The brightly coloured romantic palace that Ferdinand II built on top of the Sintra hills, surrounded by a huge park. Here you’ll find which Pena Palace tickets to buy, the weather during opening hours, how to get there from Lisbon and what to see.
Queues and crowds → · Sintra, Portugal
Weather at 4:00 PM. The castle opens at 09:30.
You can only enter the palace at the time on your ticket: tickets are for a set date and time slot, with a daily cap on visitors. The park you can explore freely.
Our pick: the €22.40 Tiqets ticket, easy to book with the shuttle option. If you want to spend as little as possible, buy the €20 Essential Visit on the official site. Either way, book a few days ahead and pick a morning slot.
The day trip from Lisbon (from €94) is handy for seeing Sintra and Cascais in one day with an English-speaking guide, but it only includes the gardens of Pena, not the interiors.
Non-refundable ticket · 4.1 from almost 9,000 reviews
€2.40 more than the official ticket (€20); in return you can add the shuttle in the same booking.
Two Sintra sights in one booking · 4.0 from over 160 reviews
For anyone who also wants to see Quinta da Regaleira, Sintra’s other famous sight.
Free cancellation up to 24 hours before · palace interiors not included
An organised day from Lisbon; note that you visit the gardens, not the palace rooms.
Indicative prices, checked onOctober 27, 2026: they may change: the final price is the one shown by the seller.
Perfect day
Perfect day: partly cloudy, 18 to 21 degrees, no rain.
Perfect day
Perfect day: fair, 14 to 21 degrees, no rain.
| Time | Sky | Temperature | Rain | Wind |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10:00 | Clear | 20° | – | 11 km/h |
| 11:00 | Clear | 21° | – | 13 km/h |
| 12:00 | Clear | 21° | – | 15 km/h |
| 13:00 | Fair | 21° | – | 16 km/h |
| 14:00 | Fair | 20° | – | 15 km/h |
| 15:00 | Fair | 19° | – | 15 km/h |
| 16:00 | Fair | 17° | – | 17 km/h |
| 17:00 | Fair | 16° | – | 18 km/h |
| 18:00 | Fair | 14° | – | 17 km/h |
The best days are Friday, October 30, Saturday, October 31 and Sunday, November 1. The rating only looks at opening hours: rain at night doesn’t spoil the visit.
Today and tomorrow the forecast is accurate hour by hour; up to day seven it is reliable on the trend; the last days give a rough idea. Updated every hour.
Today, Friday, October 30: open 09:30–18:30.
| Period | Hours |
|---|---|
| 09:30–18:30 |
Opening hours: the palace is open daily from 9:30 am to 6:30 pm (last ticket 5:30 pm, last entry 6 pm). The park is open from 9 am to 7 pm, last entry 6 pm.
Best time to visit: May, June and September. Mild days, little rain and a better chance of clear views from the terraces.
| Month | Average high | Rainy days |
|---|---|---|
| Jan | 14° | 14 |
| Feb | 15° | 15 |
| Mar | 17° | 11 |
| Apr | 17° | 13 |
| MayRecommended | 19° | 11 |
| JunRecommended | 22° | 6 |
| Jul | 25° | 4 |
| Aug | 25° | 3 |
| SepRecommended | 25° | 7 |
| Oct | 21° | 12 |
| Nov | 18° | 14 |
| Dec | 15° | 16 |
1971–2000 averages for the Sintra Air Base station, at the foot of the hills (the summit is cooler and foggier): average high and rainy days. Source: IPMA, table published on Wikipedia (article “Sintra”).
The palace rooms are indoors, but the terraces and park are not, and Sintra is often wrapped in fog.
An hour-by-hour crowd estimate is coming later, always marked as an estimate and with its source.
By train from Lisbon: Portuguese Railways (CP) Sintra line from Rossio, Oriente or Entrecampos to Sintra. From the station, bus 434 (Scotturb) to Pena.
By car: private cars cannot drive up to the palace. Park in Sintra’s historic centre or the outer car parks, then continue by bus or on foot along the marked trails (for example the Santa Maria trail, about an hour).
Inside the park: a shuttle runs between the park entrance and the palace every 15 minutes, from 9 am to 6:15 pm.
Perfect day: partly cloudy, 18 to 21 degrees, no rain.
Saturday, October 31: Perfect day: fair, 14 to 21 degrees, no rain. Sunday, November 1: Perfect day: clear, 15 to 22 degrees, no rain.
In 2026 the Essential Visit costs €20 (ages 6–17 and over 65 €18, family €65), the Complete Visit with the private apartments €45 and the guided visit €75. The park alone costs €12.
It’s a good idea: palace tickets are for a set date and time slot, with a maximum of 5,100 entries a day. Booking a few days ahead gives you a choice of times.
The palace is open daily from 9:30 am to 6:30 pm, with last ticket at 5:30 pm and last entry at 6 pm. The park opens at 9 am and closes at 7 pm.
Take the train from Rossio, Oriente or Entrecampos to Sintra, then bus 434 to Pena. Private cars cannot drive up to the palace.
The Essential Visit (€20) covers the palace’s main rooms and the park; the Complete Visit (€45) adds the royal family’s private apartments, with the Manueline cloister.
Allow at least half a day for palace and park. The park alone is worth a couple of hours’ walk.
Reliable forecasts reach about 10 days: here you get the next 10, hour by hour for today and tomorrow and as a trend after that. To pick a month, check the climate month by month.
Forecasts come from MET Norway, the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, calculated for the castle’s coordinates and updated every hour during the day and every 3 hours at night. Crowd figures are labelled as estimates, with their source.
Pena Palace and Park entry ticket · from €22.40
Forecast by MET Norway, the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, calculated for the castle’s coordinates. Forecast: MET Norway (CC BY 4.0), updated every hour. Updated: October 27, 2026.