Visiting Pena Palace: Tickets, Tips and Getting There

Pena Palace is Portugal’s most famous sight: a red, yellow and blue Romantic fantasy perched on a peak above Sintra, surrounded by a vast wooded park. It’s also one of the busiest, so a little planning makes a huge difference. Here’s everything you need to know about visiting Pena Palace.

Quick answer: book a timed palace ticket online and choose the earliest slot. Take bus 434 from Sintra station, a tuk-tuk or a taxi up the hill rather than driving. Allow 2 to 3 hours for the palace and park. Weekday mornings outside summer are quietest. See Pena Palace tickets and tours.

Why go

Nothing else in Portugal looks like Pena. From below, its coloured towers seem to grow out of the forest. Up close you find onion domes, a gateway guarded by a sea monster, tiled walls and terraces with views to the Atlantic and across to Lisbon on a clear day. The park around it is just as good: a huge forest of paths, lakes and trees brought from all over the world.

About Pena Palace

King Ferdinand II, the German-born husband of Queen Maria II, bought the ruins of a 16th-century monastery on this hill in 1838. He turned it into a summer palace, mixing Manueline, Moorish and Gothic styles into a Romantic masterpiece. The old monastery cloister and chapel are still inside. It’s part of the Sintra Cultural Landscape UNESCO World Heritage site. Inside, the rooms are kept as they were when the royal family last used them in the early 20th century. Queen Amélia spent her last night in Portugal here before the monarchy fell in 1910.

Tickets

Parques de Sintra, which runs the palace, sells palace tickets for a set date and time only. You can only enter the palace at your slot, so book online, especially from spring to autumn. Adult prices on the official site in 2026 are:

• Essential Visit (about €20): a timed, self-guided route through the state rooms and some royal living spaces, plus the terraces and the whole park, including the Chalet of the Countess of Edla. This is the ticket most people need.
• Complete Visit (about €45): adds the Stag Room and the private royal apartments, in small groups with a staff member at set times of day. Worth it if you love interiors.
• Park only (about €12): the gardens, the High Cross and the exterior views, without the interior.
• Discounts: lower prices for ages 6 to 17 and over-65s, and under-6s go free.
• Tours: guided tours include transport and tickets, which takes care of the logistics. See the best Sintra tours.

The palace usually opens from 9.30am to 6.30pm, with last tickets at 5.30pm. The park usually opens from 9am to 7pm. Prices and times change, so check parquesdesintra.pt before you go.

What you see

The palace

Inside, you walk through the old cloister, the chapel with its alabaster altarpiece, royal bedrooms, the dining room and the grand Stag Room (on the Complete Visit). Outside, walk the battlements and the Queen’s Terrace for the classic views. Allow about an hour.

The park

• The High Cross (Cruz Alta): the highest point in the Sintra hills, with the best view back to the palace. About 20 to 30 minutes’ walk from the palace.
• The Chalet of the Countess of Edla: an Alpine-style cottage Ferdinand built for his second wife, with a garden of ferns.
• The Valley of the Lakes: a string of ponds with duck houses near the lower gate.

Getting there

• From Lisbon: train from Rossio to Sintra (about 40 minutes). See Lisbon to Sintra.
• Up the hill: bus 434 runs a loop from the station to the old town, the Moorish Castle and Pena. A 24-hour hop-on hop-off ticket costs about €13.50 and also covers the 435 to Regaleira and Monserrate. Tuk-tuks and taxis also go up.
• Walking: a steep hike of about an hour from the old town, partly on forest trails.
• Driving: not recommended. Private cars can’t drive up to Pena and parking near the palaces is very limited. Leave the car in a car park outside the centre.
• Inside the park: from the entrance gate it’s a steep 10 to 15 minute walk up to the palace. A small park shuttle (about €4.50) saves your legs.

How long to spend

Allow 2 to 3 hours for the palace and a short walk in the park, or half a day if you want the High Cross and the Chalet too. A good half-day route: catch an early 434, enter the palace at your slot, walk the terraces, then head down through the park to the Chalet and out by the lower gate.

Food

There are cafés in the park, but for lunch head back down to the old town. Try Sintra’s famous sweets: travesseiros (almond cream pastries) and queijadas (small cheese tarts). Bring water.

Tips

• Go early: the first slot of the day is the calmest.
• When to go: spring and autumn are best. July and August are the busiest, and winter is quiet but often misty.
• Allow walking time: it’s an uphill walk (or a shuttle) from the park entrance to the palace, so leave at least 20 minutes before your slot.
• The best view of the palace is from the High Cross (Cruz Alta) or the Moorish Castle.
• Weather: Sintra is often misty and cooler than Lisbon, so bring a layer.
• Combine with Quinta da Regaleira and the Moorish Castle. See Sintra in one day and Sintra with kids.

More: the Quinta da Regaleira guide, Sintra’s best photo spots and where to stay in Sintra.

See also: the Moorish Castle.

Some links in this guide are affiliate links (GetYourGuide, Booking.com, Discover Cars). If you book through them we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. It helps keep our groups and this site free.