• Day 01 : Quinta da Regaleira and Palácio de Monserrate
• Day 02 : Palàcio da Pena
Due to its History and location, Sintra always attracted the nobles and the wealthy bourgeois. This area now offers a variety of palaces and castles, each shining with their very own style.
Good to know before going :
• Sintra is located just 45min away by train from Lisbon.
• It’s a very touristic place, make sure to book your visits in advance and arrive early on site.
• Some Castle and Palace are pretty far away from the city center, make sure to check buses schedule or you can also rent a electric or a bicycle (for the sporty ones ! 🚴♀️ )
• Clearly 2 days was too short ! If you really want to have time to properly enjoy Sintra and discover all castles and palaces, You should plan on staying longer than that.
Day 01 : Quinta da Regaleira and Palàcio de Monserrate
Since it’s really close from Lisbon, we arrived in the morning using public transports. After checking in at our stay, we went to Go2Sintra to rent an electric car for the day. It might be the best idea we ever had. Plus there are free parkings near almost all castles’ entrances.
⚡️ADVICE ⚡️
All the castles and palaces are spread hectares from each other. Even though buses are going around, those might be crowded and their schedules might not match with yours. Make sure to prepare your road map in advance to enjoy the most once you’re on site. 🙌
Quinta da Regaleira : Gorgeous castle and awesome gardens. I wanted to visit this one especially because of the famous “Stairs to hell”. Which is a circular staircase to indoor pathways.
Actually, those caves were a way to keep fresh air and prevent you from the heat. Great to visit during summer. ❄️🔥
Palàcio de Monserrate : Awesomely beautiful gardens. This Villa, built in Arabic style is also composed of 143 hectares of gardens, which made it the most extravagant garden in Sintra. You’ll find hundreds of pants, from european forest to tropical plants and even desert cactus.
🌿 FUN FACT 🌿
The lawn was imported from England, making this garden the first typical english lawn throughout Portugal when it was planted. (in the 19th century)
After these two places, we drove back to the city center with our electric car and we ended the day with delicious Portuguese tapas at Tascantiga .
Day 02 : Palàcio da Pena
The Palàcio da Pena, the famous colorful castle ! Obviously I wanted to visit this one too. To avoid the crowd, we choose to arrive a little bit before opening hours. We also choose to go up there on our own, to avoid expenses. Once again, the early bird got the worm ! There were barely 15 people with us, entering the park at the same time. We were able to enjoy the outside of the castle without anybody else. The view is incredible, the weather was pretty clear and we were even able to sight el Cristo Rei in Lisbon. Once we were done, literally buses of tourists were arriving ! (around 10am). It was time to leave the castle, main part of the park, but not the least. We walked in the park, up to the Cruz Alta (you’ll have to climb rocks a little bit if you really want to enjoy the view from it). Then we spent the rest of the morning strolling in the gardens under tree shades.
☀️ ADVICE ☀️
It takes about 1h/1h30 by foot to reach the entrance from the city center. We basically followed the main roads. There is also a path that goes through the forest and which offers a view on the Castelo dos Mouros. We choose to take this path to go back to the city. I recommend doing it that way, the main road to go up is quicker and the forest track can be tricky. There are more signs on the way to go down, plus you’ll be able to enjoy the view while walking. So main road to go up and forest path to go back to Sintra city center.
After visiting this gorgeous castle and its park, we had just enough time to grab a snack from Casa piriquita (they bake famous queijada, which is a type of sweet prepared using cheese, eggs, milk, and sugar. 😋 )
After that *Spoiler alert*, it was time to leave for Porto (our next stop). 📍
From France to everywhere 