus.
Once you’re in, it’s playtime. This beautiful, decorative mishmash of architecture styles under King Ferdinand’s creative vision incorporates some distinctly Portuguese Romanticism along with tiles, a clock tower, and lavish rooms used by the royal family in the summer.
The palace interior is the only ticketed section once you are inside the grounds. We went straight here when it opened and did not wait in line, but spied a big wait in the afternoon that later cleared out again. If it’s busy, try again. There’s lots to explore in the meantime.
Castelo dos Mouros (Moorish Castle)
By this point in our day the rain had settled in, a runic mist that hung over the moss-flecked spine of fortifications winding up and over the forested hillside, and wrapped against wind and water, we trekked the castle walls scouting for invaders in the fog like soldiers of old.
The Moorish Castle is just a quick walk downhill from Pena Palace, on the right side. There is a forested approach before you reach the ruins.
Vila Sassetti Trail
Rather than ride back down into the city center, we were pleased with this gorgeous nature trail. We had a couple of false starts trying to find the trailhead, so be sure to follow directions: Once you exit the Moorish Castle, take a right on the road and walk until you hit the “Lakes Exit” of the Pena Palace (referred to here as Bilheteira do Parque da Pena). You’ll see a sign for the Vila Sassetti trail with a hiker on it, and a parking lot on your right. Walk to the back of the long parking lot to start the hike.
The trail takes about 30 minutes and winds near the walls of the Moorish Castle near huge boulders used for rock-climbing, through forests and finally by the exterior gardens of a pretty villa.
Quinta da Regaleira
This intriguing estate is a bit of a Gothic playground, with its own gargoyle-studded palace and park full of green lagoons, waterfalls, dark cave tunnels and the famous Initiation Well, the photogenic swirling spiral staircase designed with Tarot mysticism and grown over with lush green moss.
We squeezed this in before catching a train back to Sintra, as we were on a tight schedule to pick up our bags in the Rossio Station, transfer to Entrecampos and head out to our night’s stay on the coast of the Algarve. Unfortunately, this meant we only had a half hour to explore and it was certainly not enough. Thank goodness we had the sense to hail a tuk-tuk for the ride down to the train station, or we would have thrown everything off. After all the walking in the rain, the last ride through Sintra in the comfort of the tuk-tuk was worth the price.
I’d recommend somewhere to eat, but we didn’t eat 🙁 The one restaurant we tried for lunch wasn’t accepting any more diners, and we had to make a decision to wander through Quinta da Regaleira or scrounge for a quick bite. Sightseeing won the contest, and I destroyed a hearty bifana (Portuguese pork sandwich) back in Lisbon before our next train.
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