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Sintra - Questions Re: Visit in November

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We will be in Lisbon on a cruise stop on Sunday, November 5th and would like to do a self-tour to Sintra. Unfortunately, our ship does not dock until 10am, so we will not be able to do an early tour at Pena Palace as is so often recommended. At this point, we don't expect to get to Sintra until close to noon. So we'd spend a couple hours first at Quinta da Regaleira (which my daughter recommends based on our interests and walking time) and then make our way to Pena Palace for a 3:00 or 3:30 pm entry. ( I understand that the entry time is when you are at the palace gates, a 20-minute walk from the park entrance.) Then, time permitting, we'll walk over to the Moorish Castle before it closes for admission at 5:30 pm.

My questions:
1) Should we expect Pena Palace to be crowded this late in the afternoon on a Sunday in early November?
2) How rigid are they at Pena Palace regarding entry times? If we show up 10 - 15 minutes after our scheduled entry time, will we be admitted or turned away?
3) Knowing we cannot get the 434 bus at Quinta da Regaleira, what is the closest 434 bus stop and how long would it take us to walk there?

Any other advice for doing this self-tour is appreciated.

Posted by
5687 posts

I don't know what kind of walking shape you are in, but the center of Sintra is not a long walk from Quinta da Regaleira (so in theory, you could get off the train from Lisbon and walk to Quinta da Regaleira). But I think there may be another local bus - don't remember. I'd probably check Google Maps. But I agree with your daughter - Quinta da Regaleira was the highlight of Sintra for me.

Do you have a strong interest in going inside the Pena Palace? I chose not to go inside - you can see it from the outside and walk around the grounds without actually going inside. I guess I'd seen enough palaces and castles by the time I visited Pena Palace that I didn't feel the need to see another. But from the outside, Pena Palace is really unique looking, of course.

I visited in May, not November, and not on a Sunday as a I recall...but I think Sunday might be a day when more locals would visit, since like anywhere else, people are off of work on the weekends. It was fairly busy while I was there that May a few years back.

On another note, have you spent any time in Lisbon before? It's a wonderful city, and personally, unless you are dying to go inside the Pena Palace, I would probably not waste precious time on the trains going back and forth from Lisbon to Sintra. But of course, it depends on what your interests are.

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