Scooterin’ Around Sintra

The jet lag was hitting us hardcore on day two in Lisbon. We’d planned to get up early to enjoy a full day in Sintra, which is about an hour train ride from Lisbon, but we were barely waking up and staggering out of bed around 10:30. We didn’t leave the Airbnb until almost noon. We grabbed breakfast at a bakery near the train station and ate on the way.

We missed the train direct to Sintra so we had to change trains in Benfica. We had heard Sintra was a great place to rent a scooter to get around to all of the surrounding sights. We took that advice and rented a scooter for the day for about 40 euros. Fantastic decision! We were able to get around much faster on a scooter than by taking the shuttles, and didn’t have trouble finding parking with our little vehicle. Saved us a lot of time! I highly recommend renting a scooter if you visit Sintra.

Many of the places we wanted to see closed between 5:00 and 7:00pm, so it didn’t give us much time. We made it to the Palacio Nacional de Pena and Qunita da Regaleira, but the Moorish Castle (Castle of the Moors) closed just as we go there. We were bummed that it closed but we did get to see the castle from afar and it looked incredibly solid, literally carved out of the tip of a mountain. Amazing.

We were so impressed by the Initiation well at Quinta da Regaleria, once used as an underground well. This well is must see in Sintra!

We loved everything about Sintra; especially riding around on a scooter! It was definitely the quickest way to get around and the most scenic.  Just before we got on the train to head back to Lisbon at the end of the night, we were starving because we hadn’t eaten much since breakfast. Rob found this little restaurant on Yelp called Kebabish that served schwarmas that had great reviews and wasn’t too far from the train station. These were truly some of the best shwarmas we’ve ever had. Great place for lunch or dinner, and prices were very reasonable. We left there very happy! Yum! 🙂