How To Visit Sintra In One Day From Lisbon

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Considering a day trip to Sintra from Lisbon? Good! Whilst Lisbon has plenty to see and do as a tourist, a chance to see Sintra should really not be missed! Keep on reading to find out how to get to Sintra from Lisbon, which sights to see, and how best to have an amazing day in this stunning location!

As a day trip to Sintra from Lisbon is easy to do, expect it to get very busy no matter the season! Therefore I’m going to start this blog post with my biggest piece of advice –  head to Sintra EARLY! Yes, that’s right. Unfortunately on vacation sometimes you have to wake up with the birds!

How to get to Sintra from Lisbon

First of all, you’ll need to get yourself to Rossio train station in the heart of Lisbon. Go upstairs to the ticket window and get your return train ticket (groups of 4 and up receive discount!). Since it’s going to be an early morning, make sure you grab yourself a coffee before getting onto the train – there’s a Starbucks at Rossio station entrance.

The train itself takes just 40 minutes from Rossio to Sintra and costs a whopping €5 return! Yeah – we couldn’t believe it either!

The train leaves every 20 minutes so if you miss one train in the coffee line, don’t worry – the next train isn’t far away!

What to do after getting to Sintra Train Station

So you got to Sintra – woohoo! But now what?! With numerous sights to see – whats the best way to see them? You have a few options.

COACH BUS

As you leave Sintra train station, turn to the right and walk along the footpath towards the big buses. The bus you want is Bus 434 – the tourist route. Here you can purchase a ticket for the bus from the driver which will take you to the main destinations in Sintra along a designated route. The bus will depart from each tourist sight every 15 to 20 minutes so you’ll not have to wait too long before jumping aboard to get to your next Sintra sight!

Tickets cost: €15 per person.

CHAUFFEURED MINI-VAN

This is the option we chose! We didn’t want to wait for buses so we chose to pay a bit extra or a private van with chauffer to get us around. This also meant we had commentary along the way (SCORE!) and our driver got us sorted with tickets to the sights of Sintra so that we didn’t have to wait in long lines. BONUS!

Price: €120 total for the van. As we were with 5, it cost us €24 per person for the day. The van fit up to 8 people, so the price per person can go lower if you have more people!

NOTE: there are many chauffeur van companies that will come up to you at Sintra train station – all with different prices. Have a chat to a few of them to work out your best option!

Where to visit in Sintra

Moorish Castle

This hilltop castle, built by the moors in the 9th century is such a beautiful and peaceful place to start the day in Sintra. This set of castle ruins offers some of the best views in all of Sintra!

With a long walk to the entrance, maybe 30 minutes round trip, this sight takes anywhere from 1 hour to 2 hours to visit.

Ticket price: €8

Pena Palace

This is THE postcard picture perfect palace of Sintra! The bright coloured hues of the castle amongst the greenery of the mountains really make this palace feel unreal!

As you arrive there’s a short hike up the mountain to reach the entrance gates of the palace – so be prepared! Once you’ve walked through the gates feeling regal (and a bit out of breath!) you’ll see the stunning details that make this palace so special. Make sure you enter the palace to see the over the top indoor design and furniture, making your way to the top balcony for amazing views, too!

Ticket price: €14 for the palace but with tickets combined with other sites you receive a discount! Which is a great way to see more sites for cheaper!

As this is the major tourist sight of Sintra, expect crowds and expect a longer visit than the other sights. We spent close to 2 hours here wandering around and taking photos.

Quinta da Regaleira

Of all of the castles at Sintra, Quinta de Regaleira took the cake for being the coolest. 

This was my favourite ‘attraction’ that we visited in Sintra as it not only has the most epic castle, amazing expansive grounds and grottos, there is also the most amazing well!

Upon finding this well you can walk all the way to the bottom via the winding staircase & go underground, finding some pretty cool waterfalls & fairytale-like gardens.

Add Quinta de Regaleira to your Bucket List!

Ticket price: €6

We spent about 1.5 hours here, though we could have easily spent double that! I recommend taking your time at this place to take it all in.


When we finished our visit at Quinta de Regaleira, it was time to head back to Lisbon, so our mini-van chauffer dropped us right at the entrance to the train station and we took the next train back to Lisbon in time for dinner.

Things To Know

  • There are small places to eat along the route, from kiosks to cafe’s, though these are small with not a great deal of choice. If I did this trip again I would have brought my own food to eat. I will add that the small chicken pie at Quinta de Regaleira was delicious!
  • Sintra is busy, always. It’s REALLY busy in summer, but it is still very busy in the colder months! We travelled to Sintra in November and it was quite busy in parts. We found we had our own space often, though, and even Pena Palace was do-able with the amount of people visiting.
  • There is a lot to see in Sintra! You can see the highlights on a day trip, but if you have more time I would recommend staying one night to give yourself the opportunity to see more of the sights! There are also great beaches close by to Sintra – making that the perfect extra addition to your Sintra trip!

Want to visit Sintra?

What about considering an organised day trip? Here are some options I recommend if you prefer to take it easy and have a guide for the day! 

Booking your trip to Sintra? Let me help you!

Make sure you get the cheapest flights via Skyscanner

Need accommodation? Get your hotel booked on Booking.com! Or more of an Airbnb person? Either way I’ve got you covered.

Find out more about Portugal

Let me know if you are heading to Sintra and if you have any questions for me!

Feel free to share your adventure with me via social media – too! 

And above all – have fun!

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