Sintra in 2 days, on foot

This 2-day self-guided walking plan for Sintra covers 15 narrated sights in an easy day-by-day order. Each day is split into a morning and an afternoon loop, and every stop has a two to three minute audio story in the Gingerguide app.

You set the pace: this is a suggested order, not a schedule. Walk it in 2 days, or stretch it out. Reorder freely; Sintra rewards a detour.

Day 1

Morning

1. Pena Palace: A UNESCO World Heritage Site and the most spectacular palace in Portugal, an extraordinary Romantic hilltop fairy-tale in vivid yellow and red, built by King Ferdinand II in 1854 using the ruins of a 16th-century monastery, with panoramic views from its battlements.
2. Moorish Castle: A medieval hilltop fortress built by the Moors in the 8th and 9th centuries, offering spectacular views over Sintra, the Atlantic coast, and Lisbon, its serpentine walls climbing steeply through ancient forest.
3. Sintra National Palace: The medieval royal palace at the heart of Sintra town, recognisable by its twin conical chimneys, the oldest surviving royal palace in Portugal, with centuries of royal history and extraordinary Manueline and Mudéjar interior decoration.
4. Quinta da Regaleira: A mysterious neo-Manueline palace and gardens filled with esoteric symbolism, wells, grottos, tunnels, and towers designed around Masonic, Rosicrucian, and Templar themes by the eccentric millionaire António Monteiro in the early 20th century.

Afternoon

1. Monserrate Palace: An extraordinary Victorian Romantic palace combining Moorish, Gothic, and Indian architectural styles, set in a spectacular exotic garden, built for the English eccentric William Beckford and later for Sir Francis Cook, who planted one of the finest gardens in Portugal.
2. Palácio Nacional de Queluz: The 'Portuguese Versailles', an exquisite 18th-century Rococo palace and formal gardens with a canal lined with azulejo tile panels, built as the summer residence of the Portuguese royal family.
3. Convento dos Capuchos: A remarkably austere 16th-century Franciscan hermitage carved into the rock of the Serra de Sintra, its cells are so tiny and low that monks had to crawl on hands and knees, lined with cork for insulation.
4. Sintra Historic Village: The UNESCO-listed historic town at the foot of the Serra de Sintra, a picturesque maze of cobbled streets, pastelarias, and craft shops framed by lush forest and overlooked by the twin chimneys of the National Palace.

Day 2

Morning

1. Palácio de Seteais: An elegant late 18th-century Neoclassical palace with one of the finest views in the Sintra hills, now a luxury hotel, its triumphal arch and formal gardens are among the most harmonious architectural compositions in Portugal.
2. Cabo da Roca: The westernmost point of continental Europe, a dramatic granite cape where the Serra de Sintra meets the Atlantic, with a lighthouse, vertiginous cliffs, and the famous inscription 'Here ends the land and begins the sea.'
3. Sintra Food Specialties & Piriquita: Sintra's beloved local pastries: travesseiros (puff pastry filled with almond cream) and queijadas (cheese tarts), sold since 1862 at the famous Piriquita bakery in the historic centre.
4. Lawrence's Hotel: The oldest hotel in the Iberian Peninsula, operating since 1764, where Lord Byron stayed in 1809 while writing Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, a romantic colonial-era inn in the heart of Sintra's historic village.

Afternoon

1. Chalet and Garden of the Countess of Edla: A romantic Swiss-style chalet built by King Ferdinand II for his morganatic wife the Countess of Edla, its exterior clad in cork-bark panels, set in a garden within the Pena Park, a hidden gem of Victorian-era eccentricity.
2. Azenhas do Mar: A dramatic clifftop village in the Sintra municipality, its white houses cascading down the Atlantic cliff face to a natural seawater pool, one of the most photographed villages on the Portuguese coast.
3. Peninha Chapel and Viewpoint: A 16th-century chapel perched on the highest granite outcrop of the Serra de Sintra at 486m, with sweeping views over the Atlantic coast, the Tagus estuary, and on clear days as far as Setúbal, Sintra's most remote and atmospheric viewpoint.

Full Sintra guide and all stops →