PANORAMIC VIEWS, STUNNING GARDENS, BEAUTIFUL ARCHITECTURE

I took a day trip to Sintra from Lisbon on the recommendation of a hostel-mate; I’m very grateful that I did. The mountains and architecture render the town picturesque, and when you reach the palace at the top of the mountain you get a panoramic view for at least 20 miles around the town (including Lisbon). Sintra has several villas, palaces, castles, and gardens that are often visited, though we only visited three - Quinta da Regaleria, The National Palace of Pena, and the Moorish Castle (for which we didn’t buy tickets to fully explore). At times, I felt a bit like I was at a historic amusement park - an amuse-bouche of visual delights.

While I did get to see everything that I wanted to, I think Sintra would be well worth spending a night there. The town is charming and I would’ve happily explored its restaurants and streets more. I also didn’t see all of the main attractions, and even the ones I visited, I could’ve easily spent more time soaking them in.

GETTING THERE

Sintra is an hour train ride each way from the Rossio station in Lisbon, and the round-trip tickets are about €5. The desk staff are really helpful and we just bought our tickets through them instead of the self-service kiosks. I know many tourists also book tours that drive to to the events.

QUINTA DA REGALEIRA

Quinta da Rageleira is about a 25 minute walk from the train station - almost entirely uphill. As you go, you get to see some of the main sections of Sintra, so we walked it slowly.

It’s quite literally the eccentric estate of a rich man built from the late 1800s to the early 1900s. He filled the four hectares with symbols of his various interests from Masonry to alchemy. The result, especially for the gardens, is that you get a taste of architecture and style from different periods and places blended nearly seamlessly into one.

(What a more interesting thing to do with your fortunes than buy Twitter or fly to space.)

The grounds do have a palace, which is beautifully constructed with hand-carvings, mosaics, tile and stone work. The real gem of the estate though is just walking through the gardens, including its tunnels / caves and the initiation well.

HIKE TO THE PALACE OF PENA AND THE MOORISH CASTLE

From downtown Sintra, there’s a hiking trail up the mountain that gets you to both the National Palace of Pena and The Moorish Castle. The hike takes about an hour and is uphill the entire way, though rarely too steep. As you go up, there are stunning rock formations and views of the surrounding cities. It was one of the most memorable parts of my day trip.

There’s also a bus that goes to the top for €4 each way. We took the bus down because my hostel mate had some knee issues that left going down hills challenging.

THE HISTORIC PALACE OF PENA

This is probably the most well known site of Sintra because of its vivid colors and panoramic views of Portugal. Like the Quinta da Regaleira, this romanticist palace intentionally blends different architecture styles - including medieval touches like guard towers and Islamic touches like entrance arches.

For me, the most breathtaking part was the wall walk - where you walk around the guard wall and can see for over 20 miles in all directions.

THE MOORISH CASTLE

About a kilometer aware from the Palace of Pena, there are the ruins of a Morrish castle from the twelfth century. You can see the stone walls form the bottom of the mountain and throughout the hike, which are the most well-known feature. The remnants of the castle have been preserved and built into a walking garden.

For timing reasons, we only walked around the free areas, and didn’t pay to enter. Seeing the castle walls from many angles, including from the Palace of Pena, was a recurrent point of wonder for me throughout the day.

OTHER THINGS TO DO IN SINTRA

Because we were only exploring for five hours, we kept our itinerary focused on what we most wanted to see. Here are some of the other most common attractions if your trip is a bit longer:

• Park and Palace of Monserrat

• Palace of Sintra

• Go to the beach