Everything you need to know before visiting Sintra from Lisbon

Nestled in the hills of Serra de Sintra, the charming town of Sintra stands. Here’s our advice on how to get from Lisbon to Sintra, how to spend your day and other trinkets of tips.

So you’re in Lisbon, either have spent a few days already or just getting started. Read over our tips on traveling through Lisbon here. For now, let’s focus on a day trip to Sintra.

How to get to Sintra from Lisbon

Your trip to Sintra should undeniably start off with a little bit of planning. Think of it this way, every Lisbon visitor is going to make that same trek, so how can I plan your trip more efficiently? The first answer is to simply be prepared and buy your train ticket from Lisbon to Sintra early. Now, this can easily be just the night before.

There are two main stations that offer direct routes to Sintra: Rossio and Oriente. The Rossio Railway Station is in the heart of the city center and much more convenient for travelers. Both routes are quite fast, the trip from Rossio is just under an hour.

So what do you do when you reach Sintra? This part was absolutely overwhelming. We figured leaving Lisbon around 9 in the morning and reaching Sintra at 10 am would be decent. Wrong. Hundreds of tourists poured out of the Sintra train station, all with one goal: to get to the Palácio Nacional da Pena. We suggest leaving Lisbon at 7:30 am, arriving to Sintra at 8:30 am and making your way to Pena by 9:00 am. Depending on the time of year the palace will open at either 9;30 am or 10:00 am.

How to beat the hundreds of people heading to the same place? You really don’t. The locals are quite aware of the popularity of this gem and provide a designated tourist bus: Bus 434. The station is just a few steps outside of the Sintra Train Station. You just follow the crowd, get in line and purchase your ticket while you wait to board. Make sure to pay for a roundtrip ticket so you don’t have to worry about it on the way back.

Where does Bus 434 go? The bus operates in a loop. It connects the station, the historic center of Sintra, and the massive hill where both the Pena Palace and the Moors Castle are located. Remember, the bus operates as a hop-on, hop-off bus but only in one direction, there is no backtracking. The bus makes several stops before reaching the Palace, including stopping at the Moors Castle first. If you want to see the Pena Palace first thing in the morning, do so and then just walk back down to the Moors Castle. From there, you can hop on the bus to get you back to the city center and the train station.

Let me just tell you this now in case you’re feeling creative. At first glance you’ll be tempted to just walk over to the Palace instead of riding the bus, don’t be tempted. That drive is really, I mean really, steep. We can’t imagine how much time it would take to get the top just to wait in another line to actually enter the palace. The bus ride from the station to the palace took around 20 minutes. Pro tip: Buy your Pena Palace tickets here ahead of time to skip the line (and you can thank me later). Make sure to purchase a ticket for both the park and palace!

Tour Pena Palace. I’m sure you all have already seen the photos of this magnificent place, so not much description is needed here. It seemed like everything in Sintra needed some sort of public transport, which was nice as the hills had quite the incline. As you enter the palace quarters, you’ll be greeted by a visitor’s center, entrance to the park and  yet another little bus station.

Why the second bus? The Palace itself is at very tip of the hill, another hike upwards. The Pena bus has its own ticket, for a small fee, but surely cuts down walking time. Now you get to the palace and there’s ANOTHER line to actually get in. This was honestly so disappointing, at this point the trip felt hectic. Between the train, the buses, the waiting, but in the end, it was all worth it – see for yourself!

There’s a nice little café in the Palace that serves as a resting point. The terrace overlooks the Sintra region and the vast forest. The Palace itself is indescribable, truly. We couldn’t stop taking photos of the intricate structures, the vibrant colors . . . I mean the darn thing is so picturesque.

Wrap up at Pena and do what we didn’t do. Head over to the Castelo dos Mouros or Moors Castle and Quinta da Regaleira. We hear they’re both stunning!

You can also take a break in city center first, then explore Quinta da Regaleira. Here are some things to see in the center. Right in the middle is the National Palace of Sintra overlooking the town’s hills. You can do a tour inside or just enjoy the views from the terrace.

You can always bet that we’ll end up in a small town with narrow cobblestone roads. Just follow the side streets and get lost in town. As you can imagine Sintra welcomes hundreds of thousands of tourists a year, and the downtown area serves travelers well.  You’ll be greeted by restaurants and shops galore.

What we wished we knew before heading to Sintra is that there’s a lot more to do than just visiting Pena Palace. Frankly, we would have liked to spend the night in Sintra, explore the castles and palaces and tack on a half-day trip to the nearby coast town Cascais. But we’re saving that for our next trip!

Here’s more on our trip through Portugal, a massive guide on favorite things to do in Porto, the unmissable city of Lagos in Portugal’s Algarve and of course, a trip guide to visiting Lisbon.

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