Sintra is the day trip Lisbon families take first: a wooded hill town about 40 minutes away by train, with palaces, a hilltop castle and wild Atlantic cliffs a short drive west. With kids, pick two sights, not four, start early and book timed tickets. Bring a layer: it's often cooler and mistier than Lisbon. Here's what we checked, from Pena Palace to dinosaur footprints on a cliff.
King Ferdinand II built this castle-like palace on a summit of the Sintra hills: red and yellow walls, towers, terraces and a stone Triton over one archway. Kids walk the terraces and a circuit of rooms inside.
The surrounding Park of Pena is Portugal's largest arboretum, with woodland paths, the Valley of Lakes, a fern valley, the Chalet of the Countess of Edla and the High Cross lookout.
A 10th-century fortress built during the Moorish period on one of the peaks of the Sintra Hills. Its granite walls run along the ridge between boulders and cliffs, and kids can walk the parapet between towers, with views over Sintra town, Pena Palace and the Atlantic.
Inside the walls are grain silos, a cistern, the ruins of an Islamic settlement and a medieval church.
Quinta da Regaleira is a hillside estate built in the late 1800s by the Italian architect Luigi Manini, on the edge of Sintra's old town. Kids walk down the spiral staircase of the Initiatic Well, then follow the underground tunnels out to the Eastern Grotto.
Above ground there are towers, a chapel, the palace and winding garden paths. Paths are steep and uneven, with many steps.
The oldest palace in Portugal, begun around the 10th or 11th century under Moorish rule. Kids spot the two giant conical chimneys from the square, then look straight up them from the royal kitchen.
Inside are the Swan Room and Magpie Room with painted ceilings, the tiled Room of the Coats of Arms, and a central patio with a water grotto.
Monserrate is a 19th-century palace built for the British collector Francis Cook, with carved stone arches and Moorish-style domes, set in a large botanical park on the hills outside Sintra.
The garden paths lead through a fern valley, a Japanese garden and plants gathered from around the world, past Beckford's Waterfall and Vathek's Arch. Inside, kids walk the long central gallery, then the music room, library and kitchen.
Cabo da Roca is the westernmost point of mainland Europe, a bare clifftop where the land drops about 140 meters into the Atlantic. A stone cross quotes the poet Camões, and the red-and-white lighthouse, lit since 1772, is one of the oldest on the Portuguese coast.
Kids can look out from the viewpoint by the cross, walk the clifftop paths, and tour the lighthouse's interpretation center.
A stone staircase at the south end of Praia Grande climbs beside near-vertical limestone slabs printed with 66 three-toed dinosaur footprints, 51 of them lined up in 11 trackways. The slabs formed on a shallow sea floor and were later tilted upright, so the tracks now run up the cliff face.
Kids can count the prints on the way up, then head down to the wide surf beach below.
The Sintra Tram is a heritage electric line that opened in 1904 to carry beachgoers from Sintra to the sea. Its vintage cars run from Vila Alda, at the edge of Sintra town, through Galamares and Colares to the beach at Praia das Maçãs, a ride of about 45 minutes.
Most families ride down, spend a few hours on the sand, and ride back up.
The Portuguese Air Force's aviation museum fills the old hangars at the Granja do Marquês air base near Sintra. The main hangar lines up 42 aircraft in date order, from early biplanes to jet fighters. Three hangars from the 1920s hold small civil planes, a multimedia auditorium, aircraft flown in the Portuguese Colonial War, and early jet trainers.
Sintra is the day trip Lisbon families take first: a wooded hill town about 40 minutes away by train, with palaces, a hilltop castle and wild Atlantic cliffs a short drive west. With kids, pick two sights, not four, start early and book timed tickets. Bring a layer: it's often cooler and mistier than Lisbon. Here's what we checked, from Pena Palace to dinosaur footprints on a cliff.
King Ferdinand II built this castle-like palace on a summit of the Sintra hills: red and yellow walls, towers, terraces and a stone Triton over one archway. Kids walk the terraces and a circuit of rooms inside.
The surrounding Park of Pena is Portugal's largest arboretum, with woodland paths, the Valley of Lakes, a fern valley, the Chalet of the Countess of Edla and the High Cross lookout.
A 10th-century fortress built during the Moorish period on one of the peaks of the Sintra Hills. Its granite walls run along the ridge between boulders and cliffs, and kids can walk the parapet between towers, with views over Sintra town, Pena Palace and the Atlantic.
Inside the walls are grain silos, a cistern, the ruins of an Islamic settlement and a medieval church.
Quinta da Regaleira is a hillside estate built in the late 1800s by the Italian architect Luigi Manini, on the edge of Sintra's old town. Kids walk down the spiral staircase of the Initiatic Well, then follow the underground tunnels out to the Eastern Grotto.
Above ground there are towers, a chapel, the palace and winding garden paths. Paths are steep and uneven, with many steps.
The oldest palace in Portugal, begun around the 10th or 11th century under Moorish rule. Kids spot the two giant conical chimneys from the square, then look straight up them from the royal kitchen.
Inside are the Swan Room and Magpie Room with painted ceilings, the tiled Room of the Coats of Arms, and a central patio with a water grotto.
Monserrate is a 19th-century palace built for the British collector Francis Cook, with carved stone arches and Moorish-style domes, set in a large botanical park on the hills outside Sintra.
The garden paths lead through a fern valley, a Japanese garden and plants gathered from around the world, past Beckford's Waterfall and Vathek's Arch. Inside, kids walk the long central gallery, then the music room, library and kitchen.
Cabo da Roca is the westernmost point of mainland Europe, a bare clifftop where the land drops about 140 meters into the Atlantic. A stone cross quotes the poet Camões, and the red-and-white lighthouse, lit since 1772, is one of the oldest on the Portuguese coast.
Kids can look out from the viewpoint by the cross, walk the clifftop paths, and tour the lighthouse's interpretation center.
A stone staircase at the south end of Praia Grande climbs beside near-vertical limestone slabs printed with 66 three-toed dinosaur footprints, 51 of them lined up in 11 trackways. The slabs formed on a shallow sea floor and were later tilted upright, so the tracks now run up the cliff face.
Kids can count the prints on the way up, then head down to the wide surf beach below.
The Sintra Tram is a heritage electric line that opened in 1904 to carry beachgoers from Sintra to the sea. Its vintage cars run from Vila Alda, at the edge of Sintra town, through Galamares and Colares to the beach at Praia das Maçãs, a ride of about 45 minutes.
Most families ride down, spend a few hours on the sand, and ride back up.
The Portuguese Air Force's aviation museum fills the old hangars at the Granja do Marquês air base near Sintra. The main hangar lines up 42 aircraft in date order, from early biplanes to jet fighters. Three hangars from the 1920s hold small civil planes, a multimedia auditorium, aircraft flown in the Portuguese Colonial War, and early jet trainers.
