Activities

Things to do in Lisbon and Sintra: Pena and Jerónimos tickets, tram 28, Lisboa Card – what to book and what is free

By the Moris Insider team·7 October 2026·9 min read

Pena Palace costs €20, the Jerónimos Monastery €18 and Belém Tower €15 – and all three need a fixed date or time slot. As of 6 October 2026, Pena Palace gives no grace for lateness: miss your slot and you do not get in and are not refunded. Jerónimos and Belém are closed on Mondays, and the monastery says its tickets often sell out the same day. Below: what to book ahead, what Sintra costs without a car, when the Lisboa Card pays off and what is free.

The essentials before you book (as of 6 October 2026)

Lisbon and Sintra run on fixed times. These are the figures to know before you buy:

Figures come from the operators’ own pages, read on 6 October 2026; prices move. For somewhere to sleep, see Where to stay in Lisbon.

Prices and time rules side by side

Adult entry and time rules (operators’ pages, read on 6 October 2026)
SitePriceTime ruleBook ahead?
Pena Palace (Essential Visit)€20 (park €12, Complete Visit €45)Palace only at the booked time, no graceYes, compulsory
Jerónimos Monastery€18 (church free)One-hour slots, 9:30 am to 5 pmYes, often sold out
Belém Tower€1530-minute slots, 60 people at a timeYes
Quinta da Regaleira€20Slots, up to 1 hour of graceYes, official shop
Moorish Castle€12No slot mentionedOnline or at the ticket office
Sintra National Palace€13 (Essential Visit)No slot mentionedOnline or at the ticket office

Pena Palace: tickets, time and the park trap

The official prices. Essential Visit €20 (ages 6 to 17 and seniors €18, family €65), Complete Visit €45, park only €12. The park opens 9 am to 7 pm, the palace 9:30 am to 6:30 pm, last ticket 5:30 pm. Several monuments in the same purchase earn 5% off for two sites and up to 10% for six.

See activities in PortugalTours, tickets and day trips on GetYourGuide

The time applies to the palace door. The slot is the moment you enter the interior route, not the moment you enter the park. Parques de Sintra allows about 30 minutes from the park entrance to that door. There is no grace for lateness, and the ticket is not refunded. In the afternoon the palace is less crowded, according to Parques de Sintra; mornings suit the park.

Rescheduling works only online. A ticket bought online can be moved until 6 pm the day before, within 365 days; a ticket from the ticket office or a machine cannot.

What GetYourGuide shows. The Pena ticket page (read on 6 October 2026, labelled “Official ticket”) showed four options in US dollars for 14 October: Pena Park Visit (Exterior only) $13.47, Essential Tour $22.45, Fast track $47.14, Full Access $53.87. At the ECB rate of 6 October (€1 = $1.1269) that is €11.95, €19.92, €41.83 and €47.80: the park and the Essential Tour match the official price. The cheapest option does not open the palace. On 14 October the Essential Tour showed only slots from 1 pm to 5:30 pm; Full Access also from 9 am.

To compare options and slots for your date, open the Sintra tickets and tours in Portugal on GetYourGuide, choose Sintra and read the option name twice.

Sintra without a car: train, bus and what a day costs

Private cars may not go up to Pena or the Moorish Castle, and only residents drive in the historic centre (Parques de Sintra). The park operator recommends the train.

A red CP suburban train at the platform of Sintra station, with a covered platform on columns on the right
Sintra station, the end of the line from Rossio. Private cars are not allowed up to Pena. Photo : DiogoBaptista · CC0

The sum. Pena Essential €20 + Regaleira €20 + train €5.10 + bus pass €10.96 = €56.06. The official “Feel Sintra: Royal Palaces” combo costs €42 with Pena, the park, Sintra National Palace (€13) and the bus; bought separately, €43.96.

Quinta da Regaleira. €20 since January 2026 (ages 6 to 17 and over 65, €15), audio guide €5 at the ticket office only. Entry is by slot with up to an hour of grace; October to December, 10 am to 6:30 pm, last entry 5:30 pm. The foundation names regaleira.byblueticket.pt as the only official online shop and accepts no responsibility for tickets from other sites.

Looking down into the Initiation Well at Quinta da Regaleira, a stone spiral staircase with moss-covered walls winding down into the depths
The Initiation Well at Quinta da Regaleira. Entry is €20, in slots with up to an hour of grace. Photo : Maria Eklind · CC BY-SA 2.0

A day tour instead of organising it yourself. GetYourGuide’s Sintra list showed on 6 October 2026 tours of 9 to 10 hours (Pena, Regaleira, Cabo da Roca, Cascais) from $25 to $30, rated 4.6 to 4.9 out of 5. A price from $25 is below the official entry fees for Pena and Regaleira combined (€40): it cannot include both, so read “Includes”. Their pages would not open, so we cite no inclusions. All tours: day tours from Lisbon to Sintra on GetYourGuide. To carry on by car, read Renting a car in Portugal and the tolls.

Rent a car in PortugalLocal rental companies on Localrent

Jerónimos and Belém Tower: slots and Mondays

Hours. The cloister is open Tuesday to Sunday, 9:30 am to 5:30 pm, last entry 5 pm, ticket office until 4:30 pm. Closed on Mondays, 1 January, Easter Sunday, 1 May, 13 June and 25 December. The church is free (Sunday from 2 pm).

The two-storey cloister of the Jerónimos Monastery in Belém, with finely carved arches of pale limestone around a lawn courtyard
The Jerónimos cloister. Entry is in one-hour slots, and the monastery advises buying online in advance. Photo : Jakub Hałun · CC BY 4.0

Slots. The monastery has seven entry slots (9:30–10:30 am to 3:30–5 pm), at most 3,500 visitors a day, and advises buying online in advance because tickets often sell out. No audio guide on site. Belém Tower has 15 slots of 30 minutes between 9:30 am and 5 pm, at most 960 visitors a day and 60 at once.

Belém Tower on the bank of the Tagus, a pale crenellated tower with small corner turrets, rocks and water in front of it under a blue sky
Belém Tower: €15 entry, 30-minute slots, at most 60 people in the tower at once. Photo : Berthold Werner · CC BY-SA 4.0

What GetYourGuide shows. “Jerónimos Monastery Skip the Ticket Line Entry & Audio Guide” with free cancellation up to 24 hours before and “reserve now & pay later”. The audio guide is listed in English, Spanish, Italian, Korean, Chinese, French and Japanese. Reviews from September 2026 mention a queue at the entrance despite “Skip the ticket line”.

Tram 28 and the Lisboa Card

Tram 28. Line 28E runs, according to Carris, from Martim Moniz to Campo Ourique (Prazeres) via Graça, the Santa Luzia viewpoint, the Sé, Chiado and the Estrela basilica. The on-board ticket costs €3.30 since 1 January 2026 and is valid only on that vehicle; loaded on a Navegante card (€0.50 once), a ride costs €1.90 and is valid for 60 minutes on Carris and the metro. The winter weekday timetable runs from 5:40 am to 11:30 pm.

A yellow Carris tram in a narrow cobbled street in Lisbon’s Alfama district, between tall buildings with pale facades
A Carris tram in the Alfama. Line 28E runs from Martim Moniz to Campo Ourique; a ride costs €3.30 on board. Photo : Paul Arps · CC BY 2.0

The route changes. Carris’s “alterações de serviço” page listed two notices about the 28E within a week on 6 October 2026; in May 2025, buses replaced the tram between Martim Moniz and Graça. Check the notices on the day.

Lisboa Card. Adults aged 16 and over pay €31 (24 h), €51 (48 h) or €62 (72 h), for purchases from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027 (lisboacard.org). It includes free entry to 51 museums and monuments (Jerónimos, Belém Tower, São Jorge Castle), the Carris and metro network and CP trains to Sintra and Cascais. Pena is not part of it: lisboacard.org sells it as an add-on (combo from €58). The sum: Jerónimos €18 + Belém €15 = €33, more than the card’s €31. But the Jerónimos and Belém slots can only be reserved after exchanging the voucher for the physical card, and the quota for card holders is limited.

What costs nothing in Lisbon and Sintra

Free only for residents of Portugal: “Acesso 52” and Sundays and public holidays at Parques de Sintra. As a visitor, you pay.

When GetYourGuide is worth it, and when the official ticket is enough

The official ticket gets you in. Booking on GetYourGuide makes sense if you want transport and a guided visit in one booking, or free cancellation. The prices side by side:

Official price and GetYourGuide listing (US dollars, converted at the ECB rate of 6 October 2026: €1 = $1.1269)
OfferOfficialGetYourGuideCancellation per the page
Pena Palace, Essential€20$22.45 (€19.92)“non-refundable”
Jerónimos Monastery€18from $23 (€20.41), with audio guidefree up to 24 hours before
Quinta da Regaleira€20 (audio guide €5)from $30 (€26.62), with audio guidenot read
Lisboa Card, 24 hours€31from $35 (€31.06)“non-refundable”

Can GetYourGuide be trusted? On Trustpilot the company stands at 3.9 out of 5 on 6 October 2026, from 56,632 reviews, 68% of them five-star and 19% one-star. It says it usually replies within a week and has replied to 97% of negative reviews. Cancellations, overbooking, unclear meeting points and extra charges are criticised.

The traps and the checklist before you pay

Before paying, point by point:

  1. What is the option called (park, Essential, Complete, Full Access) and do you enter the palace?
  2. Which date and time, and is there time for the climb at Pena?
  3. Does it say “free cancellation” with a deadline, or “non-refundable”?
  4. What does the same ticket cost officially, and what is in the difference (audio guide, transport)?
  5. In which language are the audio guide or tour, and is the meeting point clear?

If everything lines up, you can open the offers for Lisbon and Sintra on GetYourGuide and enter your date, group size and option; the offer page shows the final price before payment. To carry on with the trip, see the one-week itinerary from Lisbon to Porto, Porto or Lisbon and the one-week budget.

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