Discover Pena Palace: Private Day Trip to Sintra from Lisbon

Sintra is a town and municipality found in the Lisbon Region of Portugal. With its cooler climate among the pine covered hills of the Serra de Sintra, it once attracted Lisbon’s elite, who built the extraordinary palaces and gardens that remain there today. Before them, it was where Celts worshipped their moon god, and where the Moors built a formidable castle, so Sintra’s fairy-tale setting has clearly always bewitched us. Its heady mixture of history and fantasy has made it a World Heritage Site. Spoilt for ChoiceThere are really more palaces in Sintra than can be seen in a day. Among the highlights is the Monserrate Palace, which combines Moorish and Gothic styles, with an Italian twist, and has remarkable gardens that are a dreamscape of waterfalls and tropical flora. Another is the Quinta de Regaleira, built at the close of the 19th century, which sprouts turrets and towers like glorious mushrooms. Its garden is full of mythological symbols, with statues of gods set among mysterious wells and grottoes. The Star of the ShowAmong an embarrassment of riches, the standout attraction is surely the Pena Palace. Built in the 19th century by a king who wanted his royal retreat to resemble something from an opera, it is painted in vivid colours, with the sort of pomp and mythical design that brings to mind Mad King Ludwig’s Neuschwanstein castle in Bavaria.

Pena Palace is the crown jewel of Sintra, a town twenty five kilometres west of Lisbon’s centre. It is frankly extraordinary, and gives Mad King Ludwig’s Neuschwanstein in Bavaria a run for its money as the most outlandish castle in Europe, and possibly the world. It looks like something from Alice in Wonderland, or like it must be made of marzipan and gingerbread and candy cane, such is its stylistic exuberance. Rising from a thickly wooded peak, its pink and lemon crenellated towers are often wreathed in mists, like whipped cream. The palace was a wild dream of Ferdinand of Saxe Coburg-Gotha, the artist-husband of Queen Maria, who commissioned the Bavarian-Manueline epic, complete with an armoured statute of himself on a nearby peak. The statue looks over both the palace and its extensive gardens. The mystical Pena Park is full of trees and exotic plants from the former colonies of the Portuguese empire, along with ponds, fountains and sinister-looking black swans. Twenty minutes from the palace by foot there is the Cruz Alta viewpoint, the highest peak in Serra de Sinta, from which you can catch marvellous views of the palace, the Tagus estuary and the ocean beyond. The interior of the palace is just as wacky and extravagant as you would expect, and has been restored to how it would have been before the fall of the Portuguese monarchy in 1910. It is packed with precious porcelain, trompe l’oeil murals and nude sculptures of buxom nymphs, all set among late Victorian and Edwardian furnishings. The effect is gloriously kitsch.

The original chapel remains relatively unscathed and looks much the same as it had in the 16th Century. The small nave is topped with a Gothic vaulted ceiling and the walls retain their original tiles.

One of the highlights of the Palace are the colourful terraces and decorative battlements, don't miss the stunning views from here.

This impressive sculpture was a tribute to the world-changing scientific advancement by 1838. The Triton is bridging that gap, with the sea below and the earth above.

A monumental train station with horseshoe arched doorways built under the early 16th-century Neo-Manueline style is a must-see in the city.

The Pena Palace Gardens in Sintra, Portugal, are a breathtaking part of the Pena Park the lush green space surrounding the opulent Pena Palace. Created in the 19th century by King Ferdinand II, the gardens cover about 200 hectares (500 acres) and feature a mix of exotic and native plant species, romantic pathways, and stunning viewpoints. The gardens contain over 500 species of trees and plants from all over the world, including North America, Japan, Australia, and China. Some of the most impressive include giant sequoias, tree ferns, and magnolias. Inspired by 19th-century Romanticism, the gardens have winding paths, hidden grottoes, and small lakes, creating a fairytale-like ambience for visitors. Points of interest to be found within the gardens include the Camellia Garden, a beautiful section that blooms from autumn to spring, with different varieties of camellias introduced by the Portuguese royal family, and the Temple of Columns, a charming circular structure in the middle of the garden, perfect for resting and taking in the surroundings.

An Islamic pavilion with a hexagonal footprint topped by a dome, and inside between some benches a fountain with clear water.

Two unique castle-like duck houses add to the magical ambience of the place along with the soundtrack of trickling water and the odd plop of feeding fish.