Day Trip to Sintra - Portugal’s village of fairytale castles, Sintra, Portugal

If you’re anything like me, you love a good fairytale. Whether you’re a Disney fanatic (guilty), devoured book after book of stories as a child (guilty) or simply wished you were a princess whose Prince Charming would waltz through that door at any moment (yep, guilty), fairytales have always been a part of our lives. So it’s no wonder places like Sintra, one of the best places to go on a day trip from Lisbon, are so beguiling.

Side note: now that I’m older, I can’t help but think Rapunzel could totally have saved her own ass from that tower.

Sintra is one of those places where you spend most of your time wondering how the hell it all came about in the first place.

Though its history spans several millennia, Sintra really kicked off with the Moors, the Muslim conquerors who came from North Africa over a thousand years ago. After the Christians retook the area centuries later, it became a haven for Portuguese royalty escaping the hustle and bustle of nearby Lisbon. Naturally, the nobility and aristocracy followed, building expansive estates in the surrounding hills. As the centuries passed, Sintra began to exude an almost mythical quality, drawing poets, artists and writers to its misty mountain forests, from Lord Byron to Hans Christian Anderson, who described it as the most beautiful place in Portugal. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the fanciful Romantic architecture began to appear, with the rich building monumental mock palaces and whimsical towers. ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).