Last Updated on June 5, 2026 by Lauren Belzer Sanford
If you’re visiting Lisbon, do not skip Sintra. I mean it. It’s only about 40 minutes from the city. Yet, it feels like an entirely different world. Forested hills, palace towers, the kind of fairytale scenery that makes you genuinely stop mid-sentence and look around you. We took a day trip out to Sintra as part of our two-week Spain and Portugal trip, and it remains one of the most memorable places I’ve ever been. I left wishing we had more time.
Here’s everything you need to know to make the most of it — including whether to take the train or book a guided tour, what to actually see once you’re there, and how to add Cascais to the day if you have the time.
Getting There: Train vs. Guided Tour
There are two main ways to get from Lisbon to Sintra, and both work — it just depends on what kind of traveler you are.
By train: The most affordable option. Trains run regularly from Lisbon’s main station directly to Sintra, and the trip takes about 40 minutes each way. If you’re comfortable navigating independently and want full flexibility over your day, this is a perfectly good choice.
By guided tour: This is what we did, and I’d recommend it for first-timers without hesitation. Our guide handled all the logistics, timed our arrivals to avoid the worst of the crowds, helped us skip certain lines, and gave us context and history that made the experience genuinely richer. The drive into the hills, watching Lisbon fall away and everything get greener and softer, felt like part of the experience rather than just transportation. You can browse Sintra day trips and small-group tours on Viator — the small-group options are particularly good and tend to sell out in summer, so book ahead.
Before you go: Make sure you have your Lisbon hotel sorted — Sintra is a great day trip from the city, and coming back to a great base makes the whole trip feel well-planned.
Pro tip: Whichever way you get there, arrive early. Especially if you’re planning on visiting the Pena Palace. It gets extremely crowded by mid-morning, and the experience is significantly better when the hilltop paths aren’t packed.
Pena Palace
This is the one you’ve seen all over Instagram — and it is every bit as extraordinary in person as the photos show. Pena Palace sits at the top of the Sintra hills, a fairy-tale collection of mustard yellow and terracotta red towers, Moorish archways, and Gothic details, all somehow working together into something that shouldn’t be cohesive but absolutely is.
The palace is now a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the most visited monuments in Portugal. The surrounding gardens and forested parklands are enormous — you could easily spend two hours here between the palace itself and the grounds.
A few things to know before you go:
- Getting from the entrance to the hilltop requires a walk uphill, so make sure you wear comfortable shoes
- On a clear day, you can see the Atlantic Ocean from the top, which is a genuinely surreal moment
- The interior can be visited with a ticket, but the exterior and grounds alone are worth the trip
- Book timed-entry tickets in advance, especially in summer — the lines without them are long
Sintra Village
Don’t rush straight back to Lisbon after the palace. The village of Sintra itself is completely worth lingering in. Cobblestone streets lined with pastel-colored buildings, small shops selling local pastries and ceramics, and the kind of slow, unhurried pace that makes you want to find a café table and stay a while.
The National Palace of Sintra sits right in the town square and is impossible to miss. And while you’re in the village, find a travesseiro — a local pastry filled with almond cream and egg custard, essentially Sintra’s version of the pastel de nata. The famous Piriquita bakery has been making them since 1862 and is the place to go.
Adding Cascais to the Day
If your tour or itinerary allows for it, the coastal town of Cascais is only about 30 minutes from Sintra and makes for a natural second stop on the same day. It has a completely different energy — breezy, beachy, a little more relaxed — with a pretty historic center, a long seafront promenade, and excellent seafood restaurants along the waterfront. After spending a few hours here, it’s very much on my list for a proper stay.
Between Sintra and Cascais, the route passes Cabo da Roca — the westernmost point of continental Europe, where the land ends and the Atlantic begins. It’s a dramatic stretch of coastline worth stopping at, even briefly, if only to stand at the edge of the continent.
Practical Tips for Your Sintra Day Trip
How much time do you need? A full day for sure, to do Sintra justice with breathing room in the village, and especially if you plan to add a few hours wandering through Cascais.
What to wear: Comfortable walking shoes are non-negotiable. The hill up to Pena Palace is steep, and the village streets are cobblestone throughout.
When to go: Spring and early fall are ideal for weather and crowds. Summer is manageable if you arrive early — by 10 am in July and August, the palace hilltop will already be busy.
Book in advance: Pena Palace timed-entry tickets, guided tours from Lisbon, and popular Viator experiences all sell out — especially on weekends and in peak season. Don’t plan to figure it out same-day.
Sintra is the perfect complement to a few days in Lisbon. If you haven’t sorted out where to stay yet, my guide to the best hotels in Lisbon covers everything from boutique finds to design-forward splurges. And for the full picture of what to do in the city itself, my Lisbon things-to-do guide is the place to start.