The Best Day Trips from Lisbon

Sintra day trip from Lisbon: DIY or guided?

The train to Sintra is trivial and cheap. What decides the cost of the day is which Pena ticket you buy, and Pena's pricing changed enough that most published figures are now well under the real one. Read from cp.pt and parquesdesintra.pt on 16 August 2026.

The 10 best day trips, ranked

Ordered by how well they repay a full day - factoring travel time, what you can actually see, and how easy they are without a car.

1. 
   1

   Sintra

   Palaces & romantic hills

   30 km northwest · ~40 min by train

   The hill town of palaces: Pena Palace's painted terraces, Quinta da Regaleira's initiation well, the ridge-top Moorish Castle walls and the twin conical chimneys of the National Palace. Pena uses timed entry that sells out in season - book online, take the earliest slot you can, and plan two sights per day, not four. Walking downhill between sights beats queueing for the 434.

   Getting there: CP urban trains run direct from Rossio station in central Lisbon to Sintra every 20-30 minutes (~40 min). From Sintra station, the 434 bus loops up to the historic centre, the Moorish Castle and Pena Palace - or walk to the town centre in 15 minutes and save the bus for the hill.

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2. 
   2

   Cascais

   Coast & easy beaches

   30 km west · ~40 min by train

   A fishing town turned elegant resort with town beaches a few minutes from the station. Walk 20 minutes along the clifftops to the Boca do Inferno blowhole, visit the Casa das Histórias Paula Rego, or rent a bike and ride the flat oceanfront path out to wild Guincho beach. Hop off at Estoril on the way back for its seafront promenade.

   Getting there: CP trains from Cais do Sodré run along the Tagus and the coast to Cascais roughly every 20 minutes. The station is in the middle of town, a short walk from the beaches and marina.

3. 
   3

   Óbidos

   Medieval walls & small towns

   85 km north · ~1 h by bus

   A complete medieval walled town small enough to feel like a film set: whitewashed lanes draped in bougainvillea, a castle (now a pousada) at the top, and a full wall circuit you can walk - note there are no railings, so skip it if heights bother you. Drink a ginjinha cherry liqueur served in an edible chocolate cup for about a euro.

   Getting there: The express 'Rápida Verde' green buses from Campo Grande interchange run direct to Óbidos in about an hour, roughly hourly on weekdays with fewer departures at weekends. The train exists but is much slower - take the bus.

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4. 
   4

   Évora

   Roman ruins & Alentejo food

   130 km east · ~1 h 30 min–1 h 45 min by train or bus

   The capital of the Alentejo and a UNESCO World Heritage city: a remarkably intact 1st-century Roman temple, a Gothic cathedral whose roof you can walk, and the Capela dos Ossos - a chapel lined floor-to-ceiling with the bones of thousands of monks. Alentejo food and wine are among Portugal's best and cheaper than Lisbon's. It gets brutally hot in high summer; start early.

   Getting there: A few direct CP trains run daily from Lisbon Oriente (~1 h 30 min) - check times before you go, as departures are spaced out. Rede Expressos buses from the Sete Rios terminal run more frequently and take a similar time. Évora's station and bus stop are both a short walk from the walled centre.

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5. 
   5

   Fátima

   Pilgrimage & religious history

   130 km north · ~1 h 30 min by bus

   One of the world's major Catholic pilgrimage sites, built where three shepherd children reported apparitions of the Virgin Mary in 1917. The vast esplanade dwarfs most city squares, with the neoclassical Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary at one end and the huge modern Basilica of the Holy Trinity at the other. The big candlelit pilgrimages fall on 12-13 May and 12-13 October - moving to witness, but book nothing else that day.

   Getting there: No train serves the town - Rede Expressos and FlixBus coaches run frequently from Sete Rios and Oriente (~1 h 30 min). The bus station is a 10-15 minute walk from the sanctuary.

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6. 
   6

   Nazaré

   Big-wave watching & seaside

   120 km north · ~1 h 45 min–2 h by bus

   In winter (roughly October to March), an underwater canyon funnels Atlantic swells into Praia do Norte and produces the biggest surfable waves on Earth - world-record rides of over 25 metres have been set here. Watch from the clifftop fort by the lighthouse, and check the surf forecast before you commit the day. In summer it reverts to a classic Portuguese beach town with a huge sweep of sand.

   Getting there: Rede Expressos coaches run direct from Sete Rios several times a day (~1 h 45 min-2 h); there's no train station. In town, a funicular connects the beachfront to the Sítio clifftop where the wave-watching happens.

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7. 
   7

   Setúbal & the Arrábida coast

   Nature, dolphins & seafood

   50 km south · ~1 h by train

   Setúbal is a working port with one of Portugal's best food markets (Livramento) and the local speciality of choco frito - fried cuttlefish. The Sado estuary holds a resident pod of bottlenose dolphins you can see on boat trips from the harbour, and the Arrábida Natural Park's limestone hills drop to some of the clearest water near Lisbon at Praia da Figueirinha.

   Getting there: Fertagus trains from Roma-Areeiro, Entrecampos and Sete Rios cross the Tagus and reach Setúbal in about an hour. The Arrábida beaches beyond town are served by a summer beach bus; out of season you'll need a taxi, or take an organised Arrábida tour from Lisbon.

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8. 
   8

   Ericeira

   Surf & seafood

   50 km northwest · ~1 h–1 h 20 min by bus

   Europe's first World Surfing Reserve - one of only a handful on the planet - with a string of named breaks including Ribeira d'Ilhas. Non-surfers get a whitewashed clifftop old town, cliff paths between beaches and some of the best-value seafood near Lisbon. Surf schools on the town beaches take complete beginners.

   Getting there: Buses from Campo Grande interchange run to Ericeira roughly every 30-60 minutes. The bus station is a short walk from the old town and clifftop.

9. 
   9

   Mafra

   Baroque palaces & libraries

   40 km northwest · ~50 min–1 h 10 min by bus

   The Palácio Nacional de Mafra is an 18th-century palace, convent and basilica of absurd scale - built by a gold-rich king with tens of thousands of workers, and now UNESCO-listed. The Rococo library holds some 36,000 volumes and famously keeps a resident colony of bats that eat the book-damaging insects at night. Check opening days before you go - it closes one day a week.

   Getting there: The same Campo Grande buses that continue to Ericeira stop at Mafra - the palace fronts the main square where the bus stops. Combining Mafra (morning) with Ericeira (afternoon, ~20 min further) makes a natural full day.

10. 
    10

    Costa da Caparica

    Beach days & surf lessons

    15 km south · ~40–60 min door to door

    Lisbon's local Atlantic beach: kilometres of straight golden sand running south, lined at the town end with surf schools and beach-shack seafood restaurants. The rule is simple - the further south you walk, the emptier it gets. Water is cold and waves are real; this is a beach-and-board day, not a Mediterranean paddle.

    Getting there: Two ways: direct buses from central Lisbon cross the 25 de Abril bridge in ~30-40 minutes, or take the ferry from Cais do Sodré to Cacilhas and connect by bus. The ferry option is slower but turns the commute into a Tagus crossing with views.

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