Sintra – and why you should go!

We arrived in Lisbon. After a 2.5-hour train ride and a metro, we ended up at 'Castilho 63', a hostel which I would highly recommend. I will start this off by saying we walked 35,000 steps yesterday and I fell asleep mid-sentence last night. Man, what a good day! We explored the infamous city of Sintra and the beautiful neighborhood of Belem – both fantastic places and should be must do’s on your Lisbon list.
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We set off to Rossio station as the easiest way to get there is definitely by train. Trains run regularly from Rossio (40 minutes, €5 return) and from Oriente stations (45 minutes, €5 return). Tickets are easily available at the machines or kiosks at the stations. Massive travel hack – either buy online or get there really early as the queue was OUT THE DOOR massive when we arrived so we split up and navigated our way to the quickest line. We made it with about 10 seconds to spare on the 10am journey. 

The train will be PACKED near the back so walk up as far as you can to the front. There will be a door you cannot enter so when the train stops as it’s first station, hop off and run to the nearest forward door, you will find heaps of empty seats and a much nicer ride than the carriage behind which is jam packed with tourists all standing in a hot mess. Oh, also make sure you exit the train at Sintra station, not the misleadingly named Portela de Sintra which is first.
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 The palaces and castles of Sintra are spread all over the 145 square kilometres of the Parque Natural Sintra-Caiscais, so there are many many awesome things to explore – the most famous being the Pena Palace!

Another super famous and must do would be the castle. Castelo dos Mouros sits on a rocky peak of the gigantic mountain you will have to climb and just a few hundred meters away from the palace. It was built in the 8th and 9th centuries by the Moors (Muslims that occupied the Iberian peninsula at the time).
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The castle is now a sight to behold with its walls meandering up and down the contours of the hill. Each turret provides excellent views over the surrounding area. Inside an interpretation center highlights its Moorish history with artifacts found during various digs.

We recommend the castle but for $16NZD entry we would only recommend the grounds and not the castle itself as you get pretty amazing views from the Pena Palace.  However, the walk through the gardens is amazing and if you are looking to keep fit then we had already walked 12000 steps by the time we reached the palace so it’s well worth bringing snacks and plenty of water. After the castle Pena Palace is about 800 metres away so we made this our next stop.

Pena Palace, perched on top of a rocky peak, has history dating back to the middle ages. Originally a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary it became a monastery in the 15th century. In the 18th century, a lightning strike and earthquake reduced much of it to ruins.
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A little history about the palace - The old monastery was rebuilt along with a new European grand house all surrounded by the battlements, watchtowers, and drawbridge of a faux castle. Islamic and Medieval Christian influences are spread throughout the palace with tiles, vaulted arches and intricate carvings dominating the interior.

With a bright yellow monastery, a rustic red castle and ornate battlements the whole sight could easily feel gaudy, tacky and cheap, BUT upon arrival it totally sucks you into it’s charm and by the looks of it about 5000 other tourists at any given time – It’s packed!
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It costs $14NZD to get in pp and $28NZD if you want to visit the interior – a travel tip…DON’T. The line is about 2 hours long as you can easily snap the best photos from the outside of the building and surrounding grounds. We stayed here for about 1.5 hours just wandering in the intense heat and snapping some insta worthy pics, it was really enjoyable.

Making our way into town we stopped at ‘Ale-hop’ for a coffee, a cake and some people watching where I practiced my best Portuguese while ordering and of course ended up ordering WAYYYY too much food! We hopped back on the train … unfortunately not to our knowledge, the wrong one and ended up so far from the central station we embarked on, but hey it’s all part of the adventure.
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That afternoon we spent in Belem and the next blog post will explain why you should go there!