Lisbon takes two days. Then Sintra starts.
Which Sintra trip actually gets you inside Pena. What an evening on the Tagus costs. Whether a tuk tuk is worth it once the cobbles tilt upwards. Reviews of every tour you can book in Lisbon.
The four bookings a first Lisbon trip is built around.
Sintra, the monastery at Belém, an evening on the river and a morning on foot. What each costs, and what the travellers who took it say.
01The palace daySintra, Pena, Regaleira, Cabo da Roca & CascaisPena, Regaleira, Cabo da Roca and Cascais on one loop out of the city. The day people come home talking about.
02The monasteryJerónimos Monastery Entrance TicketJerónimos in Belém, with entry booked before you travel. The line along the square outside is the reason to.
03The evening sailSunset Catamaran Boat Tour with Music and DrinksA catamaran on the Tagus while the light goes gold behind the bridge, with drinks on deck.
04The city on footHistory, Stories and Lifestyle Walking TourThree hours through Baixa, Chiado and Alfama with a guide who lives here. Do it early and the rest of the week makes sense.
Sintra is a hill of palaces. The only decision is how much of it you want.
Every operator in Lisbon sells the same mountain three different ways. Here is what each version costs and how much of the day it takes.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · Sintra, Pena, Regaleira, Cabo da Roca & Cascais
Just PenaTimed entry to the yellow and red palace on the ridge, and the park below it.
The well and the gardensRegaleira: the initiation well, the tunnels under the moss, and a garden built as a puzzle.
The whole coast loopThe palaces, then Cabo da Roca and a late lunch in Cascais before the road back.
All 218 Sintra days out →
Six days out that leave Lisbon after breakfast and get back for dinner.
A ridge of palaces, a cliff coast, the pilgrim town north, a walled village famous for cherry liqueur, a wine mountain across the bridge, and a field of standing stones in the Alentejo.
The city reads better from the water, and getting out there is cheap.
Sailboats and catamarans leave the docks under the bridge most afternoons. Two hours, a drink in your hand, and the whole waterfront going past from Belém to the cranes.
Lisbon is built on seven hills, and the tram queue knows it.
Alfama goes up and keeps going, the limestone cobbles turn to glass in the rain, and Tram 28 fills at its first stop. The answer is wheels. A tuk tuk takes the gradients the trams queue for, an e-bike does the climbing for you, and a pass lets you join at the top instead of the bottom.
Belém is a monastery, a tower and the best custard tart in Portugal.
The quarter sits four miles west of the centre along the river, and the tram takes twenty minutes. Book the monastery, walk the cloister, then join the queue at the bakery, which moves faster than it looks.
Everything in Belém →
Lisbon by price: what each kind of day sets you back.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. The cheap end is not the thin end here: a palace ticket and a sail up the river both land under fifty dollars.
Palace tickets, tram passes, river sails, walking tours and an hour in a tuk tuk.
The full days out: Sintra with the coast, the run north to Fátima and Nazaré, food and wine walks, Arrábida with tastings.
Private drivers, small-group palace days with every ticket bought ahead, and the helicopter over the estuary.
Petiscos, a bakery class, and fado when the plates are cleared.
Eating here runs late and costs less than you expect. Take the food walk on the first evening, the pastel de nata class on a wet morning, and keep a fado house for the night with nothing planned.
Four Lisbon bookings that will not wait for you.
Most of this city can be arranged over breakfast. These four run on timed entry slots, boat calendars and rooms with forty seats in them.
- 01Pena Palace and Park Entrance TicketPena admits visitors in timed slots and the cool morning ones go first. Arrive without one in July and you queue on an exposed hill.
- 02Jerónimos Monastery Entrance TicketThe monastery caps how many are inside at once, so the line runs the length of the square by mid-morning. Entry is sold by the hour.
- 03Live Fado Show with Port Wine in Historic CenterA fado house is a room with maybe forty chairs in it. The ones worth sitting in lose the last of them days ahead.
- 04Berlenga Island Small-Group Day Trip from LisbonBoats to the Berlengas run in the warm months only, and the island holds a daily cap on landings. Weather takes care of the rest.
Three things that only happen in Lisbon.
Every European capital has a castle and a river cruise. A lament sung in a back room, a tart baked to a recipe the monks sold off, and a cliff where the continent simply stops do not travel.
Fado in Alfama
Fado came out of the port districts in the early eighteen hundreds and never really left them. Two guitars, one voice, and a room small enough that nobody claps until the last note has gone. The tourist houses serve dinner with it and the old ones simply pour wine and drop the lights. The singer decides when it ends.
- 1Live Fado Show with Port Wine in Historic Center★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 4,166 reviews
- 2Fado Show and Portuguese Dinner★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,531 reviews
- 3Fado Show with Wine in a Historic Venue★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,294 reviews
Pastéis de nata
The monks at Jerónimos baked them with the yolks left over from starching their habits, then sold the recipe when the monastery closed in 1834. The bakery in Belém still mixes its version behind a locked door. Everyone else works out their own, and a morning class in town gets you the blistered top and the cinnamon while it is still hot.
- 1Pastel de Nata Baking Class★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 2,106 reviews
- 2Traditional Portuguese Cooking Class★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 592 reviews
- 3Pastel de Nata Masterclass at a Real Bakery in Downtown Lisbon★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 491 reviews
Cabo da Roca
A lighthouse, a stone cross and a hundred and forty metres of cliff dropping into the Atlantic. This is the westernmost point of mainland Europe, and for centuries people took it for the end of the world. Camões wrote the line carved on the marker. Take a jacket, because the wind comes straight off the ocean.
- 1Sintra, Pena, Regaleira, Cabo da Roca & Cascais★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 19,656 reviews
- 2Sintra, Pena, Cabo da Roca, Cascais Tour with Pickup★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 5,080 reviews
- 3Small Group Tour to Sintra, Pena Palace, Cabo Roca and Cascais★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 3,559 reviews
By place, in the city and out of it
Fresh off the reviewing desk, Lisbon first.
The rest of the new ones →
Entry Tickets to Mosteiro de São Vicente de Foram
Read our review →
Early Morning TukTuk Tour – hotel/cruise ship pickup
Read our review →
National Palace of Ajuda E-Ticket & City Audio Guide
Read our review →
Quinta da Regaleira e-Ticket & Sintra City Audios
Read our review →
E-bike Trip from the Sintra Mountains to Cascais Sea
Read our review →
Cruise to the Beach with BBQ, Open Bar and Music
Read our review →
