My wife and I are planning a day trip to Sintra this July as part of our trip to Portugal. Which of the sites require tickets?
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If you're planning a day trip to Sintra on your own, I highly recommend booking your tickets in advance for Pena Palace and Park, especially during peak season (spring/summer), as timed entries to the palace often sell out quickly. You can buy them directly on the official Parques de Sintra website (https://www.parquesdesintra.pt), where you’ll choose a specific time slot for the palace — this helps a lot when organizing the rest of your itinerary.
A useful tip: your ticket allows you to enter the park earlier than your palace time slot, so you can explore the beautiful gardens and viewpoints before your palace visit. If you're not up for the steep walk to the top, there’s a small internal shuttle that runs from the park entrance to the palace itself.
If you're also planning to visit Quinta da Regaleira, tickets can be purchased online via their own website. That visit is more flexible as it doesn’t require a timed entry, so you can fit it around your other plans.
One final piece of advice: avoid driving to Sintra. Traffic and parking are a nightmare. The train from Lisbon’s Rossio Station is direct, cheap, and much easier — especially if you’re going early in the day.