Is sintra worth it
Sintra is absolutely worth it, and I'll go further: it's one of the most genuinely magical places in Europe, and people who dismiss it as a day-trip tourist trap are missing the point entirely. The problem isn't Sintra, it's how most people do Sintra. They take the train from Lisbon, spend three hours shuffling through the Pena Palace queue, eat a bad sandwich, and leave having seen almost nothing. That is the wrong approach and it explains every lukewarm review you've ever read.
The Pena Palace is the famous one, and it earns its reputation. The colors, the scale, the absurdity of it sitting up in the clouds above the Serra de Sintra is genuinely thrilling the first time you see it. But Quinta da Regaleira is the one that stays with you. The grounds are full of tunnels, wells, secret passages, and Masonic symbolism, and it has an atmosphere unlike anything else on the Iberian Peninsula. If you only have one morning and have to choose, Regaleira over Pena, honestly. The Moorish Castle walls, free and usually uncrowded, give you some of the best views of the whole region.
The real move, though, is to stay overnight. Sintra empties out in the late afternoon when the day-trippers leave, and what's left is a genuinely beautiful, slightly eerie hillside town with good restaurants and almost nobody in it. Early morning, before the first trains arrive from Lisbon, you can have the Pena gardens mostly to yourself. That experience is completely different from the midday crowds. May and early June are ideal, and September is close to perfect. August is manageable but brings serious crowds.
Cascais is thirty minutes away along a coastal road that's worth the drive alone, and the village itself is good for an afternoon and a proper seafood lunch. Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point of continental Europe, is nearby and takes twenty minutes to see. It's one of those places that sounds like a tourist checkbox and then you get there and find the wind is violent and the cliffs are dramatic and you're genuinely glad you made the effort. Sintra with a day in that direction is a full and excellent trip. Most people skip Regaleira, skip staying overnight, and skip the coast. Most people are wrong.