Day trip from Lisbon Sintra
A hill town of royal palaces and forest parks, 40 minutes by suburban train from Rossio station in central Lisbon.
Is Sintra worth a day trip from Lisbon?
Go. Take the whole day.
Yes, and give it the full day. The train from Rossio takes 40 minutes and a return costs € 5.10, so the money goes on tickets: Pena Palace with its park is € 20. The catch is the crowd. Pena works with timed entry and the 434 bus up the hill gets busy by mid-morning, so take a train before 08:30 and book the earliest palace slot you can. Two sights is the honest limit for one day: Pena plus either Quinta da Regaleira or the Moorish Castle. Pena closes only on 25 December and 1 January.
The decision sheet
- Travel time
- 40 min+ bus 434 up to Pena · one way · CP - Comboios de Portugal (Sintra line timetable)
- Transport
- Suburban train
- Self-guided cost
- € 25.10–34Train return (€ 5.10) or Train & Bus day ticket (€ 14) + Pena Palace and park (€ 20) · Parques de Sintra (Pena) and CP urban fares
- Tour price
- From € 89.10Civitatis catalogue
- Time needed
- 6–9 hDaytripo editorial
- Closed days
- 25 Dec, 1 Jan
- Best time
- Weekdays, Mar-Jun and Sep-Oct; earliest Pena slotDaytripo editorial
- Verdict
- Worth a full dayDaytripo editorial
What to see and do in Sintra
- 01
Pena Palace and park
A 19th-century royal summer palace painted red and yellow on top of the hill. The rooms take about an hour, the terraces and the park another 90 minutes.
- 02
Quinta da Regaleira
A garden estate a 15-minute walk from the old town, with grottoes, tunnels and the Initiation Well, a spiral staircase sunk 27 metres into the ground. Allow two hours.
- 03
Moorish Castle
The walls of a fort from the 8th and 9th centuries, strung along a ridge below Pena. You walk the ramparts in about an hour, with a view over the town and the coast.
- 04
National Palace of Sintra
The palace with two white conical chimneys in the middle of the old town. It needs no bus, takes an hour and is the easy choice on a foggy day.
- 05
Old town
A few steep lanes of pastry shops and tile-fronted houses between the station and the palaces. Twenty minutes on foot from the station, mostly level, and the usual lunch stop.
How to spend the day
Leave Rossio around 08:00 and reach Sintra station by 08:45. Take the 434 bus straight up to Pena, where the park opens at 09:00 and the palace at 09:30. Allow 2.5 hours. Come down to the old town for lunch around 13:00, then spend the afternoon at one more sight. Trains back to Rossio leave every 30 minutes at weekends and more often on weekdays; the 18:20 gets you to Lisbon by 19:00.
Sintra in summer and in winter
Summer
June to AugustFrom June to August the hill is at its fullest and you queue for the 434 bus, for the palace door and again inside the rooms. Mornings often start in fog that clears by midday, and the hill stays a few degrees cooler than Lisbon. Regaleira stays open into the evening, so use the late afternoon there once the coach groups have left.
Winter
December to FebruaryEverything stays open except on 25 December and 1 January, and the queues nearly vanish on weekdays. The cost is the weather: rain on about one day in three, and fog that can hide Pena's terraces completely. Pick a clear day from the forecast and start early, because the parks get dark by 17:15.
How crowded it gets
Very busy- Busiest
- Jun-Sep and Easter week, weekends, 10:30-15:30
- Quietest
- Weekdays Nov-Feb; any day before 09:30
Be at Pena for the first slot and you stay ahead of the coach groups, which arrive from 10:30. Leave Regaleira for after 15:30. Tuesday to Thursday is calmer than the weekend, when Lisbon families come too.
How do you get to Sintra from Lisbon?
Train
- Travel time
- 40 min
- Frequency
- Every 10-20 min on weekdays, every 30 min at weekends
- Cost
- € 5.10 return
- Departs from
- Rossio station
CP Sintra line to the last stop. Buy the Lisbon-Sintra return (€ 5.10) or the one-day Train & Bus ticket (€ 14), which also covers Scotturb buses 434 and 435 in Sintra. Tickets load onto a Navegante card that costs € 0.50. Validate before boarding.
Organized tour
- Travel time
- 8-9 hours door to door
- Frequency
- Daily
- Cost
- From € 79
- Departs from
- Restauradores or Rossio square
Coach from central Lisbon with Pena entry included, plus short stops at Cabo da Roca and Cascais. You skip the bus queue up the hill but get less time at the palace than on your own. The shuttle into Sintra's centre can cost extra.
Practical: clothes, food and money
What to wear
Shoes with grip: the paths are steep, cobbled and often damp. Carry a light jacket even in July, because the hill is windy and cooler than Lisbon. In winter add a waterproof layer with a hood.
What to eat
The local pastries are travesseiros, warm puff pastry with almond and egg cream, and queijadas, small cheese tarts with cinnamon. Most people eat lunch in the old town, where prices are higher than in Lisbon. There are only small cafes at the palaces, so carry water and a snack.
What you will spend
The train return is € 5.10 and Pena with its park is € 20, so entry tickets are most of the bill. The Train & Bus day ticket at € 14 pays off only if you ride the 434 and 435 several times. Each extra palace is a separate ticket. The old town is free.
How to get the most out of the day
- Your Pena time slot is for the palace door, a 15-minute uphill walk from the park gate. Pass the gate 30 minutes before the slot.
- The 434 bus runs one way in a loop: station, old town, Moorish Castle, Pena, station. Walk down from Pena to the castle in 10 minutes.
- Buy palace tickets online before you leave Lisbon. The ticket office queue at Pena is separate from the entry queue and just as slow.
- Sit near the front of the train at Rossio. At Sintra the exit is at the front, and the first people out get the first bus.
How long do you need in Sintra?
Plan 6–9 h on site, plus 40 min of travel each way from Lisbon.
When is Sintra closed?
25 Dec, 1 Jan. Best time: Weekdays, Mar-Jun and Sep-Oct; earliest Pena slot.