Sintra Private Tour Half Day

Sintra sits in wooded hills above the coast, an hour or so from Lisbon, and it is where Portuguese royalty and the country’s romantics went to build the most extravagant things they could imagine. A private half day is enough to see the best of it without the day becoming a march.

The main attraction of Sintra and a magnificent 19th-century palace, elected one of the Seven Wonders of Portugal. It stands on the highest ridge, painted in reds and yellows, mixing Moorish, Gothic and Renaissance motifs with no apparent interest in restraint — and it works. On a clear day you can see the Atlantic from the terraces; on a misty one the palace appears and disappears above the trees, which is arguably better.

The second stop is an outstanding property of the same century, with many and mysterious stories to tell. It is the strange counterweight to the palace — built by an owner with an interest in symbol and initiation, and laid out so that the grounds are as much the point as the house.

The morning finishes in the old centre of Sintra, which is small, steep and made of tiled houses and narrow lanes. This is the unstructured part of the day: time to sit down, to shop, and to eat one of the local pastries the town is known for.

Sintra is hills and cobbles, so wear shoes that cope with both, and take a layer: it is reliably cooler and damper up here than in Lisbon, which is precisely why the palaces were built here. Being private, the balance of the morning can be shifted between the stops — say what you want more of.