We are taking a day trip to Sintra in May. We will have a 3 year old and 13 month old in a small double stroller. We hope to visit Pena Palace, the Moorish Castle, and Quinta de Regaleira. The problem is that we'd prefer to do Pena Palace first, then the Moorish Castle, and finish up at Quinta de Regaleira, but the information I have about the bus says that you can buy a ticket for one way through all of those things for 5 euros, but you can't backtrack. So we would have to get off at the town first, walk to Quinta de Regaleira, then get back to the town to catch the bus to the Moorish Castle, and we would end up at Pena Palace last....is there a way to do it in the reverse order?
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16893 posts
I believe your plan will work, although it sounds ambitious with two kids. Rick's Portugal book says something like this: "Try to arrive in Sintra by 9:15, since most major sights open between 9:00 and 9:45. Pick up a map at the train station's TI, and catch bus #434 up to the Pena Palace. After touring the palace and gardens, walk down to the Moorish Castle ruins, a nice spot for a picnic lunch. From here, you can hike 30 minutes down a steep, wooded path into town (get hiking instructions and map at castle entry; fork in path leads down from within the castle grounds) or catch the bus back to town (bus leaves from either castle). Have lunch (if you didn't already picnic at the Moorish Castle), explore the town, and visit the National Palace, then catch the train back to Lisbon in time for dinner." If the bus doesn't actually go to the Quinta de Regaleira, then it is about a 10-minute walk from the National Palace or 20 minutes from the train station.
Posted by
OP
Evansville, IN, USA
32 posts
I actually got the idea for the order of events from Rick's book but when I started researching it online, it didn't sound like you could really do it that way. I'm not worried about walking 10 minutes from Pena Palace to the Moorish Castle, but I'm a little nervous about a 30 minute walk on a wooded path to get to the town, especially with a stroller...