Staying in Lisbon vs. Staying in Sintra?
 

We have about 4 days allotted on our trip for the Lisbon and surrounding area. I have heard amazing things about Sintra ? and so so about Lisbon. However, I assume it would be a lot easier to take day trips to other small towns from Lisbon, as opposed to from Sintra. We weren?t planning on renting a car ? rather taking buses.
So is it best to stay in Lisbon 3 days, with a day trip or two, and then spend one day in Sintra? Or is it realistic to stay in Sintra the whole time and take day trips to Lisbon and other cities from there?
Thanks!

My ex-husband, Rogerio, is a native of Lisboa, so I have visited Portugal a few times.

For me to make a recommendation, I would have to know what kind of person you are. Do you like small towns or big cities?

Sintra is pokey. I would stay in Sintra if I just wanted to take it easy. I would stay in Lisboa if I wanted to visit all the big sights (Castelo Sao Jorge, Jeronimos, Gulbenkian, etc.).

It is very easy to travel between Sintra and Lisboa, taking the train from Rossio Station. (DO NOT take the train after dark, it is VERY dangerous. During the day it is fine. Don't worry.)

You could stay in Sintra and take the train to Lisboa. Rossio Station is only a two blocks from the Tourist Office on Avenida Liberdad (same side of street). You could book a bus tour of various places (there is a tour of Fatima, Alcobaca, and Bathala, for example) at this tourist office.

Anything else I can help you with?

Bom Dia.

Ah, but what about Tivoli Palacio de Seteais or the Golf Club hotel run by Ritz Carlton just outside of Sintra ?

Whatever you do, do not shortchange Lisbon. It is an amazing city! A few years ago we stayed in Lisbon for about 4 nights, then a few more nights in Cascais and did day trips from there to Sintra. Everywhere we visited we loved, but each in its own way. If I were to do it again I think I would still spent lots of time in Lisbon...we just really enjoyed it.

Steve, I think Tivoli Sintra and Palacio de Seteais are two different establishments.

I had the same question last year when I was planning my Sept visit to Portugal. I ended up staying in Lisbon 3 nights and spending an entire day in Sintra. Although I do enjoy small towns, I'm very glad that I did it this way. Lisbon is a wonderful, vibrant city with good nightlife and restaurants. I arrived in Sintra just as everything was opening, spent about 1.5 hours for lunch and stayed until late afternoon. I felt this was plenty of time for a good visit. I think I would have been a little bored with 3 nights in Sintra.

Hi ThinGorjus
There are two hotels - Tivoli Sintra is in the middle of Sintra and the Tivoli Palacio de Seteais is on the outskirts of Sintra in the old Seteais Palace. The latter property looks very interesting on the Tivoli web site. It has that Villa d'Este type imagery albeit I am sure not as up-market. It was recommended to me by a well travelled Canadian, but I cannot seem to find any other viewpoints out there ! Thanks again and with best wishes.

For our trip last year, we chose to stay in Sintra. We were happy with our choice as we prefer smaller towns to cities. It was very easy to take the train between the two. However, we were not using Sintra as a base to see other towns. Although, as TG suggests, it would not be difficult to do so, I would not want to devote the extra time to traveling from Sintra to Lisbon to yet somewhere else. We did have 2 nights spent in Lisbon at the end of the trip.

Steve--I've never seen the Palacio de Seteais. But we walked past the Tivoli Sintra daily on our way into town from where we were staying. The Tivoli Sintra looked nice, but like a hotel with no Villa-type ambiance. Where in Portugal are you going? Have you looked into Pousadas. We really enjoyed our stays in Pousadas, especially some of the historical ones.

My wife and I are taking two months to travel to Las Vegas then Grand Canyon hiking Sth and Nth Rims then NYC on to Buenos Aires, Iguacu and Rio. From there we fly to Europe for a month starting in Lisbon and immediately to Sintra for three days - second day train into Lisbon. From there Lusitania overnight train and on to various places, Madrid, Seville, Barcelona, Cinque Terra, Bellagio (also name of place we stay in Vegas), Milan, Romantic Road, Berlin etc etc.
I wanted to experience portugal and was told by a very experienced Canadian traveller that the Tivoli Palacio de Seteais was one of the best travel experiences he and his wife have ever had. When I visited the web site for Tivoli hotel group in Portugal this second hotel in Sintra was well described and they have very well thought out two day packages. It looks like it is in a wonderful setting about a ten minute walk out of the main town of Sintra and much nicer than the Tivoli Sintra Hotel. I am also told the golf course resort recently taken over by Ritz Carlton is very good. Similar to yourself we have planned pousadas, but elsewhere in Spain. Thank you for your help.

Will you adopt me :)

These sort of holidays happen very few times in a lifetime ! The Tivoli Palacio de Seteais is described at http://www.tivolihotels.com/tivoli/w.../descricao.asp. The hotel overlooks the 19th century fantasy of the Palacio da Pena and the impressive Castelo do Mouros and is bordered on the other side by the Atlantic Ocean. The hotel seems to well priced for what it appears to be. Their packages, as are listed on the site, also appear to be of excellent value.

Well, Steve, just to let you know, Pena Palace is on top of a a very long and winding hill. The walk down has to take at least one hour (you can take bus or cab). This means that if Seteais overlooks Pena, it is not an easy saunter into town.

Well Thingorjus, as an old man, I managed to pass two horse drawn carriages when walking (fast) up the hill to Scloss Neuschwanstein 4 weeks back when I was on a diversion from a business trip. It sounds like a great challenge. SydneySue and I were planning on making it from top to bottom to top in the Grand Canyon before arriving, so hopefully we will be fit enough. LOL. Thanks for your help. Do you know anyone who has been to the top of the Hill ?

The hill is long and winding, not steep. I have also climbed up to Neuschwanstein which, as I remember, is steep. My mother, a smoker, also climbed up to Neuschwanstein. She was not a happy camper when she arrived at the top.

When my husband and I took our cab ride up to Pena Palace, we saw a few people walking. I don't think it is that difficult a walk, just time consuming. I certainly wouldn't want to do it three times a day.

The views from Pena Palace of the surrounding area and the sea are unbelievable. If you have the same view from Palacio Seteias, you will be very lucky indeed.

Cheers.

I loved staying in Sintra (the old city) for two weeks and visiting from there; the open-air bus goes from there to Cascais, you can get the train to Obidos, and, of course, Lisbon is just 45 minutes away. (And you can arrange to go to Madeira from there, too--very helpful and lovely folks at the travel agency on the way to the train.)

One of the biggest advantages of Sintra to me was its cooler temperatures--the reason that it was the summer home for Portuguese royalty!

I passed the Palacio de Setais and it seems to me that it is at a lower level than Pena; it is fairly far from the town, though. The grounds looked lovely, but I was happy in my tiny tradtional apartment with its rose-framed view of Sintra Palace.

I have posted a number of times over the last six months and absolutely nobody seems to have ever stayed at Tivoli Palacio de Seteais. I am suprised by the lack of knowledge of it.