I’ll be spending 2 days in Lisbon next September before the RS tour starts. I’m looking at taking a day trip to Sintra on one of the those days. Would you suggest a tour or on my own? If a tour, a half or whole day, and can you recommend a tour guide please? I’m 70 and active, but I did read about those hilly walks!
Is it really crowded everywhere or just in the cities?
Kathy
Posted by
Cascais, Portugal
1883 posts
Do a day tour to Sintra. It makes the logistics of getting from place to place so much easier. There are many companies offering tours. The reviews on trip advisor are pretty good IMO.
Sintra and Lisbon will be crowded. Especially Sintra. Smaller places, not so much.
Posted by
OP
North Carolina
237 posts
Thank you Kathryn. I’ll check that out. Has anyone used the hop on hop off bus to visit Sinatra?
Posted by
Pacific Northwest
2727 posts
We used Lisbon Riders for two full days and one half day. They have group tours and they’re a great group of tour guides. We spent time with 3 of the guides and they were all great.
Posted by
San Francisco
192 posts
Another vote for Lisbon Riders.
Posted by
124 posts
We took a private tour with Lisbon on Wheels which we customized. We saw Pena Palace, National Palace, Moorish Castle and Quinta Regaleira during our tour which lasted 10 hours. I would highly recommend this tour
with Jose.
Posted by
Happy Valley,OR
83 posts
We just finished a private tour of Sintra with Sergio Mata. Highly recommend! 150€ for eight hours for the both of us. We gave him 210€ because he was that good! Excellent English and will do whatever you’d like! Look him up on TripAdvisor.
Posted by
USA
145 posts
It might be convenient to join an organized tours (there are many slightly differing versions and different meeting points - so you can choose which one suites you the best)
Another alternative is hire private driver-cum-guide.
We didn't for Sintra tour but used one for Lisbon to Porto transfer with many stops along the way. Same company was later used by some friends for Sintra tour and they thought it was a good return for the price paid.
Posted by
Louisiana
111 posts
we are doing our 5th RS tour in portugal
in september. we have always just used the RS tour book instead of a guided tour on our early arrival days. You are going ti be in a RS guided tour anyway once the tour starts. His “walks” are very well explained.
Posted by
OP
North Carolina
237 posts
Sorry for being so behind in answering your replies. The more I read about Sintra, the more it sounds like there is a lot to see. I’m glad so many of you have had good tours. At this point, I think I’m going to go on my own seeing that I will be in a tour group for 12 days after Sintra.
Thank you!