Advance tickets to attractions necessary?

We were in Portugal in April for what we thought would be "shoulder season". It was extremely busy. I'd count on September being very busy. For Sintra, if you want to go to Pena, strongly, strongly recommend getting tickets online in advance. Try to get 9:30 or 10. For Lisbon, do a forum search on Jeroninmos Monastery. It is amazing and very busy. Buy tickets online, just know, that the timed ticket means just about nothing, but does save you from standing in a second line to buy the ticket. For the Lisbon castle, buy your ticket online. The long line you will see at the castle is for people waiting to buy tickets. You don't need advance tickets for the monastery in Batalha.

Also, the general consensus is that Portugal is experiencing record levels of travelers. Some of the attractions are not up to speed with dealing with the numbers of people they are getting. (Jeroninmos, for one) So, what people experienced last September, or a September 2-3 years ago is likely not reflective of what will happen this September.

October is the new September. But Lisbon is full of tourists virtually year round these days. Good advice from Jules m above. I might add that Sintra for sure will be extremely crowded. Personally I would skip Pena Palace, which is ground zero, and instead focus on the Moorish Castle and Palacio Nacional.

Ugh. Doesn't sound very encouraging that Sintra would be crowded in October. We will be in Portugal the first week of October and Sintra will be on our list to visit. I guess I do need to look ahead to purchasing tickets ahead of time... :(

Thanks to all who sent replies on the advance tickets! Sounds like I definitely need to book online for the more popular sites. It's actually good to know that the timed tickets don't lock you into a time slot, since it's hard to plan exact arrival times. We'll expect crowds, in any case!

We were glad we went to Pena. I've wanted to see it for a long time. That said, it is pretty crazy, which is why I recommend the 9:30 or 10 time slots (and try to be in the front of your group). That said, I can understand why people may choose to skip Pena. We went to Monserrate which was very beautiful and interesting and much less busy. We did not go to Biester, but it sounded like many enjoy that palace. I liked the grounds of Regalaleira (and Pena's grounds) The Moorish castle was interesting and offered wonderful views. My husband liked the National Palace. I thought it was fine. It is historically interesting, I missed seeing furnishings.

Not in Sintra, and outside of Lisbon proper is Queluz. People seem to love it. If we had another day, we would have visited.

Great information - thank you! I'm trying to find an official site to buy tickets for Jeronimos monastery online but their website says it's under reconstruction and 'see you soon'! I think all the other sites offering tickets are third party sites and I'm not confident about using them. Is there any further advice someone can offer please?

Hi Annie,
I too was looking for tickets online. We needed senior tickets. In another conversation thread on this forum we were referred to the Pena Palace and Park official website: https://bilheteira.parquesdesintra.pt/evento/parque-e-palacio-nacional-da-pena/263/pt
AND they offer a 15% discount for purchasing online.

Sadly due to limited time in Sintra and all we want to see, we had to make the difficult decision of visiting the 500 acre gardens/park around Pena palace but not go inside the palace. To our delight we learned that these tickets didn't have a timed entry, like those for the palace have.