SintraSights

Outdoor sights in Sintra

  1. A

    Monserrate Park

    Wild and rambling Monserrate Park is a 30-hectare garden created in the 18th century by wealthy English merchant Gerard de Visme, then enlarged by landscape painter William Stockdale (with help from London’s Kew Gardens). Its wooded hillsides bristle with exotic foliage, from Chinese weeping cypress to dragon trees and Himalayan rhododendrons. Seek out the Mexican garden nurturing palms, yuccas and agaves, and the bamboo-fringed Japanese garden abloom with camellias. The park is 3.5km west of Sintra-Vila.

    reviewed

  2. B

    Parque da Pena

    A further 200m up the road from Castelo dos Mouros is Parque da Pena, filled with tropical plants, huge redwoods and fern trees, camellias, rhododendrons and lakes (note the castle-shaped duck houses for web-footed royalty!). It’s cheaper to buy a combined ticket if you want to visit Palácio Nacional da Pena too.

    reviewed