2 Attractions Sintra

I like your plan. We enjoyed the National Palace. and the Quinta da Regaliera much more than the overcrowded Pena Palace.

We just got the Pena Park pass and did not tour the inside of the Pena Palace. The Pena Park pass allows you to go on the terraces and see the beautiful views and also go to the cafe. We went first thing in the morning and it was lovely. We were able to bypass the long line for the palace and walk right on to the terraces.

We also enjoyed the Monserrate Palace in Sintra. The interior is intricate and has amazing ceilings. The gardens and the cafe are lovely. They were working on the exterior when we were there, but it may be finished by next April.

We took an Uber from Lisbon directly to the Pena Palace entrance and then an uber from there to the Monserrate Palace. We did not go to the National Palace and the Quinta da Regaleira, so I cannot compare those.

Sintra is lovely and you will have a great time.

It’s pretty much the consensus for most to see Pena and Regaleira. However, as you mentioned, Pena is ridiculously crowded. One of the best private tour guides in the Lisbon area recommends skipping it in favor of the others in town. She recommends Regaleira, the National Palace and Montserrat. I, personally, would do Regaleira and Montserrat, if I wanted a more relaxing day without quite as many people.

National Palace is great choice, Montserrat should be also. We only did the National and the Pena and like others said, the Pena is over rated and crowded. It is also fairly new, built in the 1800s.

Funny how people's opinions can be so different. We went to the Moorish, Quinta Regaleira, National, Monserrate and Pena. We would have liked to visit Beister and Queluz.

First, I just want to say that the visit inside Pena palace does not need to be crowded and unpleasant. We really enjoyed it. We got the first ticket of the day, and made sure to be at the front of the line. It might be, that if they don't run the timed groups together, the front or back of any timed group might be similar. In any case, for us, we were first into every room of the palace.

I thought the Moorish was interesting and well worth a stop because it was different and the views were spectacular. It is super easy to cross the street from the Pena grounds to get to the Moorish castle.

We thought the gardens of Regaleira were really fun. The palace itself was EXTREMELY crowded and it is set up where folks enter a hallway and poke their heads into the rooms as they walk down the hallway. I'm 5-3, I didn't see much. At Pena, the flow most often is around at least two sides of the room. We went to Regaleira early afternoon, the line for the well was immense. We skipped it and went back around 4 when the line was quite short.

We thought National was kind of boring. There were few people there which made it nice in that regard. There wasn't much in the way of furnishing. It is convenient as it is in town center and close to the train station. We didn't find staff to be very helpful/pleasant. My recollection is that there was no wifi to download an audioguide and information wasn't provided via any other means.

Monserrate was fabulous and the visit lovely. It wasn't crowded, the rooms were bright and breezy and the grounds were a joy to wander around. Perhaps transportation has changed, but we had a heck of a time getting to and from Monserrate. The Uber and Bolt drivers don't really seem to want to pick up there due to one way streets and traffic making it time consuming for the drivers to get there. We had quite a few drivers accept the ride and then cancel.

If I go back to Portugal, it will be highest priority to go to Queluz. https://www.parquesdesintra.pt/en/parks-monuments/national-palace-and-gardens-of-queluz/

For all the palaces, planning ahead is KEY! For example, I purchased our Regaleria tickets just before leaving to go to the palace. We walked past a really long line of folks waiting to buy tickets. We didn't purchase the tickets well in advance because we visited the day we arrived Portugal. We took the metro/trains to Sintra from the airport, checked into our lodging and then took an Uber to Regaleria, so we weren't sure what our timing would be. After Regaleria we went to National, which I believe is open later, and was not busy, anyway. Cell service from the Moorish Castle was terrible so we had a hard time getting a Bolt driver to Monserrate from there. We purchased Pena tickets at least several weeks in advance. We purchased Monserrate, Moorish and National at the door when we arrived.

It is quite easy to take the train from Lisbon to Sintra.

Thank you all for your input.
As of now I am sticking to my original plan. I may add the Pena Palace.
I do have a question about the Pena Palace. We will have a Lisboa Card. Do I still have to purchase a timed ticket to enter or just can we just enter with our card.

I saw an article yesterday that Montserrat is scaffolded for repairs. It’s common all over Europe to find scaffolding, but you might want to check it out if you decide to visit.

To your last question: the Lisboa Card does not get you into Pena. Parques de Sintra is a separate operator and its own discounts page does not list the card; any card discount is applied at the counter, while the palace interior needs a timed slot booked online, and the early slots go first. On 1 September the official ticket office showed 09:30 sold out for all of the next 30 dates and everything from 11:30 open on 28 of 30. For April, buy the 20 euro palace ticket online a few weeks ahead for a late-morning slot, or the 12 euro park ticket, which has no slot. Disclosure: I run a private tour company in Lisbon. Manuel, Swingo