We are on the Heart of Portgual tour in early April and have been told by previous visitors to Portgual to visit Sintra. We have either the Sunday or the Monday of our tour start to plan a visit.. I am looking for any recommendations for a guide or company for a party of 4-6 people.
Thanks
We took a tour to Evora with Cooltour. They also offer a Sintra tour, which I believe includes transport in a club van. If you can, request Elizabeth - she is a genuine delight.
Mark, we took the amazing RS Heart of Portugal Tour several years ago. We arrived in Lisbon 2 nights prior to the tour. We took a day tour to Sintra and beyond with Lisbon Riders. You are transported by a private comfortable van that accommodates up to 8 people. Our guide "Manuel" was knowledgeable and engaging. It was a perfect way to learn about this region prior to the start of the tour. We have since referred others to this tour company. www.lisbonriders.com. Enjoy your planning and Portugal!
** Edited to include that the Lisbon Riders pick up point was a 5 min. walk from our Hotel. We were staying at Hotel Lisboa Plaza.
I just returned from this truly wonderful tour. My friends and I took ourselves to Sintra from Lisbon on a combination of Metro and train. This is very easy to do by following the directions in the Rick Steves Portugal book. We arrived three days early for the tour, knowing that we were planning on a day trip to Sintra, and stayed in the tour hotel, which is lovely. The section in the tour book for visiting Sintra is very good and while I know "on your own" doesn't always match a private guided tour, we still saw everything we wanted to see and visited all the sites we wanted to see. We also had a fabulous lunch at one of the recommended restaurants. That is, recommended by a local person we asked. We did find out later this restaurant is also mentioned in the guide book. If you'd like the name, let me know and I'll be happy to look it up for you. You will enjoy this tour; it is quite amazing in all respects. I enjoyed every minute and was not very happy when the day to return home rolled around!
We also used Lisbon Riders for our visit in October based on recommendations here at the Forum. I corresponded before the visit with Manuel and Tania Costa was our guide for two 1/2 to 3/4s day tours: the first an an overall survey of Lisbon and environs, the second to Sintra and the Pena Palace. I found all the Lisbon Riders colleagues (they are a true collective) very pleasant, personable, knowledgable, and very conversant in English. We were especially impressed and pleased with Tania- she is just a great person (and very knowledgable, etc etc....)When I left my computer in the security line in Lisbon airport, she went out and retrieved it and shipped it back to me: I KNOW that wasn't in the job description! Anyway, Lisbon Riders is a great choice and I know you wouldn't be disappointed. They have a number of 1/2 and full day tours organized. 1/2 day for Sintra and the Palace is just about right.
We had a fantastic guide in Sintra. He was very reasonably priced as well. We travelled to Sintra by train and he met us at the train station. We're a family of five and easily fit in his vehicle. His name is Sergio Mata. https://www.facebook.com/sergiomatatours/
ETA: if you'd like to see what our day was like with Sergio, I did a blog post that might be helpful. https://sunsetsandrollercoasters.com/daytrip-from-lisbon-to-sintra/
