3 Days: Lisbon, Sintra and Cascais
Three days changes everything: two spent properly in the city itself, then a full third day out in Sintra, hills, palaces stacked into the hillside, and cooler mountain air than Lisbon ever gets. Need just the city? Try 2 days . Want Cascais too? The 4-day version adds the coast.
Book these before you go:
- Book Pena Palace tickets , timed entry, sells out in peak season
- Skip the line at Belem
- Check hotel rates in Chiado , your base for all three days
| Day | Focus | Cost to expect |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Baixa, Alfama, Sao Jorge Castle | ~15 EUR (castle) plus meals |
| 2 | Belem, properly separated | ~18-33 EUR (monuments) plus meals |
| 3 | Sintra, booked in advance | ~20-34 EUR (Pena Palace + bus) |
| Destination | Distance from Lisbon | Travel time | One-way fare |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sintra (Pena Palace) | ~28 km | ~40 min by train (Rossio) | 2.45 EUR |
Day 1: Baixa, Alfama, Sao Jorge Castle
Land and get straight into the city center. The Red Line metro connects the airport to Alameda, where you switch for Baixa/Chiado, about 25-30 minutes and roughly 2 EUR. Skip any taxi tout at the rank quoting a flat fare, Lisbon cabs run on the meter, and the flat-rate pitch is aimed at exhausted travelers who haven’t clocked the trick yet.
Walk Baixa’s tidy post-earthquake grid past Rossio Square, then start climbing into Alfama. Take Tram 12E rather than the famous 28. You get essentially the same medieval-alley scenery with far fewer pickpockets, since 12E doesn’t carry the reputation that follows 28’s busiest stretch. Sao Jorge Castle crowns the hill, around 15 EUR to enter, and the river view from the ramparts at golden hour is worth timing your visit around.
Dinner should be a real tasca, small, family-run, cash preferred. Order bacalhau and know before the food lands that the bread and olives on the table are couvert, a per-person charge, not a free nibble. Refuse it upfront if you’d rather skip the line item. Cap the night with fado somewhere small enough to feel the room.
Day 2: Belem, Properly Separated
Belem is its own district, reached by tram or a short ride, not a walk from downtown. Jeronimos Monastery is the reason people come, Manueline carving so dense it looks woven, with Vasco da Gama’s tomb inside, 18 EUR for the monastery alone. Ten minutes down the riverfront sits Belem Tower, a genuinely separate building on its own ticket, not an annex of the monastery. It reopened in May 2026 after roughly a year of conservation, now on timed entry, capped near 900 visitors daily, tickets 15 EUR. A combined ticket for both runs 33 EUR, not really a discount, worth it only to skip a second queue.
Eat your pastel de nata warm at Pasteis de Belem, the original, line or no line. Back in Chiado, Manteigaria makes a strong counterargument for the same tart, and having tried both, the honest answer is that the fight is a draw, just for different reasons: consistency versus pilgrimage. Spend the afternoon at Time Out Market near Cais do Sodre, arriving before noon or after 9pm to actually find a seat, then wander into Bairro Alto as it wakes up for the evening.
Day 3: Sintra, Booked in Advance
This is the day that makes three days worth more than two. Trains leave Rossio Station roughly every 15 minutes for the 40-minute ride to Sintra, about 2.45 EUR one way (there’s no discounted return, a round trip is just two singles). Here’s the part that actually matters: book Pena Palace’s timed entry online before you go. Showing up without a reservation in peak season (Easter through October) means real odds of a multi-hour queue or a sold-out day, and it’s the single most common way visitors waste their one shot at Sintra. Palace-plus-park tickets run 20 EUR, park-only 14 EUR. Bus 434 (Scotturb) shuttles between the station and the palace gate: a single one-way ticket is 4.10 EUR, round-trip 7.10 EUR, or an unlimited hop-on-hop-off day pass for 13.50 EUR (about 12.40 EUR booked online ahead), and arriving as early as the schedule allows genuinely changes the day.
Give yourself the whole day here. Sintra’s hills, colored stonework, and cooler air make it feel like a different country from Lisbon’s baking downtown, which, in a sense, it is.
Getting Around and Staying
Base yourself in Baixa or Chiado for easy transit access, and load a Navegante card (0.50 EUR) with Zapping credit, it covers metro, tram, bus, and the Sintra train itself, all at a lower per-ride rate than single tickets. Check hotel rates in Chiado . Forget Aerobus, it stopped running in 2022.
One tip that saves the whole trip: book that Pena Palace slot the same day you book your flights, not the week before.