Discovering Sintra with a Skip the Line Tour: Pena Palace and Quinta da Regaleira Day Trip from Lisbon

Overview

When planning our trip to Portugal, a must do on our list was a day trip from Lisbon to Sintra. When friends and family heard about our upcoming trip, they always shared beautiful articles or photographs of Pena Palace. Before we left, we had booked our day trip with a skip the line ticket to Sintra to see both the Pena Palace and the Quinta da Regaleira. 

Pena Palace with Skip the Line

We met our guide at Praça Dom Pedro IV in Lisbon and boarded a bus to transport us to our first stop, Pena Palace — one of the Seven Wonders of Portugal. Luckily, the weather was perfect for our journey as there is plenty of walking from the bus to get to Pena Palace.  The guide was very knowledgeable about the history of the palace, and I was very thankful for our “skip the line” tickets when we walked by the sea of people waiting in line. 

It is definitely a small hike to get to the palace so sturdy footwear is a must. Although we had excellent weather, those cobblestone walkways would be very slick in the rain.  As we made the trek, the palace started peeping into view. The bright yellow of part of the palace really pops against the blue sky. 

Once at the top, we toured through the palace including many interior rooms with their furnishings. We also toured the small chapel and its beautiful stained glass window of the chapel (a fun little detail). 

Lunch

After we left Pena Palace, we had lunch on our own in Sintra. Although the guides provided many recommendations, we selected Sintra Terrace from a search of restaurants on our map application and enjoyed mushroom risotto and a burger with fries before leisurely wandering through town to rejoin the group to head to Quinta da Regaleira. 

Quinta da Regaleira

Once on the grounds of Quinta da Regaleira, our first stop was the Initiation Well. We followed the spiral staircase to explore the underground tunnel system and waterfall.

Afterwards, we explored the castle grounds and the gardens filled with flora such as the Crane Flower and Fountainbushes until we walked back to Sintra to catch our bus to Cascais. 

Cascais

By the time we got to Cascais, a little seaside resort area in Portugal, the sky had turned gray, and it was threatening to rain. We walked the streets and took a few photos until it was time to return to Lisbon. 

Summary

We really enjoyed our visit to Sintra with the highlights being both the Pena Palace and Quinta da Regaleira. We highly recommend a day trip from Lisbon if you have the time to explore outside the Lisbon city limits. One of our other fun tours, was a private trip to wine country that you can read about here.

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Lisbon: Guided Day Tour of Sintra, Pena, Regaleira & Cascais on Get Your Guide

Here’s is the tour we used for this private wine tour on Viator.