The Portuguese monarchy spent four centuries building in and around the Sintra hills, and the scale of their ambition is still visible today. This day traces that tradition from its most playful — Queluz, the pink Baroque palace that served as the royal summer retreat — to its most monumental.
Queluz comes first, its gardens laid out in the French manner, fountains playing in the morning quiet. Then north to Mafra, where King João V built a palace-monastery-basilica complex to rival anything in Europe, completing it with a workforce of fifty thousand. The Mafra Library alone — two storeys of carved cherrywood, thirty-six thousand rare volumes — is worth the journey. The afternoon brings Sintra itself: the Sintra National Palace in the town square, medieval and complex, its twin chimneys rising above the rooftops; and the Pena Palace above it all, the most exuberant building in Portugal.
The tour is long but the stops are well-paced, and each place is so different from the last that the day never feels repetitive.
What's included
- Private guide and driver
- Private vehicle throughout
- Hotel pick-up and drop-off in Lisbon, Cascais or Sintra
- Admission tickets for all sites
- Bottled water
Good to know
- Duration: approximately 8 hours
- Departure: flexible — typically 9am
- Group size: private — your group only
- Languages: English, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian
Pricing
All our tours are priced according to group size and the vehicle required. Send us an enquiry and we will come back to you with a proposal.