Sintra Portugal is a beautiful and historic town that is built into a mountainside of a long dormant volcano. Portuguese kings and royalty flocked here for the summer. It is loaded with sights, from the royal and historical, to the downright fun and quirky.

The popular tourist destination can be reached with a short train trip from Lisbon and is well worth the trip.

The city’s primary sights are the many palaces and mansions and the remains of a 10^th-century Moorish Castle. We strongly advise buying tickets in advance on line for any place you want to enter. Otherwise you can be in long lines or even worse, tickets maybe sold out.

Castelo dos Mouros (Moors Castle)

The restored ramparts of a 10^th-century Moorish castle sits atop a dormant volcano that is visible from all around the city, particularly when it is illuminated at night. The site, however, consists of little more than the fortifications, gardens and fabulous views that overlook the town and the surrounding area, to the Atlantic Ocean.

Palacio National de Sintra

Moorish rulers originally built and occupied the palace in the 14^th century. It was expanded to incorporate Manueline sections and elements. Although it was used as a royal summer resort until the late 19^th century, today it is a museum.

Although the interior is supposed to have some beautiful rooms (and especially carved ceilings), we chose not to tour the interior. We did, however explore some of its pretty arched entryways and lovely window moldings and one of its pretty courtyards. The palace’s most striking feature are two huge, bottle-like chimneys that soar above the castle.

Palacio da Pena (Pena Palace)

This fabulous, fairytale 19^th century palace was built atop the city’s second tallest of the surrounding peaks . The best way to reach the Palace (which is up) is to take a tuk tuk, uber or bus up to the palace. But it is an easy 30 minute walk downhill to get back into town.

The Palace consists of a fanciful mix of architectural styles and colors. We wish we had planned ahead as the tickets were sold out for the day when we arrived and we were unable to go inside.

We ended up settling for views of the fabulous exterior and a walk through the surrounding park. The huge wooded park that studded with small lakes and dozens of interesting gazebos, fountains, and smaller chalets.

Quinta da Regaleira

The fabulously quirky (with alleged symbols of the occult) garden is studded with ponds, bridges, waterfalls, hidden grottos, and fanciful towers. It is laced with a labyrinth of underground tunnels—–and even an “underground tower”—that circles back upon one another to take you to different views of the same sight. For example, you can see a waterfall from above, from the front, from behind, and by walking over the water on a set of stones It is a fun, almost surreal experience that makes you anxiously await the next sight and ensure that you don’t miss any.

One a more serious note, the estate also has two chapels: one is underground and another is standalone that, surprise, takes you down to another tunnel and a mansion. The beautifully restored mansion has ornately tiled floors, carved ceilings and fireplaces. The inset portraits tell the stories of the owner and the architect and provides detailed architectural drawings and plan.

Other sights on the grounds include:

• Initiactic Well (the underground tower),
• Labrinthic Grotto (with the waterfall);
• Portal of the Guardians (twin-towered entrance to the well); and
• The main house.

Palacio de Seteais

The 19^th-century palace with expansive lawns and views is now a luxury hotel. While we couldn’t afford to stay there, we did enjoy the building and view.

Monserrat Palace

The 18^th-century Neo-Gothic palace is about 15 minutes west of Sintra. It is built on the ruins of an 11^th-century chapel by an English businessman upon whom then King Dom Louis I bestowed the title, Viscount of Monserrat.  

Old Town

The town has much more than than castles. The lovely, atmospheric Old Town is a warren of narrow, curved alleys that are filled with shops. Check out the 100-year old, family-run Piriquita bakery that is deservedly famous for its pillow-shaped egg cream/almond custard pastries in puff pastry. (If the line is too long here, follow the sign up the street a bit to their second shop). Delicious.

Old Town Buildings of Note

And don’t miss these buildings in Old Town:

Parish Church of Sao Martinho of Sintra. The Romano-Gothic structure was rebuilt after the 1755 Earthquake on the foundations of, and in the same style as the original built in 1147.

Camera Municipal, the striking Neo-Manueline town hall. You are not allowed to enter without official business.

Casino de Sintra

The fashionable casino from 1920s-1950s is an art center today.

Sintra Post Office

The post office is a small, virtually unlabeled building buried in the middle of town. Its walls and counters are covered with pretty tiles.

And speaking of tiles, a short walk out of the downtown takes you past a former chapel with beautiful blue tiling and an entry gate to a wonderful estate that takes you through a tiled version of the town’s history.

Manueline Pillory

And for those who played free and loose with the then ruling regime’s laws and rules, the Manueline pillory is where offenders were publicly and painfully shamed by being hung by their wrists for a period deemed appropriate for the offense. Ouch

Sintra Area Restaurants

• Incomun is a very good and very popular restaurant. We shared (and could not finish) a very nice two-person meal of Iberian pork ribs with honey, mustard, sweet potatoes, cherry tomatoes and spinach. And after tasting two wines that our server recommended with our dish (a Torrega Nationale from Douro and a Syrah Biera) we ordered the 2019 Quinta dos Termos Reserva do Patina Syrah from the Biera Interor DOC.
• Romaria de Baco is a casual spot at which we ended up with a “healthy” meal of fried baby squid with aioli, tempura octopus and Altheiro (bird) sausage. Our wine was a very pleaant, full-bodied (but unoaked) Herdade Grande Reserva, a blend of 50% Viosiennne, 25% Arinto and 25% Viognier.
• Restaurtante Apeadeiro was the very busy and most highly recommended dinner in town. Unfortunately, we were not impressed.  Although the grilled grouper was okay, the fried calamari and shrimp plate was so filled with French fries as to provide little room for the small handful of calamari (which weren’t bad) and tiny shrimp (which were so overdone as to be inedible). And since they were so busy, it was hard to get service. Meanwhile, a bottle of Esporao Reserva from the Alentejo region, was, like many of the other Portuguese wines we had, fruity, straightforward and easy drinking.

Sintra Wine Bars

• Incomun Wine Gallery. Although we passed on dessert at Incomun, we did, after a short walk through historic downtown, stop at the restaurant’s sister wine gallery for their selection of ports. After discussing our preferences (for one Tawny and one Ruby) and a couple of samples, we selected  Dalva 20 year old Tawny and a Pocas 2013 Vintage Ruby. We got much more than we bargained for when the manager, Ricardo Sanchez, pleased to see patrons who were familiar with wines and were genuinely interested in learning more about Portuguese wines, discussed different type of ports an what he looked for in  in them. Our conversation progressed to all types of wines and the different grapes from different Portuguese regions. A fascinating discussion and a great update on Portuguese wines. 
• Bar do Binho—House of Port. This 100-year-old wine merchant specializes in Port. We tasted a flight of four ports. We began with a white port (which accounts for only about 10 percent of total port production) followed by a smooth, but full-bodied Quinta do Rey followed by a Late Bottle Vintage Ruby, a sweet, fruity Quinta das Lamelas and two aged Tawny Ports, beginning with a Quinta da Cachao 2005 Reserve Tawny (young, harsh and our least favorite of the tasting). The finale was a 30-year old Quinta dos Matos which had a nutty taste with vanilla notes and a high-alcohol taste reminiscent of Bourbon (even though it had the same 18 percent of alcohol as the others). While Joyce found the Bourbon  taste off-putting, but Tom enjoyed it although not as much as the white and the Late Bottle Vintage. 

Sintra Hotels

While we don’t always talk about our hotels, we have to mention Sintra Marmoris. It is a 10 minute walk outside of the main area but is well worth staying. The beautiful palace is now a guest house. As with many of the places where we stayed in Portugal, plugs are at a premium by the bed and USB ports are usually absent. Each room seemed to be unique. Our room was spacious but a little awkward with a step up into the bathroom area. It contained coffee, hot pot and nightly port. But what this made this place stand out for us were 3 things:

• The staff. We can’t say enough about them.
• Breakfast. It was vast and tasty.
• Happy Hour.  They have an amazing wine and cheese tasting from 6-7 at night along with some form of entertainment. One night it was fado and another night was a magician.

Oh yes we forgot to mention the peasants which also provide a show for guests. Freddy (names after Freddie from Queen) was truly a queen, strutting his plumage for our entertainment.

**Note: We just wanted to mention that we  do not get any discounts or compensation for our reviews of anything here.