Definitely the highlight of our trip to Sintra! Pictures can't even do it justice, even though I was inspired to take a lot! It is a fairy tale castle, so beautiful. The exterior is gorgeous, but the interior is beautiful, too. Lord Byron called this a "glorious Eden," and it is magnificent. When we arrived, it started out cool and misty, but then the sun came out, so we got some blue skies with views of the Atlantic and Lisbon. read more

See all

The palace is so enormous and colorful sitting atop the mountain, it looks like it's straight out of a Disney movie. When I first learned of Pena Palace, I thought it looked gaudy, but in person it is quite jaw dropping. You can see quite a bit of the grounds just by purchasing a pena park ticket, but that ticket doesn't give you access to the interior of the palace. We took the train to Sintra and walked the steep, windy streets up after taking a local bus. Definitely would take the $12/pp tourist bus or hire a tuktuk in retrospect, but on the bright side, I got a good workout. Worth the day trip from Lisbon. read more

See all

Pena palace is such a gorgeous place and a must visit when in Lisbon. It's in Sintra, which is a 40 minute train ride from Lisbon. Tickets for adults are 20 euros and you get access to the inside as well as the outdoor grounds. It's so beautiful inside and out and there are plenty of picture spots. The first time slot for entry is 9:30AM, which I recommend picking if you can. I booked the 10 slot and it was already packed with tourists. There's a bus that takes you from the train station the to the bottom of the palace, but there's still a 10-15 minute uphill walk to the main entrance of the palace. Definitely worth it to visit! There were some nice picture spots right before entering the palace that my boyfriend and I wanted to take pictures at after we finished, but once you go through you can't go back to the beginning so make sure you get all your pictures when you pass by it. There is a cafe in the palace as well, which I did not visit but looked beautiful read more

See all

Gorgeous castle over in Sintra which is about 45 min to an hour from Lisbon. It's a well known tourist site and this castle is one of the biggest attractions. It gets really busy here pretty early on so make sure you arrive as the lines to enter and visit the castle can get long quickly. It's best to choose the earliest slot possible as it gets busier by the day. It's also a castle, so you should expect narrow walkways and corridors. Once inside, you can tour the magnificent rooms, see the historical art and furniture and get a great view of the magnificent vistas overlooking the mountain area. It can get kind of windy up here in some areas so just keep that in mind. But the views are majestic and the sense of history is tremendous. But again, this place gets very crowded quickly and it is a bit of a trek to get up here, either by bus or walking though I saw several people who opted to walk up to the castle from the city below clearly regretting their decision when we passed them by ... so just keep that in mind as well. read more

See all

Welcome to Pena Palace aka Sintra's most confusing architectural mess. She's got Romanticism, Neo-Gothic, Neo-Manueline, Neo-Islamic, Neo-Renaissance, and what else? This place is a full century European Pinterest board. Originally a monastery, the palace was transformed in the 19th century by King Ferdinand II. Pena looks like someone gave a Crayola box to a royal on shrooms. From yellow towers and red battlements and then I found Triton, half-man, half-fish over a door. Why not some Greek mythology. This spot is chao and extra. She's the original architectural influencer. read more

See all

This palace was a major draw for me when looking at things to do in Sintra. I'm glad we did it - it's a "must do" for sure as a signature piece of the landscape and history. The walk up from the historic city center was lovely and not as bad as it sounded - you can easily hire a TukTuk to take you to the top and walk back down also. It is well-marked with plenty of signage and was pleasant with pretty things to see along the way. The palace was exceptionally crowded and we were there in shoulder season in mid-October. I can't even begin to imagine how terrible and over crowded it must be when you are here in the middle of the summer. It was so crowded it was difficult to walk and if you did the very narrow walkway behind the chapel to the back side of the church where the ruins from the Monastery are seen, it was a stand still. Difficult to get pretty pictures - the paint was peeling - and it was exceptionally busy. The cafe had the worst sandwich I've ever had in all of Europe - we took two bites and threw it away. Disgusting and 7 euro down. The gardens are also beautiful and huge and fun to walk and explore. read more

Our visit to Pena palace was nothing but spectacular. It is an hour drive from Lisbon. Our tour guide dropped us off at the entrance and we had a short walk to go inside. Right from the beginning this place was striking and made us feel like we were transported to real world Game of Thrones episode. Beautiful colors and the views were fantastic . It was foggy with light rain but the history of the palace and the views were totally worth it . This palace in Sintra cannot be missed if you are visiting Lisbon. read more

See all

This is one of those must see places in Lisbon and is very interesting. It is tough to get to--we went on tour bus, but you can walk or take tuk tuks also. It is worthwhile to see on tour because there are a lot of unique touches on palace and then can also explain the different architectural styles. There are stunning views of the ocean at some parts, but the most amazing thing I saw was a sculpture in the old chapel about the annunciation of Jesus. Definitely worth a visit. read more

It is nice to see the Pena Palace in Sintra. Don't get me wrong it is beautiful but it is overrated to me because of those YouTubers and TikTok. The inside of the palace is smaller than I thought. The decoration is nice but not sure if it worth the wait to come in to see it since you travel here from overseas. The Hearst Castle in San Simeon, CA in my opinion is nicer from outside and inside. If you have a chance to go Monterey, CA. Make sure to visit. read more

See all

Buy your tickets in advance but don't choose the 0930 slot as it's difficult to get here by this time. Choose like a 1030 slot but you can arrive earlier if you want to. I bought ticket for the bus, but it only comes every 15 minutes and it was a cold morning so I walked up the hill. I'm so glad I used Tagarela Tours because Andreia was such a fun and helpful tour guide! There are bathrooms and gift shop and also some eating areas. They are renovating areas and in some places smell musty. Great views of the city! Highly recommended! read more

See all

Definitely worth the visit if you are nearby. Not worthy of repeat trip. At the day of visit, it was super crowded from the entry/ticketing area all the way to the remote corner of the castle. It was kinda like exploring the Disney castle for adults. read more

See all

Certainly not worth the time and effort to get there. Crowded tiny roads crawling with buses and tour vans. The walking climb to the "palace" was long and strenuous. The "palace" is a faux construction of storybook gaudiness. Room appointments interesting for a few minutes. Stood in line for 30 minutes to buy 2 bottles of water after grueling climb. Took my camera but took no pictures because nothing worthy to take. Don't waste your time and effort. Sintra is worth visiting as are other nearby attractions. read more

I'm going to write my review for the cafe located at the National Palace of Pena, as that's what the tag on this page says. Located at the southern terrace of the Palace, there are actually two places to get food & drinks: First is on the terrace itself which is basically a small, cramped snack station where you can get things to eat & drink out on the terrace patio. The second is a larger cafeteria-style restaurant a few floors down where they serve more substantial meals as well as desserts & drinks (wine and beer as well). I visited the Palace with a friend and we went to the second larger location. It looked like they were preparing for lunch, so the availability of dishes was limited to desserts and small appetizers. Not too badly priced for being the only restaurant this size in this area. You need to order at the cafeteria counter and pay at the end while you wait for your food, then choose a table. This is definitely the place to recharge after hiking all the way up from the bottom of the hill! read more

Pena palace had long been on my list of places to visit. It's an hour and a half outside of Lisbon and well worth the trip. When you book your tickets to Pena Palace I highly suggest paying the €3 for the bus to take you up the mountain. Otherwise you're in for a very steep hike. And make sure to bring a jacket! It can get pretty cold up in the mountains. This place is steeped with history. It's an awe inspiring feeling to have the chance to walk the halls of a place that's been around for so long. The building is beautifully adorned inside and out with bright colors. It was very well worth the visit. The staff at the palace is really helpful in making are the crowd doesn't stay stagnant and bunch up. read more

See all

Boy oh boy do I LOVE palaces! And this tour reminded me how much I truly do. Took a day trip from Lisbon to Sintra. We had a late start so we did not realize that the tours were timed. As such, by the time we got there, the next tour wasn't until 3pm, which gave us a little over an hour to explore the grounds, which we did. We got some coffee at a cafe, then made our way to the palace and sat at their outdoor terrace overlooking the beautiful palace on one side the views on the other. The palace is so colorful. We got in line to the palace 20 minutes before our time and the line moved pretty quickly. The lines inside moved slow but not too slow. The palace was stunning and we used "Rick Steves Portugal" self guided tour to walk through the palace. There are also descriptions of each room there too. Overall very much enjoyed this visit. Definitely worth it. read more

See all

I wasn't that impressed with the palace. Lines moved slowly and it just wasn't that impressive for me. Perhaps if the tour guide was specific to the palace and had some interesting stories but this was very lackluster. Nice gift shop and outdoor cafeteria but again the line at the cafeteria moved far too slowly. God give me patience! read more

See all

This place was amazing. When I say breathtaking views, I mean it. We spent half the day here and it was so much fun. We took hundreds of photos as there were so many photo opportunities. It was a bit of a hike to get here but once we made it, was so worth it. We also ate at the onsite restaurant which was pretty good, but again, it's the views that make this place a go to for any tourist. Portugal is beautiful, so glad I was able to experience this with my family. The Pena Palace is huge and the surrounding areas is beautiful. Will def come here again if we make the trip to Portugal again in the future. read more

See all

Middle of the week...outcome...not impressed, overly controlled cattle call. Moorish Castle is awesome!! Dont waste time at the palace.

Honestly, super underwhelmed with this experience. We read on several travel websites that it was a MUST visit, but I didn't get the hype. Online, it made it sound like the long walk from where you park or get dropped off is through a garden, but it's not -- it's just pavement. The people at the palace helping with tickets (we had bought ours in advance, more just directing where to go), were not friendly or helpful. There's weird nuances like if you get the first tickets (9AM), the bathrooms and cafe for coffee that you pass on the way to admission, don't open until 10AM. Walking through the palace is cool, but it was crowded and the people next to us were on a guided private tour where the tour guide was very loud and distracting. If you LOVE history, I could see how it could be more enjoyable, but there was also a lot of construction and painting going on, which made some of what we were looking at feel like it wasn't authentic. Overall, I wouldn't recommend the visit. Cool history but it's a long drive from the city for a sub-par tourist destination. read more

Bleh - under cooked rice and rest is just mushy slop. Just have a beer to hold you off. read more

Paláco da Pena - Cafeteria Near Me - Sintra, 20

There were a ton of people waiting in line. We bought tickets accidentally for the next day. The architecture is beautiful! Lines were super long, we did have to wait 2 hours for our scheduled time to see Palacio Nacional da Peña. There were food options on top of the Peña Palace but we didn't try. It is the coolest castle, we took a ride which cost 5 euros per person instead of hiking up the hill. The initiation well and quinta da regaleira is worth checking out as well if you are in Sintra; it closes 17:30. Th ride is 5 euros per person if not taking the bus. read more

See all

Peña Palace was amazing and had an easy & quick little cafeteria shop. 7 euros for chicken, tuna or vegetarian sandwich. Both the chicken & tuna sandwiches were filled to the brim, perfectly filled us up. read more

Enough facilities around if you need to go. Not handicap accessible like most non-urban places seem to be in this country but thankfully I did not need that. Staff didn't try to push people out too hard even though opening hours had ended but I tried to be respectful. It is a good place to go but if you have to pick only one, choose Regaleria for the famous spiral staircase. read more

See all

What a visit! It was a magical experience to take my daughter to the palace. Imagining ourselves as Portuguese royalty having balls in the courtyard so was fun for us. What wasn't so fun is the hiking up from the garden. It was a beautiful warm day but our ride didn't drop us off directly at the palace so the trekking through nature was enjoyable but exhausting! Due to that delay, we missed our ticket time and were no longer able to enter the inside of the castle which was a bummer but we still enjoyed the views. read more

See all

Way too busy, the lines were super long, eventhough we arrived at 10:15. When we entered the oalace finally, we had to walk in a procession behind all the other visitors, when, after having seen 5 rooms, the line stopped moving at all for 15 minutes. We could also see the crowds of people on the first floor stuck in the line. So we decided to leave the castle at the first turn and go out the way we came in. That was rediculous. When we walked past the waiting line, it quadrupled in size already. We continued walking through the park, that is beautiful. So my tip would be; buy tickets for the park and walk around, enjoy the views and take a look at the oalace from the outside and a oid the long lines and do not enter the palace. read more

See all

It's worth a visit for the history and architecture, but be prepared and ready for lines, crowded trains and buses. If you have the right mindset you'll survive & enjoy. Rick Steve's says leave Lisbon by 9am, but hey, we're on vacation dammit! Views are fantastic. Bus ride up is like a Magic Mountain ride. Walk down to the Moorish castle afterward and buy your ticket together with the one for the palace. My pet peeve: trains, buses and the ticket kiosks for venues should be better integrated. The slowness of the lines indicated that allot of people struggled with the interface. There was only one guy helping for about 7 machines and he disappeared pretty quickly. Seems like they could use allot of improvement on the whole process. read more

See all

This palace is located in Sintra, which is a beautiful little town off Lisbon. To get to the palace, there is a really curvy road as you have to climb to the top of the hill where the palace is located. Once you get there, buy the tickets to enter and ALSO buy the bus tocket that will take you to the palace which is a 15 minute walk super up hill..... so, do that! The palace itself was a summer palace for the kings, so do not expect grandeur and big spaces.... I was somewhat impressed by the small spaces around. It is definitely worth the visit as it is very nice and great views of the valley.... All in all, great visit... Enjoy read more

See all

One of the coolest castles I've ever visited ever! Definitely a must visit landmark. The castle and grounds are very well maintained and the history here is unreal. I definitely recommend going early to avoid crowds so you can get all your pictures with least amount of people. It is a steep uphill walk to the palace so if that's a problem you can pay for a bus shuttle that drops you off at the palace. Walking back down is easy and quick after. read more

See all

Coming here was like experiencing an actual fairytale IRL. If you find yourself in Sintra, Portugal you 100% MUST MUST come here for a visit. The palace is absolutely stunning. You could easily take hundreds of photos here. There is so much detail, so much beauty, and so much history. Parking is kind of a pain but it is honestly worth the time to go! read more

Just get tickets to the park it's cheaper and go on a good weather sunny day. It's beautiful sights. Inside not worth it

Beautiful Palace with breathtaking view. While in Lisbon my husband and I took a tour of Sintra, a small town which located about an hour drive from the city center. The Palace was our first stop and it took a while to drive a long narrow curvy road to reach the top of the hill. We were glad to hire a private tour guide because we definitely did not want to drive there by ourselves. It's best to get there early as soon as the the gate opens, otherwise there will be a long line, stretching down the hill. The parking is limited and be prepared to walk up the hill. read more

See all

You can hire any national monument in Portugal for the evening. Wild. Glad that a) this is possible and b) our host knew - we had a spectacular evening exploring the interiors and then drinking champagne on the ramparts as the sun set. I know it gets extremely crowded in the day time during public access but I would still come back independently in a heartbeat. Phenomenal views, secret passages and the sheer scale of the palace building make the distinctly hairy drive up the hill entirely worthwhile. read more

Interesting stuff, but 2 Senior tix were €25? Pretty pricey. We did visit in August and the lines to enter and thru the place were claustrophobia inducing. We walked thru the woods from the Moorish Castle and were confronted w a steep climb up to Pena. Hint: spend the €3 on the small shuttle to take u from the road up to the palace. OK, nicely preserved but go in the off season. read more

They do not take cash!!! No warning from anywhere . We got there with tons of euros and they just refused to take them . The ticket people were actually laughing at our misery! In Canada , this would not happen! We would have never banned cash without warning tourists! This is a very selfish society ! They just did not care ! Even the bus that takes you up the hill refused my cash and made me walk uphill with my 91 year old grandmother!!!! I took forever ! This is a truly disgusting selfish place ! We had to figure out a way to buy tickets online and let them scan . If you have no smartphone with data you are screwed! If you have no PayPal account you are screwed !! read more

You can actually see Pena Palace all the way on top of the hill as you're driving toward it. Located in Sintra, it's an easy day trip to do from Lisbon. There's two visitor centers that you can park by if you're driving up. I honestly just recommend taking the first available parking you can find or come a little later in the afternoon to find better parking. The second visitor center had a decent sized lot. If you stop at the first visitor center, you have to buy your ticket there in order to start walking up to the palace. The path from the first visitor center is supposed to be easier and longer since you're supposed to take your time and take pictures along the way. The second path at the second visitor center goes straight up so it's faster and shorter but straight up and you don't get to see the pretty buildings along the way. I think you could pay to take a horse ride up, a tuk tuk up or even a bus up. However, we didn't know this so took the old fashioned way of walking up. There's a shop at the top by the palace as well as a cafe and bathrooms. So never fear as you're walking up and have to go or get hungry along the way. The palace itself is gorgeous and was kind of hard to capture all in one photo. I think the best place to get a full photo of the palace is if you continue onto visit the Castelo dos Mouros. The tile in the actual palace was exquisite. It was beautiful and so detailed that it reminded you of the level of artistry that existed back then. There's some really pretty views from the top and I recommend going into the church as well as getting a ticket to go inside the palace to see the beautiful courtyard with all of the hand painted tile. Just remember on your way down to go the right way to end up back at your car. You can follow the road to get back to your car if you go to the wrong visitor center but it's a little confusing since both visitor centers look exactly alike. If you have time for a day trip out of Lisbon, I highly recommend coming here to take in the beauty of Pena Palace! read more

See all

This palace is one of the many beautiful palaces in Sintra. We rode a tuk tuk for £5 a person, and our guide stopped and took pictures of us. We went to the palace and adventures around the outside. The inside has the antique furniture and set up rooms. The best part is the outside and the lakes. Make sure you leave by seeing the lake garden!! Don't miss it by exiting at the entrance where you walked in. read more

Terrible sandwiches, dry old bread and no taste. Avoid at all costs!! Bought 5 different sandwiched too, so it's not a question of being unlucky. read more