Palacio da Pena, one of the most popular tourist attractions in all of Portugal, sits at the top of a steep hill in the city of Sintra roughly 30 km Northwest of Lisbon. This spectacular palace is one of several must-see locations in a city that is described as out of a fairytale with it’s classic examples of Romanticism architecture, lush vibrant gardens, and medieval ruins. This post describes our day trip and some suggestions to get the most out of your time in this incredible spot, however it does not detail Sintra in all it’s grandness as to do that one would need more than 10 hours in this charming city.

I typically struggle to wake up early, especially during Winter months when the sun doesn’t even rise until 7:30am. Which is why waking up to take the train at 7:40am from Lisbon to Sintra to arrive in the town by 8:20am was challenging. But it became quickly worth it as we were able to glimpse the sun rise over St. Jorge Castle before catching our train that was 5euros round trip to the city. Upon getting into town, there were taxis, tuk tuk’s and old style cars waiting outside of the station to carry passengers up the steep hill to the Palacio da Pena. The park opens at 9am and we had tickets for opening of the palace doors at 9:30am. We called an Uber instead from the train station, which was much cheaper than other options and were some of the first people in line as the Uber also moved much quicker than other forms of transportation. It is exceptionally worth it to be some of the first people in line. Here’s why- if you are first in line to the park, you will likely also be first in line at the palace doors as it’s a short 10-15 min walk uphill to the palace’s doorstep. The route around the historic palace insides is a one way path, meaning that if you find yourself in a position to be first into the palace itself, you can stay as some of the first people throughout the entirety of your trip to the palace. This means pictures without crowds of people in the way, and clear viewing for all plaques and artifacts.

We had a small breakfast of coffee and pastry at the Palacio da Pena cafe which offered scenic views of Castelo dos Mouros, our next destination. To get there, we walked through the spectacular outdoor gardens known as Parque da Pena, which were full of moss, small ponds, and shady outcrops of rock. Because of the vastness of the garden space and number of small trails cutting through the larger pathways, it was not clear even on the map the most direct way to get from garden highlights like the Chalet da Condessa to the closest gate to the main entrance of the Castelo dos Mouros. But with some determination and a little google maps help, we found our way to the main road, trekking back up a little to the entrance. Castelo dos Mouros is different than Palacio da Pena for the obvious reasons of it’s appearance and history, but for itinerary building purposes, it’s relevant to note that the castle does not have a timed entry like the palace and does not have a one way route through like the palace. I would still recommend buying your ticket in advance to save time at the entrance, but it is not as critical to get to the castle first thing since there will be crowds no matter what. We looped around the exterior route of the castle, hiking up to it’s highest viewpoint which is situated with the Palacio da Pena in the background.

Although it had seemed from Ubering up the hill that morning that the route was extraordinaryily long, it did not actually take us much time to walk town to the historic town from the Castelo dos Mouros. And since the walk was still through the park, we were able to continue to get beautiful views of the city and surrounding landscapes as we hiked. Arriving in town around lunch time, we decided to eat at Bacalhau na Vila, with an incredible menu all centered around the popular Portuguese fish, Cod. Since ordering was Tapas style, we were able to taste a little bit from a variety of their dishes, but some standouts were the spinach and cream soup, codfish a bras style, and their pastel de la vila de bacalao ( a codfish take on the famous pastel de nata). The soup was so memorable that throughout the rest of the trip we were comparing other soups back to this one.

We spent the afternoon exploring the palacio Nacional de Sintra, which is known as the best preserved medieval palace in Portugal and peaking in and out of several shops in the town center that sold unique hand-made goods.

As I wrap up what our Sintra Day Trip had in store of us, as our weary feet brought us back to the train around 4pm to arrive back in Lisbon before sunset, I again must emphasize that Sintra could be done over a course of several days. Some other Sintra highlights you might wish to consider for your trip are the Quinta da Regaleira and one of Sintra’s extraordinary beaches such as praia da Ursa.