Travel Muse Magazine

My top thing I wanted to see in Portugal was the colorful Disney-esque Pena Palace in Sintra. Seeing the gorgeous photos and videos of this fairytale place revved my enthusiasm for this UNESCO World Heritage site. Despite being a seasoned traveler, I was a bit worried about how to plan a daytrip there, as I wanted to do and see everything but wasn’t sure what times to book at all the castles. The one thing I was 100% sure about was that you have to buy tickets ahead of time or you’re not going to get in. They (rightly) limit the number of people that can visit per day. This is a good thing for everyone. But it had me nervous. I knew Pena was on a mountain top and had limited ways of getting there. I also knew that I had to plan for not just me but my husband (who doesn’t regularly work out) and my three teenage kids, one of which experiences leg and back pain on the regular. So before I planned our daytrip from Lisbon to Sintra, I did hours of intense research, watching YouTube and TikTok videos, reading books and posts on websites, Reddit, Pinterest and Insta. The good news, it was a great plan! It saved us (as a family of five) time, money, and best yet it really wasn’t that crowded anywhere we went. (It was summer – late June). Here are tips based on my experiences to help you have the best experience in Sintra.

#1 Pre-book opening TImeslot Palace + Garden Pena Park Tickets

I recommend booking the first time slot at Pena of the morning. The day we went, opening palace+garden tickets were for 9:30am. That does not mean getting there at 9:30 just because you have that time slot already booked. You must have a ticket with time slot to get in and you can’t change them or just show up close to the time. They are for the time they say, period. Book them from Parques de Sintra‘s official website. You save 15% purchasing at least 3 days in advance. I’ve heard there’s some scammers out there, so I’d make sure you’re on their official website. That goes for all the other ticketed attractions anywhere too.

Don’t listen to people who say to do the exterior and gardens only. We LOVED the interiors and learned a lot. It was beautiful and the best palace interior we went to in the Lisbon area. I found it more enjoyable than Versailles outside Paris, but that’s probably because we were in there before it got really crowded!

#2 Bolt from Lisbon to Pena Palace Entrance Gate First Thing In the Morning

We arrived around 8:45am via Bolt (or Uber) from our hotel in Lisbon (pickup time 8am). The drive is pretty, you go thru some cute little villages (and past where Johnny Depp filmed scenes from the movie The Ninth Gate). Plus, you don’t have to worry about where to catch busses or bus delays or even how many buses will go by before the line is short enough to get on. Plus for us, as a party of 5, this was most economical way to get to the top of the mountain. It probably will be for you too, as the all day local bus ticket is 15 euros per person and there are long lines. And tuk tuks charge 5 euros per person. The train from Lisbon-Rossio is just under 3 euros each, but then you have to add your bus or tuk tuk plus time. Our fair worked out to be about 8 euros per person and it was easy riding!

When you arrive, there will likely already be a line outside the gate with other people that have tickets already too. Once inside, you walk up a pretty steep hill on a cobblestone path. Walking is much better than getting in another line to wait for the bus that costs a few more euros each. It took us 10 minutes and wasn’t that bad. Though I’m glad I’d been doing the 15% incline on the gym treadmill to prep for this vacation. Don’t look around at the gardens and stuff yet. Save that for after your interior ticket time, as you can’t be late.

When you get up to the top at the actual castle, you’ll get in another line to go inside the palace. You don’t need to get in this line if you didn’t buy the interior palace ticket.

#3 Bring an Umbrella

Even if there’s no rain forecast and the forecast says hot – bring an umbrella! It rained all over us with 0% forecast for 10 minutes in the morning and felt cold on the mountain top at Pena but then all was fine. Bring a backpack to put it in. You’ll want that to hold your water anyway and you can use the umbrella as a sunshade later too, if you want/need to.

#4 Refuel at Pena’s rooftop cafe

After you’ve done the whole inside, go into the rooftop chapel on the backside (go under the cool but weird mythical creature sculpture entrance and then stop for a drink at the rooftop cafe. They have local pastries, waters, juices, coffees. The prices were decent. The experience was excellent! It’s a perfect time to relax, because from here on out, the morning becomes leisurely. You feel like you’re in a cloud, looking thru the mist at the tops of the trees. If you’re lucky, you can supposedly see all the way to the sea, but we were enveloped in a pretty cool atmospheric mist instead. There are also bathrooms up here that you’re going to want to use before exploring the gardens.

#5 Look at the Garden Map & Follow the Trail Signs

You could probably spend the majority of a day just in Pena’s park, wondering the trails, reading all the signs, admiring the trees, flowers and fountains, and exploring the cool buildings. We basically just did the “Lagos” and Queen Amelia’s garden trails plus a bit of wondering. Have their handy free interactive digital map on your phone. It tells you where you are versus where you think you are. See the map I marked up below for my suggested route to see lots of good stuff. We finished with Pena around noon with my plan, but you could spend longer for sure! If I spent the night here (which I would recommend doing if you can make it fit your plan, we would have but I couldn’t find accommodation for five people in just two rooms in Sintra).

#6 Hike Down the Vila Sassetti Trail

Hiking DOWN into town after Sintra (and/or after the Moorish Castle if you do that too while you’re on the mountain top) on the Vila Sassetti trail was awesome and didn’t take long… maybe 25 minutes from the parking lot trail head to the gate of the Vila grounds. Once you’re wandering Sasseti’s grounds, there’s a good bathroom stop and good views to take in, even benches to rest at, if you need it. From there, it is an easy (cobblestone) path of about 15-20 more minutes into the top of Sintra’s town.

This trail smelled amazing, has beautiful views and is not buggy. (I was worried about mosquitos, but we saw none and had no bites and my daughters seem to be bug magnets!) This hike was quite awesome and one of my fav things of the whole trip! My kids are all teens and have grown up hiking in mountains. My husband got a bit winded on the top half in a section or two, but still said he liked it. He doesn’t hike regularly or even workout but he is used to being dragged on occasional trails.
We saw a lot of un prepared people heading up this trail while we were hiking down… even a man struggling/ carrying a baby stroller. But you can’t even do the castle gardens or the castle interior with a stroller. So don’t bring one there. I’d say do not go to Pena if you feel you need a stroller!
The Vila Sasseti trail is lots of “rugged” stairs and dirt and giant boulders to go around but it is not hard going down. There aren’t lots of hand rails, so you need to be stable on your feet. This path is definitely NOT for little kids or families with babies unless you are already hikers and used to mountain trails. It’s just not safe trail to carry a child without “wearing” them in a hiking backpack or front sling carrier. If you’re used to doing mountain trails, you’ll be fine. But definitely would rate it as “difficult” going up for last half, though I don’t recommend doing that. The thing is the first half going up from town is EASY and people get fooled thinking the whole thing is easy and it is not.
If you’re not stable on your feet, take the other trail that takes longer (That’s the Caminho de Santa María footpath, which I didn’t take, so I don’t have advice on it yet. Though, I’m going back next year and will take it and update this story then with a second visit’s perspective too.)

my suggested route map

Click on the above map to enlarge. You can also download the original of the above map from Pena’s website.

Have any questions? Need Pena Palace planning or other Sintra or Lisbon-area advice? Leave a comment below and I’m happen to help!