Lisbon Long,
Weekend.
Lisbon, Portugal
miradouros, pastéis, fado, azulejos
Itinerary
4 chaptersBelém and the river
Belém, Lisbon
Belém in a day
Belém is Lisbon's grand riverside quarter, roughly 6 km west of the centre, and it works best taken slowly from east to west. Custard tarts first, straight from the oven. Then the monastery cloister across the road, then the long walk along the water past the Padrão dos Descobrimentos to the tower. Almost everything you look at today is Manueline, Portugal's own late-Gothic style, which means stone carved into rope, coral, anchors and armillary spheres. In the evening you double back one stop towards town for a rooftop table under the 25 de Abril bridge.
Worth knowing before you go
Book the Jerónimos cloister online with a time slot. The queue at the door regularly runs past an hour in July, and the church beside it is a separate free entrance that is rarely as busy. Belém Tower also sells timed tickets, and the spiral stair to the roof is single file, so it moves in fits and starts. There is almost no shade along the riverfront, so a hat, sunglasses and a water bottle beat a jacket. Flat shoes, always. The pavement is calçada, small polished limestone blocks that are hard underfoot after a few hours and genuinely slippery in the wet. Reserve the Rio Maravilha terrace for sunset a few days ahead.
Getting between the stops
From the tarts to the tower is about 1.5 km, all flat and all walkable along the river. Tram 15E from Praça da Figueira or Cais do Sodré is the classic way in and out, though it fills fast in the morning; buses 714 and 728 cover the same stretch with more room. For dinner, LX Factory sits one stop back towards town at Alcântara, five minutes by tram or taxi.
Local notes
Order a bica if you want an espresso. At Pastéis de Belém you can queue at the takeaway counter or walk through to the tiled back rooms and sit, which is often quicker than it looks. Cinnamon and icing sugar are on the table, and you dust them on yourself. Only this bakery may use the name pastéis de Belém; everywhere else in the country they are pastéis de nata, and the difference is the recipe, not just the label. One thing worth carrying through the monastery: it was paid for largely out of a tax on the spice trade, so the sea monsters and coiled ropes on the south doorway are not decoration for its own sake. They are the accounts.
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Pastéis de Belém
Be there for opening if you want them warm and the queue short. Takeaway is one counter, but the tiled rooms at the back often seat you faster than expected. Six is a sensible order for two people. Cinnamon and icing sugar go on at the table, and the first one should be eaten within a minute of arriving.About this place↗ Open in MapsA vast tiled bakery and café on the main road through Belém that has been making the same custard tart since 1837.
HistoryWhen the monasteries were dissolved in 1834, monks from the Jerónimos monastery next door sold their pastry recipe to a nearby sugar refinery. The shop that opened on the site in 1837 has kept it in the family ever since.Why it's famousIt is the original of the pastel de nata, and by common consent still the best version, eaten hot with cinnamon and icing sugar.Did you knowThe recipe is made in a locked room on site known as the oficina do segredo, and only a handful of bakers are said to know it. The name pastéis de Belém is protected, so every other bakery in Portugal has to call them pastéis de nata. - 0210:00 · 75m
Jerónimos Monastery
The cloister needs a timed online ticket. The church beside it is a separate entrance, free, and usually far quieter, with the tombs of Vasco da Gama and the poet Camões just inside the west door. Give the cloister a full hour; the carving repays a slow second lap of the upper gallery.About this place↗ Open in MapsAn enormous limestone monastery on the Belém riverfront, and the finest surviving example of Manueline architecture in Portugal.
HistoryManuel I ordered it in 1501 on the spot where Vasco da Gama's crew kept vigil before sailing for India. Work ran through most of the sixteenth century, and the Hieronymite monks stayed until religious orders were dissolved in 1834.Why it's famousThe two-storey cloister, the south doorway and the sheer scale of it. UNESCO listed the monastery together with Belém Tower in 1983.Did you knowIt was funded largely by a five per cent levy on trade with Africa and the East, informally the pepper tax, so the spice routes quite literally paid for the stone. - 0312:00 · 75m
Nunes Real Marisqueira
A proper Belém seafood house a street behind the monastery, and a local lunch room rather than a tourist one. Arrive by noon or you will wait. Arroz de marisco is the safe order and comes in a pot meant for two. Grilled fish is priced by weight, so ask what it will come to before you nod.About this place↗ Open in MapsA traditional marisqueira, meaning a restaurant built around shellfish, a few minutes inland from the Belém riverfront.
HistoryMarisqueiras grew up around Lisbon's fishing trade, serving crab, prawns and clams at the counter with a beer, and the Belém houses have fed the neighbourhood and the dockside for generations.Why it's famousLocally it is known for its soupy seafood rice and its grilled fish, which pulls a weekday lunch crowd from the offices and museums nearby.Did you knowIn a marisqueira the shellfish is weighed at the table and charged by the kilo, so the bill depends on what your crab actually weighs. Percebes, the goose barnacles prised off wave-hit rocks, are usually the most expensive thing on any Portuguese menu. - 0413:45 · 30m
Padrão dos Descobrimentos
Thirty minutes covers it. The compass rose laid into the pavement in front is the photograph everyone comes for, and it reads best from the monument steps or the footbridge. The lift to the roof is ticketed and worth it for the view straight down the river towards the tower.About this place↗ Open in MapsA 52 metre limestone monument on the Belém quay, shaped like a ship's prow with figures from Portugal's seafaring past crowded along both sides.
HistoryA temporary version went up for the 1940 Portuguese World Exhibition. The permanent one you see now was built in concrete and stone in 1960, marking 500 years since the death of Henry the Navigator, who stands at the front holding a caravel.Why it's famousIt is the postcard image of Belém, and the point where the Age of Discovery is commemorated most directly.Did you knowThe 50 metre compass rose and world map set into the pavement were a gift from South Africa in 1960. The map is dated, marking the year Portuguese ships reached each coast. - 0514:30 · 60m
Belém Tower
Walk the riverside path west from the monument, about fifteen minutes. Tickets are timed and the spiral stair to the terrace is single file with traffic lights controlling it, so expect waiting. Look for the carved rhinoceros head on a corbel at the base of the western turret, most people walk straight past it.About this place↗ Open in MapsA small Manueline fort standing in the water at the edge of the Tagus, built to guard the approach to Lisbon.
HistoryBuilt between 1514 and 1519 to a design by Francisco de Arruda, who had worked on Portuguese forts in Morocco, which is why the balconies and domed turrets look North African. It later served as a customs post and a prison.Why it's famousIt is Lisbon's most recognisable building, the ceremonial gateway ships passed on their way out to sea, and a UNESCO site since 1983.Did you knowThe rhinoceros carved on one of the corbels is thought to be the first sculpted rhino in western European art. It was modelled on the live animal sent to Manuel I in 1515, the same beast Dürer drew from a description without ever seeing it. - 0619:30 · 120m
Rio Maravilha (LX Factory)
Book a terrace table for around half an hour before sunset, and ask for the river side. It is on the top floor of the LX Factory complex and the lift queue builds at that exact hour, so allow ten minutes. Cocktails are the point more than the cooking. The bridge overhead is loud, which you get used to.About this place↗ Open in MapsA rooftop restaurant and bar on the top floor of LX Factory, the old industrial block in Alcântara directly beneath the 25 de Abril bridge.
HistoryThe complex began in 1846 as a textile mill and later became a printing works. It sat largely empty until 2008, when the warehouses were reopened as studios, shops and restaurants.Why it's famousThe terrace looks straight across the Tagus to the Cristo Rei statue on the south bank, with the bridge filling the sky above it, which makes it one of the best sunset positions in the city.Did you knowThe bridge was built by the American Bridge Company, which also built the San Francisco to Oakland Bay Bridge. It opened in 1966 as the Ponte Salazar and was renamed after the revolution of 25 April 1974.
Alfama and the castle
Alfama, Lisbon
What the day looks like
Alfama is the part of Lisbon the 1755 earthquake largely spared, which is why the street plan still reads Moorish. Stepped lanes, blind corners, doors opening straight onto the pavement. You climb through it in the morning to the castle on the summit, come back down in the afternoon through two viewpoint terraces, then return after dinner for fado. The quarter changes character completely between the middle of the afternoon and nine at night. By day it belongs to tour groups and cats. By night it empties, and sound carries a long way down the lanes.
Practical bits
Buy the castle ticket online and go near opening, both for the light over the Baixa grid and because the ramparts are unshaded by eleven. The whole day is stairs and steep calçada, so wear the flattest shoes you own. Carry some cash: small tascas and the family kitchens are often card-shy, and the Alfama fado houses vary. Book the fado table ahead, and check whether the house charges a set price or a minimum spend, since both are common. A light layer for the evening helps, the hill gets a breeze off the river once the sun goes.
Moving around Alfama
Everything today sits inside about 800 metres, but the metres are vertical. Tram 28 grinds up through the quarter and is the scenic option; bus 737 from Praça da Figueira goes straight to the castle gate and saves your legs the worst of the climb. From the castle you walk down to Portas do Sol and Santa Luzia, which are two minutes apart on the same terrace. Tuk-tuks tout everywhere and charge accordingly, so agree the fare first.
Fado and the local rules
Fado is sung by one voice with two guitars behind it, the Spanish guitar keeping rhythm and the pear-shaped guitarra portuguesa doing the crying part. The one rule that matters is silence. When the singer starts, the room stops, and that includes cutlery, phones and conversation. Eat first, because the music usually begins around half past nine and comes in short sets with breaks between. Applause at the end, not during. If a house has a menu of tourist prices at the door and no one inside, keep walking; the good rooms are small and full.
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Pois Café
A slow café a couple of minutes from the cathedral, with sofas, newspapers and no pressure to leave. Brunch plates are large enough to make lunch optional. Go before ten if you want one of the window sofas. It is the last easy coffee before the climb, so caffeinate properly here.About this place↗ Open in MapsA relaxed café on a lane below the Sé cathedral, known for long stays, big sofas and generous brunch plates.
HistoryAustrian-run since it opened in the early 2000s, it brought a central European café habit to a quarter where coffee had traditionally been drunk standing at a counter in under three minutes.Why it's famousIt became one of the first places in Alfama where you could sit for two hours over one coffee, and it is still where people go to read rather than to be seen.Did you knowPois is a Portuguese filler word, roughly well then or quite so. You will hear pois é a hundred times a day in Lisbon once you start listening for it. - 0210:00 · 90m
São Jorge Castle
Book online and arrive near opening for the clearest view over the Baixa grid and the river before the haze sets in. Ninety minutes is enough for the ramparts and the archaeological site. The camera obscura in the Tower of Ulysses runs short guided sessions and is the one thing here people regret missing. Peacocks have right of way.About this place↗ Open in MapsThe walled hilltop citadel above Alfama, with eleven towers, a small archaeological site and the widest view in central Lisbon.
HistoryThe fortifications are largely Moorish, from around the eleventh century. Afonso Henriques took the hill in 1147 with the help of northern European crusaders, and it became the royal palace until the court moved down to the river in the sixteenth century. The 1755 earthquake wrecked it, and much of what stands was rebuilt in the 1940s.Why it's famousIt is the highest of Lisbon's hills and the view that defines the city, looking straight down the rebuilt Baixa to the Tagus.Did you knowThe Tower of Ulysses holds a camera obscura, a system of lenses and mirrors that projects a live 360 degree image of the city onto a dish indoors, close enough to watch traffic move. - 0312:15 · 75m
Ti-Natércia
About eight tables, no printed menu, and Natércia telling you what there is. Expect a wait at the door and take it in good humour. Portions are enormous, so order fewer dishes than feels right and share. Bring cash. Lunch is the calmer service, and half past twelve is early enough to get in.About this place↗ Open in MapsA tiny family-run tasca in the lanes below the castle, cooking plain Portuguese home food to order.
HistoryIt grew out of a household kitchen in the way Alfama tascas usually do, with the cook, the dining room and the recipes all belonging to the same family, and the owner still runs the room herself.Why it's famousThe size, the lack of a menu and Natércia's very direct manner have made it the tasca people in Lisbon send visitors to when they want the real version.Did you knowTasca means a small plain eating house rather than a restaurant. Traditionally the menu is spoken, prices are low, the wine comes from a barrel, and the dish of the day is genuinely the dish of that day. - 0414:00 · 30m
Miradouro das Portas do Sol
The view over Alfama's roofs to the white dome of the National Pantheon, best in the afternoon when the light is behind you. The kiosk on the terrace does cheap drinks and there are steps at the far end that drop you straight into the quarter. Half an hour is plenty. It is busy, so aim for the wall rather than the middle.About this place↗ Open in MapsA broad terrace on the road below the castle, looking out over the roofs of Alfama towards the river and the National Pantheon.
HistoryThe name means gates of the sun and refers to one of the gates in the Moorish city wall that once ran along this ridge. The terrace as you see it was laid out as a public belvedere much later.Why it's famousIt is the single most photographed view of Alfama, and the terrace kiosk has made it a place to sit rather than just look.Did you knowThe statue on the terrace is São Vicente, Lisbon's patron saint, holding a boat with two ravens. The story goes that ravens guarded his relics on the voyage to the city, which is why Lisbon's coat of arms still shows a ship with a raven at each end. - 0514:45 · 30m
Miradouro de Santa Luzia
Two minutes along the road from Portas do Sol and the prettier of the pair, with a bougainvillea pergola and blue and white tile panels on the church wall. Walk round to the small garden on the far side, which most people miss and which has the better bench. Twenty minutes will do it.About this place↗ Open in MapsA small tiled terrace and garden beside the church of Santa Luzia, hanging over the edge of Alfama.
HistoryThe church belonged to the Order of Malta and was rebuilt after the 1755 earthquake. The azulejo panels and the pergola on the terrace were added in the twentieth century when the site was turned into a public viewpoint.Why it's famousThe combination of the tiled walls, the flowering pergola and the drop straight down into Alfama is the image most people carry away from the quarter.Did you knowOne of the tile panels on the terrace wall shows Praça do Comércio as it looked before the 1755 earthquake, so you are looking at a picture of a square that no longer exists, made in the country that lost it. - 0620:00 · 120m
Fado dinner in Alfama
Reserve, and ask when the singing starts, usually around half past nine after the food. Eat first and order slowly. The room goes completely silent for each song, so finish conversations and put phones away before a set begins. Bacalhau in some form is the standard order. Check whether the house charges a set price or a minimum spend.About this place↗ Open in MapsAn evening of live fado in one of Alfama's small tiled taverns, sung between courses to a room that stops talking.
HistoryFado grew up in the poor riverside quarters of Lisbon in the early nineteenth century, sung in taverns and on the street long before it reached a stage. Alfama and Mouraria are where it started, and the Museu do Fado a few streets away tells the story properly.Why it's famousIt is Portugal's national song, carried worldwide by Amália Rodrigues, and Alfama is where you hear it in the rooms it came from rather than in a theatre.Did you knowUNESCO added fado to its list of intangible cultural heritage in 2011. The instrument doing the weeping behind the voice is the guitarra portuguesa, a pear-shaped guitar with twelve strings in six pairs and a fan-shaped tuning head.
Chiado and Bairro Alto
Chiado, Lisbon
The shape of the day
Chiado is Lisbon's polished shopping and theatre quarter, rebuilt twice, once after the 1755 earthquake and again after the 1988 fire that gutted a whole block. Bairro Alto, immediately uphill, is the opposite: narrow, tiled, graffitied, dead until evening and then very much awake. The day runs between the two. Coffee at a marble counter, a tram ride through the hills, a Gothic nave with no roof, lunch in a market hall, and a garden terrace above the city for the last of the light.
Practicalities
A bica taken standing at the counter costs a fraction of the same coffee at a pavement table, and that gap is steepest at A Brasileira. Tram 28 is where Lisbon's pickpockets concentrate, so wear your bag on the front and keep phones out of back pockets. Time Out Market has no reservations and no waiter service; you order at the stalls and hunt for a bench, so go before one o'clock or after three. The Carmo ruin is roofless, which is glorious in the sun and miserable in the rain. Book Bairro do Avillez for the evening, it is busy every night.
Getting about
All of today is walkable, but Chiado to Bairro Alto is a real climb and Cais do Sodré is a real descent. Catch tram 28 in Chiado rather than at the terminus, and stand near the front if you want the view. The Santa Justa lift connects Carmo to the Baixa below, and you can reach its upper walkway on foot from Largo do Carmo without paying the lift fare; only the very top viewing deck charges. From Carmo down to Time Out Market is about ten minutes downhill, and back up to São Pedro de Alcântara about twenty, which is worth doing slowly.
A little local background
The bronze man sitting outside A Brasileira is Fernando Pessoa, who wrote under dozens of invented names he called heteronyms, each with a biography and a style of his own, and who drank in this café. The Carmo ruin was left open on purpose after the earthquake brought its roof down during All Saints' Day mass, and the Portuguese have never rebuilt it. The barracks in the same square is where the dictatorship gave up in April 1974, which is why the square is quietly one of the most significant patches of ground in the country.
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A Brasileira
Order a bica standing at the marble counter, which costs a fraction of the same coffee outside. The art deco interior is the reason to come in. The bronze Pessoa on the terrace is a permanent photo queue, so take the shot and move on. Twenty minutes inside, longer if you want breakfast.About this place↗ Open in MapsAn ornate café on Rua Garrett in Chiado, open since 1905, with a long marble counter and a much-photographed bronze figure outside.
HistoryIt opened as a shop selling Brazilian coffee by the packet, hence the name, and the owner gave away a free cup with every kilo bought. The café rooms came later and it became the meeting place for Lisbon's writers and painters in the early twentieth century.Why it's famousFernando Pessoa drank here, and Portugal's modernists effectively used it as an office. The interior still has its original mirrors, woodwork and paintings.Did you knowThe bronze Pessoa sitting at the pavement table is by Lagoa Henriques and was placed there in 1988, a hundred years after the writer's birth. Pessoa published under dozens of invented identities he called heteronyms, each with its own biography and handwriting. - 0210:00 · 45m
Tram 28 ride
Board in Chiado rather than at the Martim Moniz terminus, where the queue can run half an hour. Going uphill, the right-hand side has the better view. Keep your bag in front of you and phones out of back pockets; this route is where Lisbon's pickpockets work. Forty-five minutes is enough to get the idea.About this place↗ Open in MapsLisbon's best-known tram route, worked by small wooden Remodelado cars that climb from Martim Moniz through Graça, Alfama, Baixa and Chiado to Campo de Ourique.
HistoryThe Remodelado cars date from the 1930s and were refurbished rather than replaced, because nothing modern is small enough for the gradients and hairpin bends on this line.Why it's famousThe route strings together most of the old city in one ride, and the yellow cars grinding up a narrow lane are the image of Lisbon.Did you knowLisbon's first trams, in the 1870s, were horse-drawn and nicknamed americanos after the American company behind them. The city electrified the network in 1901. - 0311:15 · 60m
Convento do Carmo
An hour is right. The roofless nave takes ten minutes and the archaeological museum in the chancel takes the rest, with a Peruvian mummy and two Egyptian sarcophagi that catch everyone off guard. From Largo do Carmo you can walk out onto the Santa Justa lift's upper level on foot without paying the lift fare.About this place↗ Open in MapsThe shell of a Gothic church on the hill above the Baixa, its nave open to the sky, now housing a small archaeological museum.
HistoryFounded in 1389 by Nuno Álvares Pereira, the general who won at Aljubarrota, it was the largest church in medieval Lisbon. The roof came down in the earthquake of 1 November 1755, during All Saints' Day mass, and was never rebuilt.Why it's famousThe bare arches standing against open sky are the most direct surviving reminder of what the earthquake did to Lisbon.Did you knowThe barracks on the same square is where Marcelo Caetano surrendered on 25 April 1974, ending nearly fifty years of dictatorship. The revolution took its name, the Carnation Revolution, from the flowers put into soldiers' rifle barrels that day. - 0413:00 · 75m
Time Out Market
No bookings and no waiter service. Claim a seat at the long shared benches first, then send someone to order. Go before one or after three, since the middle hour is a scrum. Splitting three or four small dishes across different stalls beats one big plate. Drinks are ordered separately at the bars.About this place↗ Open in MapsA large food hall at Cais do Sodré where a few dozen Lisbon chefs and producers run stalls around shared communal tables.
HistoryThe Mercado da Ribeira building dates from 1892 and was the city's main produce market. Time Out took over one half in 2014 and invited restaurants it had already reviewed well to open counters there.Why it's famousIt made it possible to eat food from several of the city's best kitchens in one sitting, and it is now one of the busiest food halls in Europe.Did you knowThe other half of the building is still a working fruit, vegetable and fish market, open early in the morning and almost empty of visitors while the food hall next door is packed. - 0518:30 · 45m
Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcântara
Come about an hour before sunset, when the far hill and the castle walls turn gold. The upper terrace has the tiled map naming what you are looking at. The kiosk sells drinks and there is usually space on the lower garden level if the top is full. Walk up into Bairro Alto afterwards for dinner.About this place↗ Open in MapsA two-level terraced garden at the top of the Bairro Alto slope, looking across the valley to São Jorge castle and the river beyond.
HistoryThe viewpoint was laid out as a public garden in the nineteenth century on land above the Glória hill, with formal beds, busts and a tiled panel identifying the buildings on the skyline opposite.Why it's famousIt has the clearest head-on view of the castle in the city, which makes it the classic golden hour spot before a night in Bairro Alto.Did you knowThe lower garden holds a monument to Eduardo Coelho, who founded the newspaper Diário de Notícias, with a bronze ardina beside it, the barefoot boy who sold papers on the street. - 0620:00 · 120m
Bairro do Avillez
Reserve, it is full most nights. The Taberna at the front takes walk-ins for small plates at the counter; the Páteo at the back is the sit-down seafood room and needs booking. Presunto, the prawns and the fried egg dishes are what to order. Two hours if you are eating properly.About this place↗ Open in MapsA large, loud restaurant complex in Chiado run by chef José Avillez, split between a tavern at the front and a covered seafood courtyard behind.
HistoryAvillez opened it in the mid-2010s a few streets from his fine dining restaurant, as a deliberately less formal place doing Portuguese classics at pace.Why it's famousIt is the most accessible way to eat Avillez's cooking, and it made Portuguese tavern food fashionable again in a quarter that had drifted towards international menus.Did you knowAvillez was the first Portuguese chef to hold two Michelin stars, at Belcanto, which is a five minute walk away in the same quarter.
A day in Sintra
Sintra
Sintra in a day
Sintra sits on a wooded ridge west of Lisbon that traps Atlantic mist, which is why the hill is damp and green while the city bakes. Portuguese royals summered here for centuries and the nineteenth-century Romantics went further, building the palace at Pena on a ruined monastery and turning the old Moorish fort next door into a folly in a park. The day takes both, then drops into the old town for lunch and finishes at Quinta da Regaleira, an estate built around symbols rather than views. Three sites is a full day. Four is a route march.
Before you catch the train
Buy timed tickets for Pena and Regaleira online, and take the earliest Pena slot you can face; by half past eleven the terraces are shoulder to shoulder. Get a rechargeable Navegante card at Rossio and top it up, which is cheaper than single tickets and works on the buses too. Pack a light jacket even in July, since the hill often runs several degrees cooler than Lisbon and can be in cloud when the city is clear. Grippy shoes for the castle walls and the wet stone stairs inside the Initiation Well. Take water, the uphill stretches are longer than the map suggests.
Getting around the hill
Trains leave Rossio for Sintra every twenty minutes or so and take about forty. From Sintra station the 434 bus runs a one-way loop to the old town, the Moorish castle and Pena, so you cannot ride it backwards; the 435 covers Regaleira and Monserrate. Note that the Pena park gate is not the palace, there is another ten minutes uphill beyond it, or a shuttle. Walking down from the castle to the old town takes about half an hour on a shaded path and is much nicer than the bus.
Local notes
Sintra's own sweets are the travesseiro, a long folded puff pastry filled with almond and egg cream, and the queijada, a small cheese tart the town has been making for centuries. Both are sold in the old town and both are better warm. In any Portuguese restaurant the bread, olives and cheese that arrive unasked are the couvert; they are not free, and sending them back is completely normal. Sintra empties in the evening once the coaches leave, so a late dinner near the station and a later train home is the calmest way to end the day.
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Train to Sintra
Trains leave Rossio for Sintra roughly every twenty minutes and take about forty. Buy a rechargeable Navegante card at the machines and load a few journeys, which is cheaper than singles and works on the Sintra buses too. Sit on the left for the last stretch. Take the 08:30 or earlier if you want Pena before the crowds.About this place↗ Open in MapsThe suburban railway from Rossio station in central Lisbon out to Sintra, about forty minutes each way.
HistoryRossio station was built in 1886 and 1887 to a design by José Luís Monteiro, with a neo-Manueline front of horseshoe arches that looks nothing like the platforms behind it. The line to Sintra opened in the 1880s and has carried Lisbon out to the hills ever since.Why it's famousThe station front is one of the most photographed buildings in the Baixa, and the line is the reason Sintra works as a day trip rather than an overnight.Did you knowThe platforms sit several storeys above the ticket hall, and trains leave the station straight into a tunnel roughly 2.6 km long, bored under the Bairro Alto hill and opened in 1890. - 0210:00 · 120m
Pena Palace
Timed entry, booked online, as early as you can manage. Bus 434 climbs from the station, but the park gate is not the palace and there is another ten minutes uphill beyond it, or a shuttle. Do the terraces first while they are empty, the interiors after. Then walk down through the park instead of queueing for the bus.About this place↗ Open in MapsA Romantic hilltop palace in red, yellow and tiled panels, standing on the highest ridge above Sintra.
HistoryFerdinand II, the German-born king consort, bought the ruins of a sixteenth-century Hieronymite monastery in 1838 and had the engineer Wilhelm Ludwig von Eschwege rebuild it as a summer palace, finished in the 1850s. The monastery cloister survives inside the newer building.Why it's famousIt is the defining building of European Romanticism in Portugal and part of the Cultural Landscape of Sintra, UNESCO listed in 1995.Did you knowThe palace spent much of the twentieth century faded to a weathered grey. The red and yellow you see now was restored in the 1990s after researchers established the original colours. - 0312:15 · 75m
Castle of the Moors
A short downhill walk from Pena, or one stop on the 434. The ramparts run along the ridge and you can walk most of them, with the best view back to Pena's turrets from the far tower. Steps are uneven and there are no handrails in places, so take it steadily. Seventy-five minutes covers the full circuit.About this place↗ Open in MapsA ruined hilltop fortress of stone walls and towers running along the ridge above Sintra, with views to the Atlantic on a clear day.
HistoryBuilt by the Moors around the eighth and ninth centuries to watch the coast and the road to Lisbon. It surrendered to Afonso Henriques in 1147 shortly after Lisbon fell, was gradually abandoned, then damaged further by the 1755 earthquake. Ferdinand II rebuilt the walls in the nineteenth century as a romantic ruin in his park.Why it's famousThe walls climb the ridge like a small stretch of the Great Wall, and the view from them takes in Pena, the old town and the sea.Did you knowInside the walls archaeologists uncovered Muslim-era grain silos and a medieval Christian chapel, so the site holds both halves of its history within a few metres of each other. - 0414:00 · 75m
Tulhas Bar & Restaurant
Small, popular and it fills within twenty minutes of opening, so arrive right at the start of service. Veal in Madeira sauce is the house dish and the salt cod baked with cream runs it close. Portions are generous, so skip a starter. Cash is welcome. Book if you can, otherwise be early.About this place↗ Open in MapsA small stone-walled restaurant in Sintra's old town, serving traditional Portuguese cooking in what used to be a grain store.
HistoryTulhas are the bins a granary keeps grain in, and the building was one before it fed anyone. The vaulted room and thick walls are the original structure.Why it's famousIt is the old town's reliable lunch, chosen by people who want the local kitchen rather than the terrace with the view and the pictures on the menu.Did you knowPortugal catches no cod in its own waters. Bacalhau is salted and dried, a technique the Portuguese fleet adopted in the North Atlantic centuries ago, and the saying goes there is a recipe for every day of the year. - 0515:45 · 90m
Quinta da Regaleira
Book online, since walk-up entry can sell out in the afternoon. Go down the Initiation Well rather than up, then follow the tunnels out to the grottoes and the stepping stones, which is the sequence it was designed for. The stairs stay wet all year, so watch your footing. Ninety minutes is enough for the grounds and the house.About this place↗ Open in MapsA neo-Manueline house and estate on the edge of Sintra, whose gardens hide towers, grottoes, tunnels and a spiral well cut down into the hillside.
HistoryAntónio Augusto Carvalho Monteiro, who had made a fortune in Brazil, bought the estate in 1892 and hired the Italian architect and opera set designer Luigi Manini to build it between 1904 and 1910. Every element was planned around his interest in alchemy, the Templars and Freemasonry.Why it's famousThe Initiation Well, a mossy spiral staircase descending 27 metres into the ground, is one of the most photographed places in Portugal.Did you knowThe well never held water and was never meant to. It is an inverted tower with nine landings, echoing the nine circles of Dante's Divine Comedy, built for ceremonies rather than for drinking. - 0618:30 · 105m
Incomum by Luís Santos
Two minutes from Sintra station, so you can eat properly and still walk to the platform. The set tasting menu is the value order and runs to several courses, so allow the full hour and three quarters. Book ahead for the evening. Trains back to Rossio run late, which means there is no need to rush dessert.About this place↗ Open in MapsA modern Portuguese bistro a couple of minutes from Sintra station, known for tasting menus at a price well below what the cooking suggests.
HistoryChef Luís Santos opened it as a small dining room away from the tourist strip of the old town, and it built its reputation on repeat local custom rather than passing trade.Why it's famousIt is where people in Sintra eat when they want something ambitious, and one of the few kitchens in town that stays busy after the coaches leave.Did you knowThe bread, olives and cheese that arrive before you order anything are the couvert. They are charged for, not complimentary, and waving them away is completely normal and causes no offence.
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