Field Guides
Lisbon in 5 days — Sintra day trip
Train out early, Pena first, Quinta da Regaleira before the crowds; what the fog does to the plan.
Timing
Take the first train from Rossio, around six. It is forty minutes to Sintra. Book Pena Palace for the first entry slot and walk up rather than waiting for the bus; it takes about forty minutes and you arrive warm.
Fog
Sintra sits in its own weather. Expect fog on the hill most mornings until ten or eleven even when Lisbon is clear. Fog is good for the forest paths and bad for the palace views, so do the gardens first if it is thick.
Quinta da Regaleira
The initiation well is the picture everyone wants. Go down the spiral, not up, and shoot straight up from the bottom with the widest focal length you have. 24mm on the zoom, in a vertical frame, was just wide enough.
Getting back
Trains run every twenty minutes. Leave by four to beat the day-trip crowd back to the station.