Best days/times for visiting sites in Lisbon, Sintra, Belem. Itinerary advice please!

Sunday and Monday look good to me. Get to Jerominos Monastery right when it opens. It’s surprising how fast such a large space gets crowded. Don’t forget to go to Pasties de Belem while you’re there. I’m not familiar with your Tuesday and Wednesday itinerary.

I got to the monastery around 11.15 am on Tuesday in early June (yeah, couple weeks ago - seems like months now, sigh) and there was a short line for the church, which was crowded mostly because of group tours. Then I went to the maritime museum (getting drenched by rain), had a leisurely lunch in the cafe while I dried out, then enjoyed the museum itself. By the time I got back to the monastery for the ticketed area, there were no lines, no groups and sunshine. At about 5 pm I stopped at Pastéis de Belém. There was a short line for take-out (or eat in but self-service) and a very long line for table service. Yummy.

Going to Cabo da Roca takes a lot of time by slow bus. Maybe with a car you could do it before Sintra if you went really early in the morning. Take a taxi, have the driver wait for you at Cabo da Roca then take you to Quinta da Regaleira. Google estimates driving time at about 1.5 hours, add tolls and wait time. Is it worth it for a view of the Atlantic Ocean? Without that first stop, you'll have plenty of time in Sintra. Is the restaurant in Sintra or Lisbon? If it's in Sintra, you may have time for the National Palace as well (it was my favorite sight in Sintra).

Thank you Kclyons and Chani!

forgot to mention that since we are a traveling as a group, we'll be hiring a charter bus to take us to Sintra, Belem, etc. I just need to figure out what the most logical and least crowded itinerary would be.

just noticed something when i was looking up directions and time estimates on googlemaps. perhaps many of the streets in Sintra are one-way streets. It seems to give shorter times if we start in Pena Palace and then go to Regaleira. I was considering doing it in the reverse order becuase the rep from Pena Palace suggested visiting after 3pm as it should be a little less crowded than in the morning, But I guess either way there will be hordes of people _.

I am thinking of hiring horse carriages while in Sintra. Wonder whether that would be a pleasant ride through the town. Unfortunately, the initial idea of doing the park horse carriage tour would not work as the Pena Palace park only has 1 carriage and they don't allow the ones that operate in town to enter. I'm thinking maybe it's possible to arrange a horse carriage short ride between one of the palaces and our restaurant for lunch.

Has anyone taken the horse carriage rides in Sintra?

The road to Pena Palace is one-way. Regaleria is on another road in a different direction. It's a 15 minute walk from the center on a nearly level road - except for the last 400m up to the ticket office - so it's about 10 minutes back to town. It's a two-way road.

Chani, thank you! I really need to figure out what part of the way we are going to do by bus/horse carriage/walk.

For those who included Cabo da Roca in their Sintra day, did you do the it in the morning before visiting the palaces or after? I wonder what would be better.

Cabo da Roca > one of the palaces > LUNCH > second palace > return to Lisbon for dinner
One of the palaces > LUNCH > second palace > purchase pastries > Cabo da Roca w/pastry snack > return to Lisbon for dinner