Skip to content
Mixroutes
Sintra
Municipality in the Lisbon Region, Portugal

Sintra

Sintra, officially the Town of Sintra, is a town and municipality in the Greater Lisbon region of Portugal, located on the Portuguese Riviera.

Plan a trip to Sintra→From Faro

The population of the municipality in 2021 was 385,654, in an area of 319.23 square kilometres (123.26 sq mi). Sintra is one of the most urbanized and densely populated municipalities of Portugal. A major tourist destination famed for its picturesqueness, the municipality has several historic palaces, castles, scenic beaches, parks and gardens.

Get in

Getting to Sintra

The town proper is a 10-minute walk from the train station. However, city buses to the center can be caught from the small bus stop directly on the right as one exits said station. These are the same buses that take circular routes to all the tourist sites, and offer tickets good for all day, so odds are one would be buying one of their tickets anyway.

  1. 01
    Estação Ferroviária de Sintra
See

Worth seeing

Admission prices and opening times of the sites can be found on the Parques de Sintra website, where you can buy tickets. Buy online to avoid a long queue. You get a 15% discount for buying 3 days in advance, and small discounts for buying tickets for more than one site. Sintra can be extremely busy, particularly in summer, and especially at weekends.

  1. 01
    Pena National Palace

    Beautiful example of pseudo-Moorish Romantic architecture.

  2. 02
    Moorish Castle

    One of the highlights of Sintra not to be missed.

  3. 03
    Sintra National Palace

    The summer estate of the Portuguese royal family from the middle ages until the 1910 republican revolution.

  4. 04
    Quintinha de Monserrate

    An old estate with a farmyard, giving you an opportunity to learn about traditional local farming.

  5. 05
    Convento dos Capuchos

    A secluded abbey where monks used to live in close contact with nature.

  6. 06
    Quinta da Regaleira
Do

Things to do

Praia das Maçãs is a small, and surprisingly calm, seaside resort about 30 km to the west of Lisbon and about 13 km from Sintra. Flanked by restaurants, it has a salt water pool, sports facilities and children's playground. Take the tram (the stop is next to the Museum of Modern Art) and ride downhill 13 km. The ride takes 45 min and is delightful.

Eat

Where to eat

Queijadas mainly the ones from "Casa do Preto" Travesseiros da Periquita

  1. 01
    Cyntia

    Next to the bus and rail stations on the downside of Sintra, there is this small but fine restaurant where you can taste a marvelous codfish (Bacalhau à brás or Bacalhau à grelha).

  2. 02
    Dom Pipas

    Features daily specials, fish, meat, and other Portuguese traditional fare.

  3. 03
    Lab by Sergi Arola

    Estrada da Lagoa Azul, Linhó (Penha Longa Resort), LAB@penhalonga.com.

  4. 04
    Midori

    Estrada da Lagoa Azul, Linhó (Penha Longa Resort), restaurants@penhalonga.com.

How locals move

Getting around Sintra the local way

  • Get inin Lisbon, take the commuters train from Rossio station to explore Sintra and/or the Nature Reserve finishing in Cascais, a beautiful day trip on a bicycle, in the end take a train back to Cais do Sodre station in Lisbon where you may drop back your bicycle.
  • Get aroundTuktuks are freely available to go up the mountain to the fort, or Pena (ask to be dropped off at the high entrance if you are going to Pena).
  • Get aroundThe walking trail through the woods to the Moorish castle starts above the Sintra city at .

From Wikivoyage: Sintra, CC BY-SA. Not yet checked by us. Last edited 2026-09.

Text adapted from Wikipedia and Wikivoyage, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph: Wikimedia Commons (see Commons), Wikimedia Commons.