Sintra plans

We used the same strategy for Pena Palace (Bolt from Lisbon, earliest timed Palace admission) and the Moorish Castle (walk). Afterwards, we were tired and caught a bolt back to Lisbon.

If you want to go to Quinta da Regaleira afterwards, you can walk, catch the bus or a bolt back at the roadway. When we went, there were also locals with cars hanging out at the roadway entrances to the Moorish Castle and Pena Palace Park offering rides back to Sintra for €5pp. Good luck

The tickets for just the grounds are called Park of Pena (towards the bottom)

https://bilheteira.parquesdesintra.pt/categoria/45/parks-and-monuments

https://bilheteira.parquesdesintra.pt/evento/parque-da-pena/249/en

If you decide to walk down the hill, this is a nice trail with views when clear.

https://www.parquesdesintra.pt/en/agenda/walking-route-vila-sassetti/

https://www.parquesdesintra.pt/en/parks-monuments/villa-sassetti/

Eric, thanks for asking this, as we wanted to do something similar. Have you decided yet?

When are you going?

We were in Portugal in December and spent a day in Sintra. The Moorish Castle was our favorite, actually. It is just a lot of ruins, but it was great fun to climb up and down them and the views (including the view of Pena Palace) were spectacular. We did the grounds only ticket (Pena Park) at Pena, as I was led to believe that the best part is really the views from the outside. Another stop we made that I really enjoyed was Monserrate. The grounds there are lovely, it was much less crowded compared to the other sights, and the architecture itself and the story behind the place were quite interesting. To get around, we bought tickets for the hop-on hop-off Scotturb bus, that served us well for getting around. There is also no shortage of local drivers who line up outside all these attractions and try to get you to ride with them.

Have never used Bolt, but an avid user of Uber. Will Uber be good for trips Sintra, , Porto, Coimbra and Lisbon?

We used Uber instead of Bolt with no issues for multiple rides during our stay last Fall including Lisbon, Porto and Sintra.. Most drivers are driving for both.

Do the sites other than Pena Palace require a timed ticket? Or only a generic ticket for entry?

For those who have been, other than main sites in my post (PP, MC, QdR) what other sites in Sintra are worth seeing?

We'd like to make the best use of our time (but dont mind some walking in between), but I'm assuming if we arrive at PP by 9 am, we' would like be able to do most of above by 3 pm? We like to spend time in the sites, but our style is not to linger in sites (unless absolutely huge and demand the time) for hours on end. An example would be Tower of London where we spent no more than 1.5-2 hours, saw most of things but not every detail.

When I looked at Uber, it only gave a destination of Sintra. How do I say I want to go to Pena Palace or the Moorish Castle?

I looked at the past ride on my bolt app.

I'm pretty sure I just typed in "National Palace of Pena". The bolt app shows the destination address as: Calçada Pena 539, Sintra 2710-608

Google mapped it and it looks about right.

Or perhaps you need to use the Portuguese names; Castelo dos Mouros, Palacio Nacional da Pena.

We’ve done Sintra a couple of times and one thing we learned quickly: while everything looks close on the map, getting between the sites can be surprisingly tiring. The hills are steep, and walking from Pena to Regaleira (for example) is more than 30 minutes and not the most scenic route.

A lot of people use Uber or Bolt to get up to Pena Palace — just make sure to enter "Palácio Nacional da Pena" as the destination. But note: cars can only go to the entrance of the park, not the palace itself. From there, it’s a 10-15 minute walk or shuttle bus ride.

For Pena, if you're not set on visiting inside, you can get a "Park Only" ticket — it gives you access to the gardens and the exterior views (which are the real highlight for many).

If you're looking to visit Pena, Moorish Castle, and Regaleira in one day and don’t want to worry about transportation between them, we found that using a private tuk-tuk was a great option. The driver waited for us at each stop, shared lots of local insight, and made the day way smoother.

We booked with a company called Yes, You Deserve ( www.yesyoudeserve.tours ) — they use electric tuk-tuks and the service was top-notch. Totally worth it if you're short on time and want to enjoy the experience without rushing or figuring out logistics between spots.

If you start early (like 9am), it’s realistic to visit Pena Park, Moorish Castle, and Regaleira by mid-afternoon, especially if you're not spending hours at each site.

Bonus tip: Monserrate is often overlooked but really beautiful and peaceful — if you have time or plan a second day, it’s worth adding.

Bolt is cheaper than Uber and plentiful.
We tried both.
Whatever is available first

They are so cheap and saves you time and energy.

Yes, it is much easier to get bolt)Uber at pena entrance due to the one way nature of the road.

QR is no longer a secret it was 20 years ago. It can get crowded. Monserrate is a good choice or you can send evening in cascais (again Uber/bolt saves time and energy)