Start from 25 curated places around Sintra, PT, then choose the recommendations that fit your guests.
Restaurants & cafés
Nau Palatina
A family-run restaurant in the São Pedro de Penaferrim quarter, a short walk from the tourist centre but firmly in the local neighbourhood, serving tapas-style Portuguese petiscos from regionally sourced ingredients. The kitchen leans on charcuterie, bacalhau preparations and seasonal vegetables in small portions designed for sharing. The room is warm and unhurried, attracting a regular local crowd.
INcomum
A contemporary Portuguese kitchen near the main road into Sintra, offering a refined menu that takes traditional ingredients — bacalhau, chouriço, native vegetables — and reframes them with technique. Dishes like passion fruit risotto and Parmesan carpaccio sit alongside more classical preparations. Convenient location for visiting before or after the palaces without committing to a long detour.
Trails & outdoors
Sintra Coastal Trail: Cabo da Roca to Azenhas do Mar
An 11.5 km coastal walk from the Cabo da Roca cliffs north to Azenhas do Mar, staying close to the Atlantic edge through the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park. The route passes above Praia da Ursa (a steep descent track leads to the beach), Praia da Adraga, Praia Grande and Praia das Maçãs before ending at the cliff-perched village. The terrain is a mix of dirt paths, cliff-edge tracks and short road sections.
PR7 – Cabo da Roca Circular via Praia Grande
A 12.3 km circular trail starting and finishing at Cabo da Roca, passing through bamboo groves, pine forest, two historic vineyards (Viúva Gomes and Casal Santa Maria), the seaside village of Almoçageme and the cliff above Praia Grande where dinosaur footprints are visible in the vertical rockface. It overlaps with the long-distance GR11 route for the first half and gives a more varied landscape than the pure coastal path.
Things to do
Tuk Tour Sintra
An electric tuk-tuk tour operator running guided circuits of the Serra palaces and the coastline, with the practical advantage of covering the steep, traffic-restricted roads that make cycling or walking between sites tiring. Tours range from shorter village loops to full-day itineraries reaching Cabo da Roca. The vehicles navigate the narrow lanes between Pena, the Moorish Castle, Regaleira and Monserrate without the parking difficulties of a rental car.
Park-e-Bike Electric Bicycle Rental
An e-bike rental operation based near Sintra station offering electric bicycles for self-guided exploration of the Serra and the coastline. The electric assist makes the otherwise punishing hill climbs to the palaces manageable without shuttle buses, and the format allows stopping at viewpoints that buses drive past. Routes reach Cabo da Roca, Colares and the coastal villages on a single charge.
Landmarks & sights
Palácio da Pena
A hilltop Romantic palace built in the 1840s by King Ferdinand II on the ruins of a medieval monastery, mixing Moorish, Gothic, Manueline and Renaissance towers into a single canary-yellow and red fantasia above the clouds. Its position on the second-highest peak of the Serra de Sintra means you are often looking down onto mist. The interiors are preserved as the royal family left them, with rooms ranging from Arabesque plasterwork to painted tilework kitchens.
Quinta da Regaleira
A turn-of-the-20th-century Romantic estate built by eccentric millionaire Carvalho Monteiro and designed by Italian opera set designer Luigi Manini, filled with symbolism drawn from alchemy, Freemasonry and Tarot. The grounds contain grottos, fountains, underground tunnels and the signature Poço Iniciático — an ornamental well that spirals nine stories underground, designed for ritual descents rather than water collection. The palace interior is secondary; the gardens are the reason to come.