Sintra is one of the most popular tourist places in Portugal and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Amidst the forests and hills are some amazing buildings such as the Palacio de Monserrate, Quinta da Regaleira and the Palacio da Pena. The town itself used to be a summer reteat for the Portuguese royalty and nobility where they built their extravagant palaces.
It is just this popularity, which meant that we were standing in the hot sun for a considerable length of time in a snaking queue at Rossio waiting for a bus to take us up to Sintra. It was a pleasant enough journey up into the mountains, but of course when we got there it was cooler and misty. On this occasion we decided not to queue for any more buses to take us any further, which would have been too tiring. So, we walked around the immediate area in this picturesque village and found a local cafe where we had a welcome drink and cake.
As there is so much to see in Sintra, if we ever visited again we would book on a guided tour bus rather than public transport. An organised tour would take us to the main attractions without standing at bus stops, walking up steep hills and waiting in queues at the entrances to castles. This is what I would advise.