Sintra questions

I am thinking of booking a cruise for June with a stop in Lisbon. Unfortunately, the port time is rather short/inconvenient - from 12 to 7:30. I have never been to Portugal and I am sure Lisbon is great. However, I have seen some pictures of Sintra and would really, really like to visit there.

I know there is a train to Sintra but I am wondering whether it would make at all sense to go there just for the afternoon?

I've been to Sintra. I think it took us about 45 minutes to get there. Based in your time, there are so many cool places to see I Lisbon . It's a beautiful city . I think it would be a tight schedule to go to Sintra.

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There is a train to SIntra, at least there was when we were there on a land trip a few years ago.

We took the train to Sintra. Short ride. Then we took a bus back, stopped at the furthermost point for twenty minutes. Then caught the next bus (at the same place-they run often) to Cascais. Wondered around there a little while. Then took the commuter train back to Lisbon.

It was a full day. You could easily simply return from Sintra by train instead of making the loop.

Although Sintra has many interesting sights to see, with the short time you have in Lisbon, the ride there is probably not worth the effort. From the port you need to get to the train station and then catch the train to Sintra. Being realistic, even if you were able to get off the ship promptly, you likely would not get to Sintra until 2 p.m. Once there you would have maybe 2.5 hours to look around before you had to catch a train back to Lisbon so you would not feel rushed getting back to the ship. For my perspective, I think time could be used more efficiently by touring around Lisbon - lots to see and it would be less hectic.

The last time we grabbed the train from Lisbon to Sintra...we missed the train because of a long (and very slow) ticket line at the Lisbon Rossio Train Station. And we could not find a vending machine for that particular line (nor could anyone else...which is why the line was so long). We tried the train's coffee shop (which normally sells tickets) but they had actually run out of tickets (go figure). Since we missed the train we had to wait nearly an hour for the next train.

The reason I mention this that time could be a factor. I have never understood cruise lines that provide short port days (we always look carefully at port times when choosing our cruise and line). Noon to 7:30 in not good. It will likely be near 12:30 until you can get off the ship and you will likely need to be back aboard by 7. Using the train, and being careful not to cut anything real close will likely leave you with not much time. Lets assume that you miss the 1:01 train which means you will likely catch the 1:41 which does not even get to Sintra until around 2:30. You would likely want to catch the 5:10 (or something earlier) which will not get you back to Lisbon until near 6...which will leave you enough time to get back to the ship (unless the train runs late or breaks down). So that mean you only have about 2 1/2 hours in Sintra minus the time to walk to an from the train station from the center of town. This is not enough time to enjoy Sintra and its environs (with one of the main attraction not even in town).

So, with that port schedule you might want to join a private excursion or take an overpriced (over crowded) ship excursion.

This leaves us to our final piece of advice to others who are just browsing and have not booked a cruise. With European cruises one should really pay attention to the port times as well as which day you are in various ports. Certain days (especially Sun and Mon) might find closures of the very places you want to visit. And long port days are very useful for any port where you will want to leave the port city. In the past we have been the most critical about some NCL and MSC cruises...because of their port time. On the other hand, HAL has been doing more and more overnights in Europe...which is a very good thing because it allows cruisers to enjoy the day (without worrying about returning to the ship) and also enjoy dinner and some night life in the Port city.

Hank