If we choose to do a day trip to Sintra on a Sunday, will we find shops, restrauants, etc open, or are they closed as in many European countries?

We were there last Sunday and found most shops and restaurants open and had the best day. You won't be disappointed.

Fantastic-thanks so much for the info.

I read on the second and fourth Sunday there is a large market.We are looking forward to checking it out!

You'll find that all tourist shops and restaurants are open, because Sunday is a very busy day in Sintra for tourists.

The market that nokomis talks about is very large. It sells everything from live animals to clothing to CDs to homemade honey and cheese to bath towels and bedspreads. The market is not exactly in Sintra, but rather a few kms outside. It is in a small village you have to pass through if you're coming from Lisbon by car or bus and it creates terrible traffic jams. But it's a lot of fun to visit, though I wouldn't say it's got much in the way of things tourists usually buy.

We visited that market on the first Sunday in May and were amazed at its size. However, as Laurie mentioned, there wasn't much that interested us to buy except for food and inexpensive wine. Lots of fresh fruit and veggies.

After that, we walked back to our hotel to enjoy the picnic lunch we bought before continuing our walk into Sintra. Along the road between the train station and center of town (don't know the name of road) we found much nicer handcrafts to buy made by local artists. I imagine they're only there on Sunday, since we didn't see them on Friday or Saturday.

Everything was open on Sunday, which had also been a concern of ours

Thanks Clousie for the information on the market. We will be in Sintra on the 27th of June and fly to Madeira for a week. What kind of handcrafts did you find in Sintra?