7 Must-See Attractions in Sintra Beyond the Palaces
Most people arrive in Sintra with one thing in mind, Pena Palace, and leave having seen the village and a palace or two. That is a fine day, but it misses half of what makes Sintra special. The UNESCO landscape stretches from the mountain to the Atlantic, and some of its best moments have no ticket office at all. Here are the seven attractions in and around Sintra that we most enjoy showing guests, beyond the palaces themselves. (For the palaces, see our guide to the 7 monuments you must visit in Sintra.)
1. Cabo da Roca
The westernmost point of mainland Europe, 18 km from the village: a lighthouse on a 140-metre cliff, a stone monument with the poet Camões’ line about where the land ends and the sea begins, and wind. Always wind. It is a 20-minute stop and one of the most photographed places in Portugal, and it is on almost every full-day tour we run, including the Sintra & Cabo da Roca tour. Go late afternoon if you can; the light on the cliffs is best then and the coaches have gone.
2. Azenhas do Mar
A whitewashed village stacked down a cliff above a natural sea pool, on the coast north of Cabo da Roca. There is a viewpoint at the top of the village that gives you the whole picture in one frame, a seafood restaurant at the bottom, and not much else, which is the point. It is the most beautiful village on the Sintra coast and it takes 30 minutes to see, so it fits easily into a day. Our Sintra, Azenhas do Mar & Cascais tour combines it with the palaces and the coast road.
3. The Sintra historic centre
The old town below the National Palace is small, steep and worth an hour on foot: the palace square, the narrow lanes climbing behind it, the town hall with its Manueline tower, and the two bakeries that matter, Piriquita for travesseiros (puff pastry with almond cream) and Casa Piriquita II or Gregório for queijadas (small cheese tarts). Most tours pass through at lunchtime. We prefer it at 9 am, before the day-trippers arrive, or after 5 pm when they have left.
4. The Colares wine region
Between the mountain and the sea, in the sand dunes behind Praia das Maçãs, is one of the oldest and smallest wine appellations in Europe. The Ramisco and Malvasia vines grow in sand, protected from the wind by reed fences, and survived the phylloxera plague that destroyed the rest of Europe’s vineyards in the 19th century. Production is tiny and almost none of it is exported, so a tasting here is one of the few places in the world you can try it. Several of our tours end the day with a tasting; our Sintra wine tours page compares them.
5. Praia da Ursa and the Sintra beaches
Just north of Cabo da Roca, Praia da Ursa is a small beach below sea stacks that regularly appears on lists of the most beautiful beaches in Europe. The catch is the access: a steep, unofficial path down the cliff that takes 20 minutes each way and is not for everyone. Easier options along the same coast are Praia da Adraga (a restaurant, parking, and cliffs at both ends), Praia Grande (the longest beach, with the natural pools at the northern end) and Praia das Maçãs (the family beach, reached by a historic tram from Sintra in summer). The Sintra Beaches with Wine Tasting tour spends the day on this coast.
6. The coast road to Cascais
From Cabo da Roca the road runs south past Guincho, a wide surfing beach with dunes and a fortress at the end, then along the cliffs to Boca do Inferno, a sea cave outside Cascais where the Atlantic explodes through the rock in winter, and into Cascais itself, a former fishing village turned resort with a marina, a citadel and a seafront of pastel houses. Most of our full-day Sintra tours return to Lisbon this way rather than on the motorway, because it turns the drive back into the last stop of the day.
7. The forest and the mountain road
Between the village and Pena, the road climbs through a forest that was planted by King Ferdinand in the 19th century with species from every continent: giant sequoias, tree ferns, camellias, cork oaks. Below the Moorish Castle there are viewpoints over the village and the ocean, and off the main road there are forest tracks that only a 4×4 can use. The Sintra 4×4 Half-Day Adventure is our way of showing that side of the mountain, the one the tour buses never see.
How to fit them in
A full day from Lisbon comfortably covers the village, one or two palaces, Cabo da Roca and the coast road to Cascais; that is the shape of most of our private Sintra tours. Azenhas do Mar, the beaches and the Colares wineries push the day towards the coast and away from the palaces, which is a trade-off worth making on a second visit or a hot summer day. If you want everything, it is a two-day destination, and our tour packages combine Sintra with the Arrábida coast on consecutive days.