Lisbon to Sintra by train

Start here

Take the train, because from Rossio station in the centre of Lisbon it’s 40 minutes to Sintra, €2.55 each way, and a train every 30 minutes from 06:01 in the morning until 23:31 at night. There is no booking and there are no seat numbers, and outside July and August there is no queue worth the name at the machines. I’ve done it on a Tuesday in March with a coffee in hand and on a Saturday in August with two hundred other people, and it works both ways.

The car is the option people regret. Sintra’s roads are narrow, the parking anywhere near the palaces is close to nonexistent, and the municipality has begun restricting traffic on the hill road during the high season. A tour bus is the third option; it costs more and it solves the hill for you, which is worth something if you want two palaces and the coast in one day. This page is about the train.

Which station in Lisbon

Rossio is the one to use. The station is the neo Manueline building with the two horseshoe arches on Praça Dom Pedro IV, a five minute walk from Baixa Chiado metro, and the Sintra trains leave from the platforms one escalator up from the ticket hall. Trains depart at :01 and :31 past every hour throughout the day, with no seat reservations and no need to plan around them. Sintra is the terminus of the line, so there is no chance of missing your stop.

Oriente also has trains to Sintra, which matters if you’re coming from the airport: two stops on the red metro line and you’re at Oriente. Count on a longer ride from there, and check the fare on the screen before you validate, because on this route CP shows two different prices depending on the train.

Entrecampos and Sete Rios are on the same line, and the same trains stop there. If your hotel is nearer one of them than Rossio, use it. The fare works on the same zone system.

Tickets and the Navegante card

A single Lisbon to Sintra train ticket costs €2.55 from Rossio. You buy it at the machines in the station; they take cards and have an English option. The ticket is loaded onto a reusable Navegante card, which the machine sells you with the first ticket and which you keep for the return and for the metro. Don’t throw it away at Sintra.

Tap the card on the reader at the platform gate on the way in and again on the way out, because the barriers at Sintra will not release you without that second validation. Nobody checks on board most days, but inspectors do ride this line and the fine is not worth the €2.55.

If you plan to use the 434 bus and the metro on the same day, look at the Lisbon Travelcard at the CP counter: a one day version covers the Sintra line and the Sintra tourist buses 434 and 435. For a single day trip on the train alone, the plain ticket is cheaper.

Timetable and journey time

From Rossio the first train of the day leaves at 06:01 and the last at 23:31, every 30 minutes in between, at :01 and :31. The fast ones take 40 minutes; a few take up to 54 because they stop everywhere. Both cost the same, so if a train is standing at the platform when you arrive, take it rather than waiting for a faster one.

Coming back, trains leave Sintra for Rossio from 05:20 until 23:50. The last one matters if you stay for dinner: after 23:50 it’s a taxi or an Uber, and at that hour from Sintra they’re neither cheap nor quick to find.

These are the times on the CP timetable for the day after I checked, Aug 29, 2026. Weekend service is a little thinner in the early morning and the same the rest of the day. Check the CP app on the day if you’re cutting it fine for the first Pena slot.

Arriving at Sintra station

Sintra station sits at the bottom of the town, about 15 minutes on foot from the historic centre along a road that runs downhill and then flat, with the palaces on the hill above that. From the station you have three ways up.

The 434 bus. Scotturb’s tourist loop leaves from right outside the station and runs Sintra station, the old town, the Moorish Castle and Pena, then back down. The operator says buses run about every 10 minutes. The 24 hour pass for lines 434 and 435 costs €13.50 and you can hop on and off; the bus is the easiest way up the hill and, on weekends, the one with the longest queue at the station.

On foot. Walk into the old town in 15 minutes, and from there the Santa Maria trail climbs to the Moorish Castle and Pena in about an hour. Steep and shaded; you arrive at the Pena gate without the bus queue.

Tuk-tuks and taxis. Both wait outside the station. Prices are quoted per ride rather than per person and vary by the hour and the driver, so agree the figure before you get in. For two people to the Pena gate a tuk-tuk is often the fastest choice at midday.

Five things I’d tell a friend

Leave on the 07:31 or the 08:01. That puts you at Sintra station by 8:45 and at the Pena gate before the 9:30 opening. You are inside the palace before the first coaches have finished parking.

Buy the Pena ticket before you get on the train. Pena runs on timed entry and the morning slots go first in season. The train ticket you can’t buy in advance anyway; the palace ticket you should.

Don’t drive. Even people who live here take the train. If you have a car, leave it at the hotel or at one of the station car parks along the line and travel the rest of the way by rail.

Mondays are busy. Lisbon’s museums close on Mondays, so the Sintra train is fuller than on any other weekday. Sintra’s palaces are open.

Bring a layer. The hill is regularly several degrees cooler than Lisbon and sits inside the cloud until midday, so the train ride is frequently the sunniest part of the day.