My Escapes Portugal Another Lovely Trip to Portugal! Sintra Day Trip to Sintra Getting in and Around in Sintra

Getting in and Around Sintra

Getting to Sintra from Lisbon is fairly easy. I took the train - the Rossio station found in the Baixa district offers the best, comfiest, cheapest solution.

There are trains leaving Lisbon's Rossio station every 15-20 minutes (of course, this may vary depending on day, hour and can be subject to change).

The ride is generally around 40 minutes and the distance is 36 km.

The ticket price burned 2.65 EUR one way. It's a steal at that price, considering the distance and the comfort. Once in Sintra, I had to take a lot out of my wallet.

Road travel by car is estimated to take around 25-30 minutes, but I bet that only happens when you know the area well.

I was surprised to find that there were barely a few travelers on the trains (which were clean and comfortable).

Another major surprise (as noticed on other types of Portuguese trains): there were no toilets. Which is weird and can be bothering on a long journey.

Once there, I thought it'll be a few humble strolls in the small town and then prolly by bus to the extremely coloured Pena Palace (which is on top of a hill).

It didn't go as I imagined. First of all: the distances are long, terribly... then, the buses were "not quite on schedule". Portugal is not Japan.

I had to pay a freezing 5 EUR for bus 435, which did bring me all the way up to the Pena Palace (it was a two-way ticket).

It's not worth climbing uphill by foot. You'll waste precious time and energy and you'll be forced to walk on the road's edge on many segments.

Up there, another heavy price needed to be paid in order to enter.

When I was finished visiting up there, I went a bit astray on another forest road, so there were no buses available in that area. Somehow there were no stations.

It must have taken about 2 hours until I finally reached down to the train station. The distances were huge and the town is so unevenly laid out... There are slopes and distant neighbourhoods.

Meanwhile I stopped over at a place called Harko's for a brunch.

Some more walking and then I eventually came across a bus station and a 435 bus was just arriving - thankfully.

Comments

comments powered by Disqus