Sintra and Cascais Choose 2 of 6 Palaces to visit on private tour

We start at your hotel on an unforgettable day. Sintra is 30 Km from Lisbon Its micro climate guarantees a permanent freshness to the village and the growth of fantastic vegetation, making it a mysterious and deeply romantic place. Noteworthy are the Pena National Palace, Quinta da Regaleira and Monserrate Palace as the main monuments. Arriving at the village, we drive to the top of the Serra de Sintra and the Pena Palace built on a cliff at 500m altitude dominating the entire coast to Lisbon, represents one of the best expressions of 19th century architectural romanticism in the world, being, moreover, the Europe's first romantic palace, built about 30 years before the charismatic Schloss Neuschwanstein in Bavaria, Germany

Located near the village, Quinta da Regaleira, with its romantic setting, is an eccentrically decorated palace of gardens filled with grottos, fountains, underground tunnels, caves and numerous statues that conceal alchemical meanings such as those evoked by Freemasonry, Templars and Rosicrucians Ending our visit with well deserved lunch.

The Palace of Queluz, with a beautiful decoration filled with pieces of enormous value, became the official residence of royalty, especially the Portuguese Prince Regent, the future D. João VI, as well as his family, until the royal family fled. to Brazil due to the French invasions. D. Pedro IV or D. Pedro I of Brazil was born in this palace. It also served as a discreet place of incarceration for Queen Maria I, “Maria Louca”, while her madness continued to worsen after the death of D. Pedro.

A writer's retreat, Monserrate attracted numerous foreign travelers, especially English ones, who extolled its beauty in travel reports and engravings. When Francis Cook, a wealthy 19th-century English industrialist and great art collector, visited the site, he was fascinated. From this passion was born a masterpiece of Romanticism: the Park and Palace of Monserrate.

The current Sintra Palace is made up of many royal palaces. It is a set of buildings that were built, added and adapted over the centuries, with the date of the foundation of the oldest palace being an enigma still unsolved today. Most likely, the first building was built around the 10th or 11th century, when Sintra was Islamic territory. At the end of the Middle Ages, the Paço de Sintra was the center of a territory managed by the Queens of Portugal, but it was also one of the favorite spaces of Portuguese monarchs. The abundance of game in the region, the freshness of the climate during the summer months or the need for refuge in periods of plague in the capital made Paço de Sintra a frequent destination. Keeper of memories and witness to exciting events in the history of Portugal, Paço de Sintra offers visitors the opportunity to travel back in time and meet other lives so different from ours.

This tour being very connected to gastronomy, time on our Tour Sintra with lunch to stop in the center of Sintra to stroll through its alleys and alleys. Unveiling its historic center, as well as the Pastelaria da Piriquita where we will taste the Pillow of Sintra as well as the Queijada de Sintra.a in the center of the village

After this wonderful lunch, we continue our Sintra Tour with lunch, through the mountains, until we reach Cabo da Roca (westernmost point of Continental Europe), with its beautiful cliffs and views, where we can read on the tombstone that celebrates this point ”here where the land ends and the sea begins ”proudly left by Camões the celebrated epic poet.

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