Mr. & Mrs. Vandebilt + kids

About 40 minutes outside of Lisbon is a little village called Sintra. It’s set way up in the hills, which says a lot since everything is a hill. It was once considered the summer retreat for Lisbon’s elite. It now boasts a village of preserved real life castles and manors and in the summer crazy crowds.

We had lunch at a sidewalk cafe before starting the trek up to Quinta da Regaleira. The entire grounds are open to wander around including the Initiation Well. It contains nine platforms, which are said to be “reminiscent of the Divine Comedy by Dante and the nine circles of Hell, the nine sections of Purgatory and the nine skies which constitute Paradise”

After descending the well and navigating the tunnels we headed back down the hill through the gardens.

We tried to take a Tuk-tuk to the next castle but there was an age restriction so we called an Uber and circled the mountain to get to the main attraction the Palace de Pena. It’s a multi-coloured real life castle set at the top of the mountain. We got to tour inside which the kids thought was super interesting. We finished off our 10km home (!) and headed home.