Just a half hour by car or around 40 minutes by train from Lisbon, this municipality of roughly 386,000 residents feels a world apart. Nestled among the forested hills of the Serra de Sintra, its historic old quarter, has long been a retreat for kings, nobles, and wealthy merchants seeking relief from the summer heat of the Portuguese capital. Most of Sintra today consists of modern residential neighborhoods, commercial districts, and former villages that have gradually become part of the greater Lisbon metropolitan area. And to the west, of all this the landscape quickly turns rural, with forests, vineyards, dramatic Atlantic cliffs, and beaches such as Praia da Adraga and Praia Grande. But what most visitors come to see is Sintra´s old historic core, with its origins in 8th-century Moorish Xintara and now a remarkable. now UNESCO-World-Heritage concentration of palaces, gardens, villas, and monuments.
(It´s also worth noting that thanks to its elevated location and proximity to the ocean, Sintra is typically cooler than Lisbon and often enjoys refreshing sea breezes even on hot summer days. The climate helps explain why generations of Portuguese royalty and upper classes chose to spend their summers here. Spring and autumn are generally the most pleasant times to visit, offering mild temperatures, lush vegetation, and fewer crowds. Winters, by contrast, can be damp, misty, and windy, lending the hills an atmospheric, almost mystical feel.)
Read more in Tripatini contributor Anshul Agarwal´s post 7 Scintillating Sites in Sintra,
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