Sintra - Step Outside Lisbon For A Day
Outside the hustle and bustle of Lisbon, Portugal, sits the picturesque little town of Sintra. It is home to castles, monasteries, and other historic homes turned museum. Chalet Biester, a mansion in Sintra even hosted Hollywood in the late 90's as the set for Johnny Depp's The Ninth Gate. It is a little town where 3 [1] million tourists visit a year with tourism peaking between June and August. If you would like to avoid the crowds, try visiting during the slow season from November to March.
Ways to See Sintra
Getting there from Lisbon was easy enough by taking the train leaving the Lisboa Rossio train station to Sintra taking about 40-50 minutes for 2,45 euros per person. Departure times can be found online at CP Comboios de Portugal. When you get off the train, you're quickly inundated with tour guides offering to drive you around. Our original plan was to travel by bus for the day between sites, but we were talked into one of the tour guides, which worked out great for us. For 40 euros per person and our kids (2&11) free, we avoided the long lines for the buses and didn't have to worry about when the next one was coming. With a 10-minute heads up, our driver Yunieski, would be waiting for us at the exit, and we can move on to the next destination, avoiding unknown wait times. He even arranged lunch for us at a local restaurant which was very delicious.
Deciding to take a ride with Yunieski saved us so much time seeing the palaces in Sintra. He was so knowledgeable about the area and a great host. If you visit, be sure to contact him at his info in the picture above and check him out on Facebook.
Pena Palace
The first stop was Palácio Nacional da Pena, sitting high above Sintra. It was a former monastery that was turned into a residence by King Ferdinand II in 1854. If you decide to visit, be aware that tickets are time slotted and are limited to a certain number of guests every 30 minutes. Thanks to Yunieski, we stopped at the ticket office closer to the Moorish Castle and purchased tickets for the palace, skipping the long line of bus passengers also trying to buy tickets. He also advised us on walking to the front of the line holding Naomi who stood in as our Fast Pass to skip waiting in line 10 mins ahead of our ticket time. Before or after your timeslot, there is plenty to see and do walking around the courtyard looking out onto the Atlantic Ocean. The coolest feature in my opinion was a depiction of a mythological triton, greeting visitors from his terrace as they enter the courtyard next to the line for the inside tour. The 30-minute inside tour is spent winding your way around a courtyard, upstairs through a series of bedrooms, bathrooms, offices, and dining rooms seemingly named after the color palette of the room or its function.
The mythological triton guards the entry to the terrace.
When you have finished touring the outside and inside of the palace, take your time walking down the hill through the gardens. You walk along a path past giant fir trees, streams, a bird fountain/sanctuary, and ducks bathing in ponds. Take a moment to stand still, close your eyes, let the sunlight hit you, and listen to the birds sing, until your daughter taps you on the shoulder and asks, "knock, knock.”
Quinta Da Regaleria and the Well
Next up was Quinta Da Regaleria, a palace built in the late 1800’s, nestled within a forest of trees. Besides the main palace, you can tour around the property via walking paths and underground passages to see waterfalls, sentry towers, scenic views of both the Moorish Castle and Pena Palace, and finally the Initiatic Well. The well consists of a spiral staircase that you can walk down to the bottom and exit through an underground tunnel. Like the Pena Palace, the Quinta Da Regaleria is a popular tourist destination, and only a certain number of tickets are sold in 30 minutes increments.
Sunset at Cabo da Roca
With a little bit of luck on our side, we were able to time our destination to Cabo da Roca to watch the sunset at the westernmost point of the European Continent. It can be reached via bus from Sintra but plan on it taking between 45 minutes and an hour and it will probably be packed since it only comes every 20 to 30 minutes. If you have ever been to a popular tourist destination to watch the sunset like Key West’s Fort Zachary Taylor Park, you know that prime spots for the sunset will fill up fast. Cabo Da Roca was no different, but since it was still the offseason, we were able to watch the sun set below the horizon along the fence listening to a street artist play music for tips. Besides the sunset, Cabo Da Roca is home to lighthouse, tourist info center, a bar, and beautiful rolling green hills before the cliff falls off into the ocean.
