Hi All,
Taking a tour to Sintra in March with my sister and wanted thoughts on Pena Palace.
My sister claims that the Palace can be left out and to do only the gardens, which are meant to be amazing.
My thoughts was to do the palace and gardens
Help
Best,
Tova
From various forum posts and some YouTube videos, we got same feeling as your sister.
However, we visited the palace with the nuisance of timed ticket and boy we felt stupid for not taking the advice from our own research.
First of all, ground ticket is not just a ground ticket. You can visit 80 pct of the palace terraces including cafeteria. All those Instagram photos can be taken with grounds only ticket.
Interior was a huge let down.
Grounds ticket is a misleading name. It is a palace ticket without painful interior visit. It is half the cost and has no tension of timed entry.
The 3 euro green bus transfer to the top was worth it to preserve time and energy for other attractions
Now the problem was that I could not figure out how to buy "palace tickets without interior" online in advance
But if you go in March, it might be easy to buy from machines at the entrance or even from the counter.
Only time we encounter crowd was this stupid walk through of the interior.
Another thing:
Would certainly give Regaleria much higher preference than Moorish Castle. RS in his book seems to give lot more attention to Castle than the Regaleria. But if you read posts on this forum or TA, folks prefer Regaleria over Castle by huge margin.
Note that given the long winding one way road and terrible traffic, uber/bolt drivers do not like to come up to pick pax for short journey back to town. But if someone is getting dropped off , it is easier to get a driver assigned.
This definitely going to happen more likely at the main gate of Pena Palace than at Moorish Castle.
TLDR:
1. Buy the cheaper untimed palace exterior only ticket
2. Skip Moorish Castle and spend time at Regaleria or complete the sintra-cabo de Rocca - Cascais circuit in leisurely manner
3. Avoid expensive tours and inconvenient train/bus. Use cheap Bolt/Uber directly from your hotel in Lisbon. (Costwise it is no brainer for a family but even with 2 people saving of time and energy makes it worth it)
Skip Moorish Castle and spend time at Regaleria or complete the
sintra-cabo de Rocca - Cascais circuit in leisurely manner
I'm curious why you don't think the Moorish Castle is worthwhile? We're going in October.
Interesting. How difficult is it to find the trail to walk back to town after viewing PP grounds? (Don't think walking on the road sounds like fun.) We will skip the castle and plan to visit Regalaria.
Are you thinking about the Villa Sassetti path or the Santa Maria path? There will be signs. From the Pena Palace Lakes entrance, you go thru the parking lot and at the end will be the Villa Sassetti path. If headed to the Moorish Castle (path when you exit the main Pena entrance to the Castle), there will be signs for both. I walked up the Sassetti path and down the Santa Maria path last time I was in Sintra.
Regarding the Moorish Castle, I liked it for its views, so nothing wrong with visiting it. It all comes down to what place you want to prioritize. Can't see it all. My favorites so far are Quinta da Regaleira and Monserrate after 3 separate visits to Sintra (love that town). But the Castle pairs nicely with Pena. And there is a bus connecting Regaleira and Monserrate (wonderful gardens and tourists seem to overlook this site).
@Allan,
It is of course individual preferences and time/energy you have at hand.
We had planned to go to Moorish Castle. But after viewing it from Pena Palace (you get a very good view of it from one of rooms during interior visit), simply prioritized Regaleria and circuit to Cabo and Cascais over it
With sufficient time and energy, would have done Moorish Castle too
It's just a castle and views are not that different than from Pena Palace terraces. On the other hand, Regaleria is sort of unique property.
Again, personal choice, energy and time. (Climbing is not trivial for senior citizens who are not in good shape)
I agree with @kennyd on their recommendations. For us, the interior wasn't worth it. However, if you do decide to see the inside, it is best to purchase ahead to ensure you get the times you want for entry. Also, give yourself plenty of time to get to the Pena Palace, they are strict about entry times, we saw people getting turned away because they were late. Take the green bus to the top, it is a really steep climb up.
One note, we went in October this past year and it was rainy and windy. The weather was so bad, we could barely see the Palace from a distance and the wind prevented us from visiting the Moorish Castle. Despite the weather, it was really crowded on a Tuesday. Since you are going in March, you may have rain, so just plan on giving yourself extra time if you do.
