What’s the Best Private Sintra Tour from Lisbon?
For most first-time visitors, the best private Sintra tour is the Sintra Monument Tour, an 8-hour private tour that includes entrance tickets to four monuments — Pena Palace, the Moorish Castle, Quinta da Regaleira and the Sintra National Palace — so there’s nothing extra to plan or queue for. If you only have half a day, the 4-hour Sintra City Tour covers the historic center and Cabo da Roca at a lower price. Which tour is genuinely “best” depends on how much time you have, which monuments you want to see, and whether you’d rather build your own itinerary.
Comparing the private Sintra tours
Lisbon On Wheels runs five private, English-speaking Sintra tours from Lisbon, and each is built around a different way of visiting the town. None of them share a car or van with strangers — every option is a private tour for your own group. If you’re deciding between them, the fastest way is to start with how much time you have and how many of Sintra’s monuments you actually want to go inside.
Short on time (half a day): Sintra City Tour
The Sintra City Tour is a 4-hour private tour departing at 9 a.m., priced at €95 for adults, €25 for children and €15 for infants. It covers Sintra’s historic center and a stop at Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point of mainland Europe, and lets you add one monument of your choice or a stop in Cascais. Monument entrance tickets aren’t included, so you pay separately if you go inside somewhere. It’s the right choice if you want a taste of Sintra without committing a full day.
Want the monuments handled for you: Sintra Monument Tour
The Sintra Monument Tour is an 8-hour private tour, departing at 8 a.m., where entrance tickets to four monuments — Pena Palace, the Moorish Castle, Quinta da Regaleira and the Sintra National Palace — are already included in the price. Pricing is tiered by group size: €225.78 per person for a group of 2, €212 per person for a group of 3-4, and €190.80 per person for a group of 5-8; children pay €74.20. This is the tour to book if you want to see as much of Sintra’s monument circuit as possible in one day without separately booking timed-entry tickets for each site.
Want to build your own day: Custom Tour of Sintra
The Custom Tour of Sintra is also 8 hours, departing at 8 a.m., but works differently: the base price (€132.50 per adult, €68.90 per child) covers Sintra village, Cabo da Roca and Cascais, and you add whichever monuments you actually want to visit as paid extras — Pena Palace (€26.50), Quinta da Regaleira (€28.62), the Moorish Castle (€18.02), the Sintra National Palace (€16.96), Monserrate Palace (€19.08), Queluz Palace (€19.08), or a wine tasting (€31.80). It’s the better option if you’d rather pay only for the one or two monuments you actually want to see rather than a fixed package of four.
Want Pena Palace plus a wine tasting
The Sintra & Pena Palace with Wine Tasting tour is an 8-hour private tour (€169.60 adult, €106 child aged 7-17, €53 infant) that includes the Pena Palace entrance ticket and a wine tasting, alongside the village of Sintra, Cabo da Roca and Cascais. It suits visitors who want Sintra’s single most famous monument, not all four, combined with a food-and-wine element.
Want Queluz Palace instead of Pena
The Private Sintra tour with Wine Tasting and Queluz Palace swaps the itinerary’s monument for the 18th-century Queluz Palace (entrance ticket included), plus a wine tasting, Sintra village, and a drive past Cabo da Roca and Guincho Beach to Cascais. It’s a good pick if you’ve already seen Pena Palace on a previous trip, or prefer Queluz’s more formal, Versailles-style gardens.
In every case, the driver/guide who accompanies you is included, along with bottled water and pick-up/drop-off. A dedicated guide inside the monuments themselves is not included in any of these tours — you visit at your own pace once inside, with your private driver/guide providing context along the way.
Not sure which one fits your trip? See all our Sintra tours or get in touch and we’ll help you choose.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which Sintra tour includes the most monument tickets?
The Sintra Monument Tour includes the most: entrance tickets to four sites — Pena Palace, the Moorish Castle, Quinta da Regaleira and the Sintra National Palace — all bundled into one price.
What’s the cheapest private Sintra tour?
The Sintra City Tour is the lowest-priced option at €95 per adult, because it’s a shorter 4-hour tour that doesn’t include any monument entrance tickets.
Can I customize which monuments I visit?
Yes. The Custom Tour of Sintra lets you choose your own monuments as paid extras on top of a base itinerary of Sintra village, Cabo da Roca and Cascais, so you only pay for the sites you actually want to enter.
Do the tours include a guide inside the monuments?
No. All of these tours include a private driver/guide for the day, but a guide who accompanies you inside the monuments themselves is not included — that’s a separate paid service sold directly by Parques de Sintra.
How long does a private Sintra tour take?
Most of these tours run 8 hours, departing around 8 a.m., except for the Sintra City Tour, which is a shorter 4-hour version departing at 9 a.m.