Sintra for the Day

[Phil]

We're spending 3 days in Lisbon next month before driving down to cvo. Planning on spending a day in Sintra which, having read up a bit on the place, would give us limited time to see all the main sights. Which sights, or anything, would people recommend we plan to do?v

[snowbirds]

There's a good Tourist office in Sintra. Worth visiting are: Sintra: National Palace of Pena (Palacio Nacional da Pena), Monserrate Palace (Parque de Monserrate), Capuchos Convent (a very interesting monastery) outside of Sintra, where the monks had a unique use for cork. We stayed one night in a lovely B&B outside of Sintra, with a pool and country views (probably only four rooms in total ) which the Tourist office arranged for us. If you have the time, it really is worth staying a night around Sintra to see everything. If you search Yahoo or Google for "Trip Advisor reviews of Sintra" you will find plenty of information. On our way back to Carvoeiro, we drove west from Sintra and then south along the west coast, which is very rugged and scenic, then we followed the road east past Cascais, and ended up at the southern end of Lisbon and crossed over the Tejo River ending up near Almada. Enjoy your trip!

[joeysoap]

Spent a couple of nights in Lisbon last October. Visited Sintra by train, very frequent service. Caught the 434 bus up to the palace at the top ( €5 return), Fantastic place, quite spread between the palace, the moorish castle and the other places. On the return journey from the palace we got off the bus in the village itself and spent a few hours there before walking back to the train station, an easy and pleasant walk. We flew into Lisbon, purchased the 24 hour transport passes at the airport and they allowed us to jump on and off busses, trams, escalators without limit. very handy. We took the train down to Faro (not scenic)and hired a car at Faro airport as usual. Hope to do the same with Oporto sometime, probably using Ryanair instead of train to Faro.

[Phil]

Thanks for the post Joey. We're flying in and out of lisbon, spending 3 nights in the city before driving down to cvo for 13 nights . Planning on driving down slowly via Evora. Any tips on lisbon sights? Although we have been there before.

[joeysoap]

Thanks for the post Joey. We're flying in and out of lisbon, spending 3 nights in the city before driving down to cvo for 13 nights . Planning on driving down slowly via Evora. Any tips on lisbon sights? Although we have been there before.

We went to Belem on the tram. spent a few hours walking around there, monument of discoveries, belem tower, monastery etc and returned by bus straight to hotel door (think it was the 727) Also took a trip on tram 28. On a longer trip would have visited Estoril/Cascais and probably the Aquarium/Park of Nations,(Looked really impressive from Oriente train station) but didn't manage either on this occasion. Always another time. Loved the buzz around Rua Garret. Enjoy your trip.

[Sandy]

For a really good tour of Lisbon get in touch with We Hate Tourism Tours. We thought they were brilliant.