Visiting Sintra & Cabo da Roca

If you’re visiting Lisbon, there is absolutely no reason for you not to take a day trip to the beautiful town of Sintra. It’s about a 45 minute train ride from Rossio station, but is so easy to get to that it totally counts as a “Lisbon attraction” for me. Get to the station nice and early so that you can be in Sintra for the 9 or 9:30 opening times as well. I wouldn’t even recommend taking a car to Sintra unless you’re planning on visiting the gorgeous beaches at Cabo da Roca as well. Just remember though that you can’t really visit all of these sites in Sintra AND the beaches. We stopped at the beaches on our way to Porto, and made sure to leave the entire day open for exploring. It makes the trip longer than the 3 hours from Lisbon to Porto, but if you make sure to stop at some towns on the way, you’ll really enjoy the trip north!

TO GET AROUND

As I said in my Lisbon post, try finding an Uber as it will probably be the cheapest way of getting around. If not, take a taxi or tuk tuk to get to each monument. And while your Google Maps will tell you that it’s super close (less than 1 km away), just remember to check how much you have to walk uphill vs downhill. Sintra is very very hilly and all the monuments are on top of hills. The day we went, my husband’s Fitbit calculated 27K steps and 107 floors because we wanted to walk it. I don’t regret it, but it’s not for the faint of heart as it was literally climbing up and down a mountain… Comfortable shoes/sneakers are a must.

TO EXPLORE: Sintra

Luckily, you can buy tickets to most of the places on this list through the Parques de Sintra website. I did this before getting to Portugal, and I don’t think we paid more than €10 for a ticket. It is SO worth doing this if it’s high season as the lines will get very long in the hot sun.

Castelo dos Mouros (Castle of the Moors)

This 9th century castle was my favorite place to visit – it was simply stunning! I was totally in awe of how beautifully the walls of the castle went winding through the hills. I’m sure it wasn’t designed with aesthetics in mind, but as you can see from the pictures below, it’s hard not to appreciate how picturesque it all was. And because the castle sits on top of a mountain, the views of the surrounding areas are breathtaking. While there wasn’t much to see inside of the castle walls, it was truly a magical experience overall.

Pena Palace

This UNESCO World Heritage site sits on top of a hill in the Sintra Mountains, and was a real show stopper because of the interesting colors on the buildings! We didn’t get tickets for the inside of this palace, and I don’t really regret it, but there’s not much to see if you’re not going to go inside. If you’re a hiker though, they have quite a few trails around here that are nice to walk through. They are ranked by level of difficulty and the most difficult one is mostly just climbing up a lot of stairs, so don’t do it unless you’re fairly fit.

Palace of Monserrate

Architecturally, this villa was absolutely gorgeous. The inside and outside of this building was covered in ornately carved pillars and arches, making it all feel so romantic especially with the pink-lit ceiling. And even the gardens were a major plus point for me. They had so many different plants from all over the world neatly organized in different areas, beautiful lakes and fountains as well as a farmyard (that we didn’t get to see!). I even saw a whole garden full of oversized succulents and agaves!

Quinta Da Ragaleira

This estate had palaces, chapels, gardens and a really interesting well that opens up into a beautiful grotto. The Initiation Well was apparently used for ceremonial purposes, which you can clearly see when you get there, and just makes the experience so much cooler! The palace is straight up out of a fairytale as well. Not only is it incredibly ornate, but it also has long spindly towers as well as gargoyles!

Tascantiga

For lunch, I highly recommend visiting this little restaurant for some seriously good food. I loved their open bacalhau (cod) sandwich and hubs tried a beef sandwich, which he also really liked. It looks like they have a lot of other great options as well, so make sure you stop there when you’re ready for a break!

TO EXPLORE: Cabo da Roca

If you end up driving to Sintra, make sure you visit the beautiful beaches on the coast. They were some of the most beautiful beaches I had ever seen in my life! I’m not even much of a beach person and I’m totally planning a second trip to Portugal just to go chill at their beaches.

Praia da Ursa

Praia da Ursa was insanely pretty. We didn’t have the time to trek down to visit the beach – it’s a pretty treacherous hike AND it’s a nude beach so we were definitely hesitant to go. However, if you want to stay at the top and enjoy the views, it is gorgeous. I could have spent the entire day exploring the area. Check out the people in this photo and then imagine how the climb down could be! Yep. It’s a serious trek down.  

Praia da Adraga

This was a totally family-friendly kind of beach and so pretty! The waves seemed pretty violent when we visited though, but I desperately wanted to sit and chill here. We didn’t have a lot of time, so we just had a quick snack and left, but this beach is totally worth a visit.

Hope you enjoyed reading about Sintra! Have a great rest of the week!