Sintra and Cascais are the most popular day trips from Lisbon
It is well worth it, both places are beautiful. Let’s start quickly with the step-by-step instructions to organize the visit.
Indice:
How much to dedicate to Sintra and Cascais?
While you can dedicate more time to it and stay there, the most common thing is that you dedicate a day from Lisbon.
If you are going on your own, I wouldn’t do Sintra and Cascais on the same day because you’ll be running around and both places are worth spending time on.
On excursions you have options that go to Sintra and then Cascais, they last around 10 or 11 hours.
How to get to Sintra?
As we said, the simplest option is on an excursion. You have different plans for palaces to see in Sintra and then Cascais.
The other way is to go on your own. You will spend the whole day there and it is advisable to leave very early.
Sintra is about 30 kilometres from Lisbon. So one option is to go by car if you are already touring Portugal, and the other option is to go by train, which is very cheap.
The train departs from Rossio station, the journey takes about 45 minutes and will drop you off at Sintra station in the village.
If you have the Lisboa Card , the journey is included in it, otherwise the return ticket costs 4.80 euros.
What you need to know is that there is a considerable distance from the village to the palaces because they are on top of the hill.
So if you arrive by car I do not recommend going up to the Pena Palace by car, apart from the website specifying that access by private vehicles is not permitted, although you will actually see cars, it has a very small parking lot, there are cars parked on the shoulder and at certain times it starts to get very busy.
We left it in the town parking lot opposite the train station. The cost is 14 euros for the whole day, payment is in cash and you can pay for the fraction of the time you stay.
How to get around within Sintra?
So the explanation is linked here because whether you arrive by train or by car you will be in the same place.
From here you will need to go up to see the palaces. You have three ways to do it if you don’t want to do it on foot, which I would not do if you want to go up.
- On a bus that makes a round trip and in this way you get off at the palaces you want to visit, the ticket costs 13.50 euros for the whole day. There are quite a few people so there is a queue to get it and this can make it take longer than expected, in season we imagine it takes even longer, but as we have not used it we cannot say whether the service is good or not.
- The other way, and you will see that it is offered a lot as soon as you leave the station, is by tuk tuk. The ride up to the Pena Palace cost us 10 euros per person, but there are many offering it and the prices vary.
- And finally, the one we chose was Uber, the Uber service in Portugal is cheap and we found it efficient, the car charged us 7 euros to go up to the Pena Palace, so for 3.50 euros each we went up comfortably, and then another transfer of 6 euros total between two palaces. This can vary but the application will give you the cost at that time. We walked down at the end, but we will detail that during the tour.
Which palaces to visit?
As always this will be a bit of a matter of taste but we are going to name the most visited.
The Pena Palace, the Moorish Castle, the Quinta das Regaleiras, the National Palace of Sintra and the Palace of Montserrate
Of those we chose three so that we could give you enough time to explore the town because it also has its charm. But we will still leave you the details of the other two.
Pena Palace
As I told you it is the one you will find the highest, so we will start here apart as the hour goes by there are more and more people.
If there is a place where I advise you to take the ticket already booked, it is this one. It is very visited, and although you can get the ticket in the place, it is a precious time that you will waste queuing.
The ticket price is 20 euros and is discounted with the Lisboa Card.
Tickets are timed, so you should plan accordingly. The ticket specifies that you must be at the entrance to the palace park half an hour before the time indicated on the ticket, since that time is the entrance to the palace and to reach that entrance you must cross the palace park.
Once you pass the park entrance, you will have two options to get to the palace entrance: take a bus that is there inside, and at the ticket office you can get a ticket, the cost is 3 euros. You will see a long queue to get it, but it moves quite quickly.
Or do it walking, this last option was the one chosen, one because although it is uphill it is not far and it is done quietly, apart from enjoying the park which is one of the largest arboretums in Portugal, and another because we already had our ticket online and we did not want to waste time queuing for the bus ticket.
The Pena Palace is a colorful beauty that unfolds before our eyes. t was one of the main residences of the Portuguese royal family< wpml_nbsp >during the xixth century and at the same time it constitutes one of the maximum expressions of the Romantic style of the xixth century in Portugal.
A visit to Sintra is a must. As we said, it is located at the top and from here you can get some beautiful panoramic views of the area.
The interior is also very beautiful, although the massive place may make you lose a little detail, but what I said, is worth it.
They have a café inside if you want to take some time
We now walk down about a kilometer to the
Castelo dos Mouros
There were a lot fewer people here, we had already bought our tickets but you can buy them there too. These tickets don’t have a timetable, you just choose the day you enter during opening hours.
The ticket price is 12 euros and is discounted with the Lisboa Card.
Here you will have to climb the wall and walk through it obtaining beautiful views.
The Castillo de los Moros is a fortification founded in the 10th century, during the Muslim occupation of the Iberian Peninsula.
The castle has been the subject of archaeological excavations since 1976, which have led to numerous discoveries about the history of the place and its inhabitants. The Moors lived here until 1147, when Sintra was handed over to D. Afonso Henriques, the first king of Portugal, after the conquest of the cities of Lisbon and Santarém.
In 1995, UNESCO classified the Cultural Landscape of Sintra as a World Heritage Site, of which the Castelo dos Mouros is an example.
The walk on the walls can be a little tiring but it is well worth the visit.
From here we take an uber again as we said and we went to the Quinta da Regaleiras, another very busy and unmissable place.
Quinta da Regaleiras
The price of the ticket is 20 euros, you can also get it online without a schedule you just choose the day, or you can buy it on site.
This Palace is located in the historic center of Sintra and was named as a World Heritage Site by Unesco.
If we liked the previous places and spent a lot of time there, when we arrive here you think that we should have spent the whole day here. The park is huge and beautiful, and you never tire of discovering magical and mysterious corners. Although the one that draws all the attention is the initiation well.
A mysterious and deep well with a Templar cross at its bottom, believed to have been used for Masonic rituals.
What we can see now is a very long queue to enter it. Queue which of course we did.
You can also visit the interior of the palace and there is a cafeteria if you want to take a break.
From here in a slow walk we enter the town, in Sintra.
It is very enjoyable, so do not miss it, especially if the day is pleasant and sunny.
We will name two more palaces, among the many that there are
Sintra National Palace
The National Palace of Sintra, another palace chosen by many. The ticket price is 13 euros and is discounted with the Lisboa Card.
Palace of Montserrate
And the Palace of Montserrate is the other option to visit. The palace is worth it as well as its botanical garden. The ticket price is 10 euros and is discounted with the Lisboa Card.
Slowly we arrived at the train station and we arrived at our car park.
Cascais
As I was saying, the excursions are more organized in terms of time, and they offer to visit both places on the same day. We didn’t have enough time at all. It’s an experience that I’ll share with you, then you’ll see.
We had a rented car for our tour of Portugal, if you want to see prices for your dates I leave you here the search engine.
Cascais is located 17 kilometers from Sintra and about 30 kilometers from Lisbon.
If you are visiting from Sintra, the best option is to take the bus, as the train does not run directly between the two. Buses leave from Sintra train station and the frequency varies depending on the season, so check at the station.
If you are going to spend a day in Cascais from Lisbon, the train ride is from the Cais do sodré station, and the cost is 4.80 euros round trip.
A beautiful bay welcomes us to Cascais, an old fishing village converted into a picturesque summer resort that has been chosen by artists and aristocrats, several villas and mansions make us imagine a glamorous past.
Strolling through the streets of its old town, visiting its citadel, the seafront promenade, its lighthouse, will make Cascais a destination worth visiting if you are staying in Lisbon.
In short, Sintra and Cascais are perfect options to visit from Lisbon.
- Speaking of Lisbon, have you seen our complete guide to the city?
Video of Sintra and Cascais
NOTE: The information in this article is based on our own experience, being totally objective. This article contains affiliate links
