Sintra after the storms

I was in Sintra on 5April 3025. The grounds of the Quinta de Regaleira were fully opened. The walk from the Moorish Castle to Pena Palace is also open and only about 10 minutes. The walks from both ticket gates to the attractions are also 10 -15 minutes each and beautiful. Except for the main path, the Pena Palace gardens are completely shut, but you still get a great appreciation of the countryside from the main path and from the Moorish Castle. The Palace was crowded but I have no reference to know whether it was busier than usual. The trip was highly enjoyable and worth it, especially climbing the Moorish Castle walls and the sweeping vistas as our weather was clear.

Thank you so much. This is incredibly helpful.

In your experience, does it make more sense to do the Moorish Castle first and then walk to Pena Palace, or the reverse? (We will probably visit Quinta de Regaleira on a different day.)

We have just come from Sintra. There are signs of repair at Pena Castle (scaffolding up and wall walk is closed) and on some of the roads.

A few things we learned - avoid Sintra during Holy Week, as there are dozens of school groups here and it is one of the most crowded weeks of the year. Also suggest getting a tuk-tuk driver rather than the #434 bus suggested in the Rick Steves guidebook, as the company running the bus line provided poor service (it is not public transport but appears to be as you arrive at the train station). There is also a public bus but we did not see this until it was too late.

joansrose can you clarify about the 434 bus. Are there two buses with that same number, one public and one private? It was my impression that 434 was a public bus.

In your experience, does it make more sense to do the Moorish Castle
first and then walk to Pena Palace, or the reverse?

I don't think it matters. Since you require a timed ticket if you want to visit inside the Palace, the time of that ticket may determine which you do first. In September we used Uber for €9 to get us to the Moorish Castle first (looooved it!), then we walked the path to Pena Palace. We only had terrace tickets and didn't care about the inside so which we did first so it wasn't an issue. We caught an Uber for €9 back to Sintra. If you're taking an Uber it might make sense to do Pena last as there seemed to be a lot more traffic to there and getting an Uber took just a few minutes.