📍 Sintra | Pena Palace

The small town of Sintra in Portugal is famous for its many legendary castles. In the full of green, a bright castle stands on the top of the hill, half red, half yellow color combination in the blue sky is very eye-catching, it is Pena Palace, because of its unique red and yellow collocation, Pena Palace is also known as "tomato scrambled egg castle".

Pena Palace is the former palace of the King of Portugal, and its dazzling, strange and pretentious figure looks like a chateau in the style of Le Pena Palace. The palace itself is a hodgepodge of various architectural styles, including Gothic, Renaissance, Moorish, and Manuel.

It was the brainchild of Ferdinand, the husband of Queen Maria II of Portugal in the 19th century. Construction began in 1840 and was completed in 1885, the year of Ferdinand's death.

Other dignitaries who lived in the area built their mansions on the same idea, making Sintra the center of European romantic architecture, and its parks and gardens deeply influenced the landscape design of later generations. Due to its cultural value, Pena Palace was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995.

I drove from Lisbon, about 30 minutes, followed the directions off the highway towards Sintra, past the BP petrol station on a particularly narrow one-way road. It's just a few turns up the hill, the navigation is very accurate, and there's a parking lot just 200 meters from the Pena Palace.

Before going, many people on the Internet are from Lisbon to take the train to Sintra, and then transfer to the 434 bus to Pena Palace, I also saw the Pena Palace gate 434 bus, is a circuit line.

It's best to buy tickets in advance! Tickets are sold by the hour, every half hour, if you choose the 10:30 ticket, whether early or late, you will not be able to enter the castle. So to be on the safe side, don't buy tickets too early, because you won't let in if you're late, and don't refund your tickets, you saw the staff turn away a family.

Pay attention! I said inside the castle! It's not a park!

There is no time limit in the park, walk to the castle about 25-30 minutes, (a shallow climb down the hill), there is also a small bus loading, every few minutes there is one, to buy tickets in advance, there is no time limit, you can sit on the hill.

The minibus soon arrived in a few minutes, the driver drove very fast, Lisbon's driving skills are not ordinary, the mountain road and his home like.

At the castle gate, if there is still time, you can visit the souvenir shop, there is a toilet in the store, but also clean.

You can also eat something, there is no restaurant or bar outside the castle, it is best to bring your own! But one of the terraces inside the castle is a small bar.

When the time is up, the staff will put out the time card, and then the queue can begin. At the beginning, the route is fixed, you have to follow the crowd, you will see the various rooms in the castle, each room will have an introduction (the bed is so small), there are many beautiful cultural relics and some ceramics from China.


Once out of the circle, you can walk around freely, you can take pictures, there is no time limit, we stayed in the inside for more than two hours (time passed quickly).

The sun is very big, Lisbon is a city without clouds, the weather is very good, but it is not hot, the temperature is just right, but! There's gonna be a lot of wind up on top! It's still gonna be a little chilly! The special "window" looks like the air conditioner is turned on 18 degrees.

The scenery is very beautiful, there is a feeling that the world is all for me haha.


First time to see the color of the castle, really beautiful! There's too much color, too much saturation. It's a real hit.

Go to Lisbon and give Sintra a chance!