For our Spain trip, we booked a flight with a 12 hour layover in Lisbon, Portugal. Most people cringe at the thought of a layover because that may mean sitting in the airport twiddling your thumbs as you wait for your next flight. We love long layovers if they are tactical enough that you can visit two (or more) destinations in one trip.

Planning a 12 Hour Lisbon Layover: An Itinerary to Sintra Portugal

For this trip, we flew TAP Portugal. Booked using 50,000 Merrill Points & $200-ish in cash. We picked the option that allowed us to land at around 5AM in Lisbon airport, with our connecting flight not leaving until 8PM that same day.

The airport is within 8 km (4mi) from the city center, so it is easy enough to hop on the airport bus to the city center and leave our luggage for a few hours at the airport. Unlike the US, most European airports have a facility where you can leave some luggage (think carry-on luggage) for a small sum at the airport. Less stuff to lug around the city center, the faster and more pleasant our experience will be.

That means we have almost 14 hours of nonstop exploring in the city.

The Plan

I immediately picked up a copy of Fodor’s Essential Portugal from our local library and set about what I can see in this wonderful city. And… the possibilities are endless. After reading through the book and making a list of places to see, what ensued was a mini-breakdown while I was wailing to Peter why I can’t see more of the city.

Enough about that, though.

Here were some of our ideas for the trip:

1. Go straight to Sintra from the airport and visit Quinta de Regaleira, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, mostly known for the Initiation Well, an upside down well of sorts that has 9 levels (like Dante’s Levels of Hell), and is very beautiful (not to mention Instagram-worthy).

After Quinta de Regaleira, go back on the train and maybe squeeze in a sight or two in Lisbon (chosen from below) then head to the airport.

2. Go to Lisbon’s city center and ride Tram 28, which is a scenic tram covering most of the tourist spots, and not get out until the final stop then go back and do it again. Not the most ideal, but if jetlag hits us at any time during the layover, this may be what we are forced to do.

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The 12 Hour Layover in Sintra, Portugal

When we arrived, let me just say that our plans were closer to number 1, which was to go straight to Sintra instead of going around Lisbon.

However, we actually didn’t go to Quinta de la Regaleira. Rather, our itinerary was as follows:

1. Leave carry on luggage in airport (5 EUR or less per bag)
2. Take Uber from airport to Lisbon-Oriente train station
3. Take train from Lisbon-Oriente train station to Sintra (last stop of the train)
4. From Sintra’s train station, take an Uber up to Pena Palace (saves you the hassle of walking up)
5. Pena Palace and Gardens (eat lunch there too if you can)
6. Moorish Castle
7. Walk to Sintra’s Town
8. Take train back from Sintra to Lisbon-Oriente
9. Take Uber from Lisbon-Oriente to Lisbon airport
10. Pick up carry on bags from airport and go through security
11. Wait for your connecting flight

If you are flying TAP Portugal, they also have a program that allows you to have a longer stopover (maximum of 5 nights)! The airline also offers discounted hotels or attractions. However, these things only work when you booked directly with the website. If you want to avail the deal using a travel agency to book your airfare, you’ll probably need to call the call center.

The 12 Hour Layover Details:

Enough about the summarized version above, if you like details, here’s more information:

Leave airport: allow an hour for immigration queues and for leaving your carry ons at left luggage (arrivals area near Starbucks Terminal 1).

Take Uber from arrivals station to Lisbon-Oriente train station. Go to window 13/14 to buy round trip tickets to Sintra (€5 per person; €2.25 one way + €0.50 for Lisbon card)

Rest while in the train, read, or do something else on the 45 minute train ride. Trains from Oriente to Sintra leave every 30 minutes on weekdays and can be one every hour on weekends. Check their website for more exact timetables.

There are a few sights that you can see while on the train, but it is limited to within the first 5 stops as it passes through Lisbon’s city center. The rest of the stops are mostly residential, so even if you read your book or start working you are not missing much.

Once in Sintra’s train station, request for an Uber (around 5-8 EUR) to take you to Pena Palace & Gardens. Walking up from the train station to the palace takes more than an hour and it is mostly uphill climbing. To do that kind of hike, you have to at least be in shape enough to do it.

If you are early enough at Pena Palace, you can queue up for tickets. However, you can do what we did and bought tickets online in advance. The advantage of booking online is that you get a 5% discount per ticket, which compounds the more attractions you buy.

For example:

Buying Pena Palace and Moorish Castle within the same transaction will give you 10% off. If you add on the National Palace of Sintra, you will get 15% off the total transaction and so on. The more attractions you get, the cheaper your tickets will be.

You are also not limited to the dates that you choose online. You can use the tickets 30 days from when your first scheduled date of usage is. So if you have extra time and want to see everything that Sintra has to offer, you can do that. But let’s move on, since we only have 12 hours to see in the city.

Back to Pena Palace – once the gates open, head straight up to the palace and queue up to see the inside. You don’t need to get the palace & garden ticket, but if you want to see the interior, then that’s the only way to get in. If you only bought the garden ticket, then start exploring the grounds. They are big and also built on an incline so again, you may at least need to be moderately fit to do some of the trails.

Alternatively, you can also take the shuttle from the gates to the palace (3 EUR). This is another option for those who can’t physically walk up to the palace.

Once done with Pena Palace, we suggest exiting out of the garden entrance and then walking 5 minutes to the Moorish Castle. There some places on the walk with no sidewalk so you have to be extra careful with the cars and buses! The road is extremely narrow and there are lots of parked cars!

Explore the Moorish Castle, then walk back down to town (expect a steep walk down with lots of stairs and confusion where to go after the church).

At the town, eat some egg tarts (pastel de nata) and recharge with a coffee or a drink. You deserved it!

Head back to the train station, then wait for the next train back to Lisbon-Oriente. Make sure you get on the correct train, otherwise you might end up farther from the airport than you wish to be!

Enjoy Your Stopover

Whenever you have a short stopover, know that you can’t really do everything. You can make a list of where you want to go and what you want to achieve, but you can’t always check off all the boxes from that list.

And you know what? That’s perfectly fine! What a stopover does is it gives you a taste of what that city and nearby areas have to offer, like a great appetizer or aperitif. If you liked it a lot, then maybe it is time to schedule another trip back to the city. Otherwise, you’ve had your taste of it, and it’s time to explore other areas.

You do it your way, and what’s important is that you have fun and enjoy your stopover!

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