Sintra from Lisbon

I walked to Quinta, but the entrance is along the street, so a Bolt should be able to drop you off right at the entrance. I hiked up to Pena, but I believe Bolt can drop you off at the outside entrance gate. You have to walk on up the hill to the palace on your own. I'm not sure how long that will take since I wandered the park for a few hours before heading to the palace, but if I were you, I'd give it at least an hour. You can always enjoy the views if you have extra time.

I was there in January when it wasn't crowded so I had no problem getting rides, but it's probably still crowded in September, so make sure to give yourself time to get a ride as well. Have a wonderful time!

We will be in Lisbon for Rick’s September 25 tour and will be arriving on the morning of the 24th. Since we don’t have to be at the orientation meeting until 5:00 pm we were considering a visit to Sintra on the 25th. We’ve seen several day excursions advertised, but they are usually 8 hours and we think we wouldn’t be able to get back in time for the orientation meeting. Would it be possible to take a morning train to Sintra and then go on an excursion that originates in Sintra and might not be that long. Can anyone recommend a Sintra based excursion? Sintra looks lovely and we would really like to see some of it when we are so close.

Martha, I'm not sure about excursions, but I found Sintra easy to navigate with just my own plan (after much research and many questions here of course) using Bolt if it was too far to walk. With limited time, you could probably use a Bolt/Uber or maybe even a tuktuk from the center of town. On Facebook groups there are several locals that will likely customize a tour as well. I hope you're able to come up with a plan that works for you. .

KRS thanks for the input. We (there will be 6 of us) decided not to do an excursion but to make our own itinerary in Sintra. Hoping that we'll be able to take an Uber/Bolt from our Lisbon accommodations all the way to the entrance - hoping to avoid a crowd delay for the 434 bus from the train station. Fingers crossed!

We were a group of six and we visited Sintra from Lisbon. We ordered a Bolt XL for €35 which took us from our apartment to the entrance of the Pena Palace park. From there it was about a 10-minute walk up to the palace. We booked the first entry time in order to avoid the later crowds.

funpig - Great, thanks for the info! We are also a group of 6 and this is exactly what we are hoping to do.

I agree with funpig that the actual walk from the entrance gate up to the palace is probably only about 10 minutes. I was thinking you should get there an hour or so early mostly because of the lines. I didn't do the interior of the palace, so I could be mistaken, but that line looked really long and I was there in January when it's not as crowded. I'm not sure how timed entry cuts down on the time to wait, but I would imagine if lots of people have the same time as you, there's still a wait. Plus, I cannot stand to be late, so I automatically default to getting everywhere early. :)

Lisbon to Sintra is about 45 minutes via car or bus. We did a tour. You will want to drive/bus between Quinta de Regaleira and Pena Palace. I don't believe its really walkable.