[Travel Blog] Sintra, Portugal — Hannah & Christopher

Day trip in Sintra

If you love extravagant palaces, luxurious mansions and the ruins of an ancient castle, Sintra makes a great tourist destination when you visit Lisbon. Just a 45 minute train ride away, we decided to make a day out of it! One thing we do have to mention though, even though Sintra is filled with rich historic buildings, gardens and palaces, you won’t be able to see everything in one day.

Travel around Sintra with an electric car

Here is a tip when visiting Sintra. Since its a very popular tourist spot, traveling around Sintra via public transit (bus) can be a hassle. You will spend most of the day waiting in line and you will be crammed in a bus with lots of other tourists. Renting a car can be an alternative option but parking around in these points of interest can be an issue. When we were planning, we didn’t give it much thought either and decided to do the simple way which was to go to the two most popular palaces with public transit - Quinta de Regaleria and Pena Palace. But just a day before going, we found out you can rent a small electric car with a talking GPS that will guide you through the main attractions of Sintra. It gives us more time, freedom and places to visit. We went with the company LAS tours Sintra (it’s just across the train station behind the stairs). The electric car is a compact 2 seater vehicle that has doors that goes up like a lambo (lol). It doesn’t go as fast as a standard car but what’s good about this is that parking is never an issue since it’s so small. Operating the vehicle was easy as the staff explained everything in detail, suggested places that’s worth visiting and was so kind to provide us a blanket in case it got windy (it has no side windows). They also provided a phone number in case you get lost or get into an accident.

Palace Quinta da Regaleira

Our first destination was the infamous Quinta da Regaleira. It’s classified as World Heritage by UNESCO and was built at the end of the 19th century in the spirit of romanticism. The property consists of palaces, chapels, fountains, wells, parks, gardens and grottoes. With our limited time, we couldn’t see everything but we definitely visited the “Initiation wells” which you can walk down and go through the grotto and to the garden. Everywhere we went, you can see everything was maintained well, especially the flowers, which made the experience so much more elegant!

Entrance fee: 6 euros, 12 euros for guided tour

Park and Palace of Monserrate

Our second stop was the Park and Palace of Monserrate. It was another huge property mostly filled with gardens. We only went to the palace and it was one of the most surprising and interesting spot of all palaces and castles. The design of the architecture was also influenced by romanticism with neo-gothic elements. The corridor and main hall dome were most impressive with its intricate designs and details. The stairwell was also designed with marble structure decorated with ivy leaved pattern - all hand-crafted as well!

Entrance fee: 8 euros

Cabo Da Roca

During our drive, that was when the wind really hit us. It was breezy but still cold in the June weather. After a 20 minute drive, we had reached Cabo da Roca (Cape Roca) which is the most westernpoint of Sintra/Europe. The coast has sandy beaches and rocky cliffs as high as 100 metres.

Entrance fee: FREE

Convent of the Capuchos

We drove back in-land and reached the Convent of the Capuchos (also known as Cork Convent). This minimalist and tiny convent was built in 1560s and what was interesting was that the windows and doors were coated with cork which was the traditional material of Portugal. This place was named the “Cork Convent” because the cork from the oaks on the grounds was used as insulation.

Entrance fee: 7 euros

Moorish Castle

Next, we had arrived at the Morrish Castle. This military fort was built in the 10th century by the Muslim population that occupied the Iberian peninsula. It acted as a control tower for the Atlantic coast and an outpost for the city of Lisbon. Walking towards the entrance gate, there were beautiful, colourful and well-maintained hydrangea amongst other flowers. Entering in the castle, we saw the history of the Portuguese flags hanging on multiple towers. There was one that also interested us which was the green Sintra flag written in Arabic characters which symbolized the origin of the castle. Once we trekked our way to the top of the tower, we were rewarded with the gorgeous panoramic view over Sintra - including Cabo da Roca, Palace of Monserrate, National Palace of Sintra and the infamous red and yellow Pena Palace!

Entrance fee: 8 euros

Palace of Pena

Just a 10 minute walk away, we arrived at the infamous and ultimate crown jewel of Sintra - Pena Palace. This romantic, vibrant and multi-tiered architecture definitely outshines Germany’s Neuschwanstein Castle which we went to. At this point, it was already 6:30pm and most of the crowd already cleared out. There were plenty to explore in the castle but because we arrived late, most of the areas were closed. We were pretty bummed out but at least the palace was less busy and we had a good opportunity to take some photos without crowds of people.

Entrance fee: 7.50 euros/14 euros for the full palace and garden

Tascantiga

After we had returned the car, we desperately went to look for food (since we didn’t stop for lunch). We went to a restaurant called Tascantiga and it served yummy tapas and great wine which priced reasonably well. Chris and I ordered the Portuguese port wine and Lisboa rosé and it lived up to its expectations. Our server also recommended us some dishes which was surprisingly delicious. I am not sure if it was because we were hungry but it was definitely an unforgettable meal.

Final Thoughts

After a full day of exploring Sintra, we were just physically drained. When we rented the car, the staff of LAS tour said we had 5 hours and we should simply pick 2-3 destinations that we really wanted to go explore. We somehow made the mistake of exploring Quinta da Regaleira for 2 hours! We then made a couple more stops along the way because we were just so excited to see everything. Knowing we were not going to make it back in time, we simply kept going. After we came back, we had the rental car for 9 hours! Luckily, the staff was kind enough to just charge us a full day instead of extra hours.

Overall, the most fun I had that day were to visit Moorish Castle (although climbing up and down was exhausting). It felt surreal to be in an actual medieval castle and the views were amazing. The most impressive in terms of design would definitely be the Palace of Monserrate. It was small but because it has less tourists, it felt very peaceful and elegant. Pena Palace was nice but I think because pictures of the castle was shown everywhere, it took away the element of surprise. Sintra was fun! But if you want to see everything, plan for a couple of days so you can explore with ease! :)