Pena Palace Timing of Entry

Pena Palace is really, really busy. I was surprised. I took the advice of arriving at opening to avoid the crowds and was disappointed by just how crowded it was. The outside was beautiful, but the inside was almost too packed to be enjoyable. I thought I had been given bad advice, but then when we were leaving there was a line up of hundreds and hundreds of people all the way down the hill leading up to the castle. So it turns out, visiting early did reduce the number of visitors, it just didn't feel like it! I can't speak for the late afternoon, but we visited some other sites later in the afternoon and I did not notice a reduction in crowd size, so I would say if you can get there at opening that is probably best, but I would expect things to be quite crowded. Still worth a visit though!

I was there about 2 weeks ago, so early November. My husband and I decided to take the train from Lisbon on a Sunday afternoon and spend the night so we could get up to the Pena Palace right when it opened on Monday. We actually took an Uber up the mountain and when we arrived there was virtually no line. We had purchased tickets in advance on Klook. We did not go inside the castle but the outside is beautiful and worth the hassle of getting there. After the Pena we walked over to the Moorish Castle. Lovely grounds and views but very windy. Honestly we both felt that we should have spent 2 nights in Sintra because there's lots to see there in addition to the Pena.

We were there in late October. We got there about 10 (took the second train to Sintra from Lisbon). We waited in a 10-15 minute line for tickets. We bought tickets for the inside of the palace, and were told it was a 30-minute wait to get in. We ended up hiking up to the Palace, which was a nice walk, though pretty steep if you aren't prepared. The line was probably closer to 45 minutes, and then once we got inside, you basically go single file through the Palace. By the time we left, the line had probably doubled. If you aren't a huge history buff, I would actually skip the interior of the palace. If you purchase the ticket for just the Pena Park, you can actually go all the way up to the top, get all of the views of the city, views of the Palace, and the river, without wasting time in line, and it's half the price. By the time we got inside the palace, we were pretty jaded about having wasted so much time standing in line. Just my two cents.

Well, here’s another anecdotal story. When my flight arrived in Lisbon in early May, 2017, I went right to Sintra for two nights, and loved it. The next morning I took the public bus up to Pena Palace, arriving as it opened, no line outside or inside. When I emerged, there was a young staff member offering a tour of the grounds for 3 euros, in a large cart, sort of an extended golf cart. I said OK, and it ended up I was the only one on the tour. So, the two of us had some fun, the tour was much longer than expected, the grounds were very extensive, diverse and beautiful. We stopped at various outbuildings, Including royal cottages and horse stables with a training ring, in use at the time. Also great views back at the Palace from a distance. That grounds tour was a highlight of my visit. By the way, I often heard that Monday is by far the busiest and most crowded day in Sintra, at least in the high season. That is because the museums in Lisbon are closed on Mondays, so many people take day trips to Sintra then