Sintra Palaces and Castles

If You Want Interiors

The National Palace and Pena are the two interiors choices, and they are different decisions. The National Palace is in the town centre, open 09:30-18:30, at $15.00 (€13) for the Essential adult ticket, with no hill to climb. Pena costs $23.10 (€20) for the Essential adult ticket and its interior runs on timed slots, which means booking ahead and allowing about 30 minutes from the park gate to the palace. If your time is short or the weather is uncertain, the National Palace is the lower-risk interior.

If Pena's architecture and setting are the reason you came, book ahead and take an afternoon slot, which Parques de Sintra says is currently when the palace has fewer visitors. Queluz, at $15.00 (€13) for palace and gardens, is a third interiors option near a train line, useful as a separate half-day.

If You Want Walls and Views

That is the Moorish Castle, $13.84 (€12), open 09:30-18:00. It is a 10th-century fortification with walls to walk rather than furnished rooms, and a lifting platform reaches the upper walls. No private cars reach it, so you arrive by bus 434 or on one of three marked trails.

Monserrate is a different call: its interest is the garden and the 19th-century palace, and until March 2027 that palace carries scaffolding and a temporary covering for roof works.

If You Want a Quiet One

The Convent of the Capuchos, $12.69 (€11), open 09:00-17:30, is the hardest to reach: bus 1253 and then a 40-minute walk, or a taxi. That distance is exactly why it suits a slow half day. The Chalet of the Countess of Edla costs nothing extra because any Pena ticket includes it, though its gate shuts 12:00-14:00. Monserrate's park is the garden option, and one of only two Parques sites that admit dogs.

The four decisions above, reduced to one line each, with the adult price and the constraint from the official pages.

The Three Systems

Parques de Sintra runs Pena, the Moorish Castle, the National Palace, Monserrate, the Edla chalet, Queluz and the Capuchos, all on its own online ticketing with mandatory dates. The Quinta da Regaleira sells timed tickets through its own operator's shop, at $23.10 (€20) adult. Mafra is run by Museus e Monumentos de Portugal at $17.31 (€15) general admission, so its tickets sit outside every Sintra pass. The Seteais Palace sells nothing at all, it is a hotel.

The Two Parques Passes, and the Sums

The Friend's Card costs $103.80 (€90) a year for adults and covers Pena, the Edla chalet, Monserrate, Queluz, the National Palace, the Moorish Castle and the Capuchos. The Friendly Ticket for the 4 Parks costs $69.20 (€60) and covers Pena, the Edla chalet, Monserrate, the Moorish Castle and the Capuchos. On a single trip neither pays.

Our sum of the six adult Essential singles (Pena, Moorish Castle, Monserrate, National Palace, Capuchos, Queluz) is $93.40 (€81, our sum) against the $103.80 (€90) card. Dropping Queluz and the National Palace gives $63.50 (€55, our sum) against the $69.20 (€60) 4 Parks ticket. Regaleira and Mafra are on neither pass.

Pass prices are on the official annual passes page.

The longest project is the Royal Chapel at the National Palace, under conservation and full restoration until February 2028. Monserrate's palace has roofs and the Copa dos Frescos area under restoration until March 2027, with path lighting in the park until December 2026, and its monument page notes scaffolding and a temporary covering until March 2027. At Pena, window frames go into the cloister until October 2026, and works in the Countess of Edla's Fern Garden and the Pena Farm greenhouses after Storm Martinho have no fixed end.

The Edla chalet facade finishes run until October 2026. The Moorish Castle visitor centre is renovated until January 2027. Queluz runs several projects between September and December 2026.

At Mafra, run by a different body, the basilica is closed for works with no reopening date printed. The source is Parques de Sintra's Open for Works page.

What This Means for Your Choice

No Parques project closes a whole site, so every palace above stays visitable. The works change the picture more than the plan. If scaffolding on the building would spoil a paid visit, weigh Monserrate's palace against its park.

If the National Palace is your interiors pick, expect restoration work around the Royal Chapel until February 2028 and ask at the ticket office what is open that day. The Mafra basilica is the one closure that takes a named space out of a visit.

The National Palace is the most extensively adapted: about 1,820 m2 of the route is accessible via the kitchen entrance, with traction equipment and a staff-operated stair climber, and the disability discount there is 70%. Monserrate takes the whole palace ground floor by ramp, with a 360 metre step-free recommended route, at a 50% discount. At Pena the palace interior is not accessible because of stairs, though a ramp of about 90 metres at up to 18% leads to the entrance, and the discount is 50%.

The Edla chalet has a 100 metre inclusive route from its gate. The Capuchos has no accessibility page published by Parques de Sintra, with a 70% discount. At the Moorish Castle the route through the inner walls is accessible with attention to steep slopes, and a lifting platform reaches the upper walls, at a 50% discount.

Two Scotturb lines serve the hill. Bus 434 links the station, the historic centre, the Moorish Castle and Pena. Bus 435 links the station, Regaleira, the Seteais area and Monserrate.

Carris Metropolitana's 1253 runs from Sintra station towards Monserrate and the Capuchos, with a 40-minute walk at the end to the convent. Private cars are not authorised at Pena or the Moorish Castle, so the bus or the trails are the options. Parques de Sintra marks three trails up to the Moorish Castle: the Santa Maria Trail, 1,770 metres and 1 h, the Seteais Trail from the Seteais Palace, 2,410 metres and 1 h 30, and the Villa Sassetti Trail, 1,850 metres and 45 min.

Bus fares are not published on the operators' sites, so see our getting around page for what is and is not confirmable.

The four links that matter on the hill, with the operator and the one constraint that decides each, from Parques de Sintra's how-to-get-there page.

Ticket Windows and Slot Rules

Ticket offices at Queluz, the National Palace, the Moorish Castle and Monserrate close 12:00-13:00, though the automatic machines keep working. The Edla chalet gate shuts 12:00-14:00. Pena's fast-track admits only 25 entries per palace slot and has no delay tolerance, so miss the time at the meeting point and you miss the visit.

Parques de Sintra says to allow about 30 minutes from the Pena park gate to the palace, and that half hour belongs inside your plan, not after it.

Closures and Rules That Change Plans

Hilltop sites close for weather on short notice. On 16 December 2025 Parques de Sintra shut the Moorish Castle, Pena, Monserrate and the Capuchos the same day for winds, with no reopening date in the notice. The Parques sites close every year on 24, 25 and 31 December and 1 January.

Dogs are allowed only at the Moorish Castle and Monserrate. Under the general ticket terms you cannot bring food products in. Check the official notices on the morning of your visit.

For one day, our suggested pairings are Pena plus the Moorish Castle on the ridge, or the National Palace plus Regaleira in town. Two days let you add Monserrate or the Capuchos in the west without rushing the timed slots. See one day in Sintra and 2 days in Sintra for hour-by-hour plans, and sintra tours if you would rather have transport handled.

The big picture, from trains to pastries, is on the Sintra city guide. If you are costing the whole trip, our Sintra costs page adds up the tickets, buses and train.