starting at €516 total, not per person
• 8-hour private driving & walking tour
• skip-the-line entry ticket fees excluded.
• our guides take you inside the monuments
• reservations required
the grandeur of sintra in one day
This full-day tour explores four spectacular palaces and the Sintra Village, with time for a 1-hour lunch break in Sintra. Discover the mystical hilltops of this UNESCO World Heritage site with our unique driving and walking tour. Sintra offers fairytale palaces and castles that have attracted eccentric and esoteric personalities since ancient times. Once the place of cult worship by Romans who built a temple dedicated to Cynthia, the moon goddess, it has since inspired wealthy families, writers, religious orders such as the Franciscans and the Hieronymites, and a myriad of occult groups who’ve found it an ideal paradise to commune with the natural and spiritual worlds. Today, the gardens and opulent palaces are a surreal mixture of history and fantasy for the curious to explore.
The Pena Palace Estate spreads over 200 hectares of mountainous terrain, but we focus our time inside Pena Palace. Learn how the Palace was created through the dreams of “The Artist King”, Dom Fernando II, sparing no expense in the creation of his colorful castle. The architect was Baron von Eschwege, who worked with the king's visions to reinvent the abandoned ruins of a monastery into something that would rival the Castles of Bavaria. The result is an architectural offspring of many styles, including Moorish, Gothic, and Portuguese Manueline, mixed with the Wagnerian designs of the Schinkel Castles of Central Europe. It is fanciful to an extreme, and some oddities need to be explained inside.
The National Palace dates back to Portugal's first dynasties. Over the centuries, monarchs have rebuilt, expanded, and redecorated, combining various artistic styles that reflect the tastes of the kings who lived here. As a result, there are different names for the rooms, such as the Sala dos Cisnes (Swans’ Room) and the Sala das Pegas (Magpie). Some of the chambers are lined with decorative tiles (azulejos) ranging from the Spanish-Moorish styles brought by King Dom Manuel I, to the typical blue-and-white tiles of the 17th century. The most striking feature of the palace is the two 33-meter-high conical chimneys of the kitchen, which have become the symbol of Sintra.
The Queluz Palace was the official royal residence during the 18th century, where Queen Dona Maria I was forced to live after her husband, Dom Pedro III, died. Overtaken by grief and insanity, her condition worsened with the death of her son 2 years later. She was kept away from the public in a palace described as the "Little Versailles of Portugal”. This fascinating location, often overlooked by tourists, features exquisite Baroque, Rococo, and Neoclassical architecture, with gardens inspired by popular French designs of the time. Hidden behind the austere facades, Queluz is the most opulent of all Sintra’s palaces. Decorated with gilt gold carvings, mirror frescoes, antiques, and paintings that will transport you back to the Age of Revolution and the later Belle Époque, when ladies in magnificent dresses and gentlemen with white and grey wigs would gather in the spectacular ballrooms. Today, Presidents and Prime Ministers often visit Queluz for banquets with dignitaries.
-- OR --
The Sintra Village can be walked around instead of a visit to the Queluz Palace. This charming medieval hamlet has streets lined with shops selling handmade artisanal items from Portugal. It's a tiny village we walk through during lunch break, but a more extended visit to the town would prevent us from visiting the Queluz Palace. If time permits, guests can visit the Piriquita Cafe to enjoy Travesseiros, the village's phyllo pastry filled with warm almond paste.
The Quinta da Regaleira gardens become the focus of our attention with an extensive and enigmatic network of man-made tunnels, festooned with symbols relating to alchemy, Masonry, and the Knights Templar. The tunnels connect to grottoes, a chapel, an underground waterfall lake, caves, and a 27-meter well with a spiral staircase leading underground, recreating Dante's Inferno. The estate once attracted the wealthy and elite from all over Europe. With one of our scholars, we unravel the mysteries of the Quinta da Regaleira.
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why do we use a dedicated driver and a separate guide?
We provide a luxury modern vehicle with heat and air conditioning, a driver, and an official guide who can take guests inside the palaces of Sintra. Unlike budget tour operators, our guides won’t leave you to wander the interior of the vast palaces on your own with no explanations of what you are seeing. Many budget tours of Sintra have the guide double duty as the driver. This is something we would never do, and you will have a dedicated driver for 3 reasons.
major highlights
important details
closures
Pena Palace:
Our "Essential Visit" access the dream-based palace D. Fernando II, “The Artist King”.
Including the kitchen, a casual diningroom, a bedroom, the reception room, and the
chapel.
Queluz Palace:
The "Little Versailles of Portugal” is the most stunning of all Sintra’s palaces.
-- OR --
Historic Sintra Village:
A magical tiny village and testimony of Portuguese history. A for the capital of Romantic Era
writers for the breathtaking landscapes.(The lunch break will be inthe village).
The Sintra National Palace:
The iconic palace of Sintra, is a dizzying labyrinth of architectural styles spanning 900 years.
Quinta da Regaleira:
An enigmatic estate with mysterious symbols related to alchemy, Masonry, the Knights
Templar, and the Rosicrucians.
Serra Mountains of Sintra:
Discover the beautiful landscape as we traverse the hills.
Time for a 1-hour lunch break:
At an authentic local restaurant or cafe suggested by the guide in the Sintra Village.
Optional Ginjinha tasting:
A cherry liquor of Portugal, and a stop at the famous Cafe Periquita for a Sintra Travesseiro
pastry, (puff pastry filled with warm almond paste).
Inside the Pena Palace
We will always pre-purchase entry tickets as soon as a tour is confirmed. This will allow us to skip the ticket lines. The pre-purchased tickets are nonrefundable. Although you may skip the ticket lines, as of 2026, only Pena Palace staff are allowed to lead tours inside the palace. They occur only a few times a day. This can result in long wait times for visitors to be with a Pena staff guide. Our guides will provide a great introduction to what to explore independently inside Pena Palace and share information about the exterior and gardens. For the other places, your guide will be with you at all times.
*Sundays
January 1
December 25 and 31
*We are happy to offer this tour on Sundays, but please be aware of some shop closures in Sintra's historic village.
The village of Sintra is very small and the shops are not a major part of the tour. However, for those who plan to visit shops and cafes of Sintra, Sundays are not advisable tour days.
1. We don't want our guests to wait for a guide to find a parking place before they lead guests inside the palaces. Parking. In Sintra, it can be hectic, and waits are common during high season.
2. We don’t want our licensed and insured drivers to be distracted by conversations with guests. Because Portugal has one of the highest accident fatality ratios per capita in the EU, we must keep our guests safe on the narrow mountain roads of Sintra, while our guides explain the sights, culture, and landscape.
3. The weather conditions in the Atlantic mountain, the micro-climate of Sintra, are very unpredictable. We encourage guests to bring windbreakers and umbrellas because the temperatures can vary dramatically in Lisbon, and the climate can change very quickly, bringing rain, winds, fog, or even hail. We like our guests to have the convenience of leaving their unused personal items, like packs, coats, or umbrellas, inside the vehicle with the driver monitoring it at all times. Vehicle burglaries are common in the parking lots of monuments in Portugal.
ADD SERVICES
A tasting of Ginjinha, a cherry liquor of Portugal.
A stop at the famous Cafe Periquita for a Sintra Travesseiro pastry, (puff pastry filled with egg cream and almond paste).
INCLUDED
Skip the ticket lines with an official tour guide.
Round-trip transfer in a luxury vehicle with a dedicated driver at all times.
Authorization to enter sights.
VAT tax.
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WALKING LEVEL
90% downhill and stairs with upstairs and inclines. 10% in vehicle. No elevators available. Some cobblestones and unpaved paths on tour route. Must be able to walk for 1-hour without resting.
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INFORMATION
Wear comfortable athletic shoes. Bring windbreakers or umbrellas.
There are stops for clean restrooms, and food & beverage breaks if needed.
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MEETING POINT
Hotel, apartment, or ship dock.
Meetings at hotels or apartments located outside of Lisbon can effect tour price because of fuel and time expenses.
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START TIMES
7-days a week, year round.
Morning: 8:45am only
There are no later start times because crowds become unruly around the late-morning hours.
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TICKET FEES
€40 per adult. Children under 6 years are free. We prepurchase tickets to skip lines. Ticket dates & times cannot be changed and are non-refundable after the tour deposit is paid.
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EXCLUDED
Ticket fees are additional.
Audio headsets when required in palaces for parties of 6 more more. Price €1.50 per person.
Lunch, food and beverages.
sintra full-day
8-hours
pena palace
queluz palace
national palace
sintra village
and more...
popularity ★★★★★
FREE
• Wi-Fi
• USB charging
• Botttles of water
• Candy snacks