I went to Sintra, Portugal, to find its castles closed, but hearts open

I found the bright side in a historic town, even when its major attractions were closed.

The Spanish Steps were closed for renovations when I visited Rome for the first time. 

The Flatiron Building was covered in scaffolding during my last trip to New York. And I’ve lost count of the number of museums and art galleries I’ve missed out on by turning up on the wrong day. But I’ve never had a situation quite as unfortunate as the one that unfolded during my recent trip to the picturesque town of Sintra in Portugal.

If you’re not familiar with Sintra, you should be. A half-hour drive from Lisbon, it’s one of the most beautiful, eccentric towns in Europe. For centuries, this forested hillside hamlet was the favoured retreat of the Portuguese royal family and nobility. What Angkor Wat is to temples and Naples is to pizza joints, Sintra is to pastel-coloured palaces. Which brings us to my ill-timed visit.

A Portuguese village in Sintra.

The day I arrived, the Portuguese national parks service announced that all but one of Sintra’s palaces would be closed due to the risk of fire. Bushfires were burning across more than 100,000ha of Portugal. Several people had died. Sintra was not directly under threat, but the dry conditions meant any spark could ignite the Unesco-listed town.

The fate of my castle-hopping getaway was obviously unimportant compared with such a serious emergency, so I resolved not to complain and to make the most of Sintra, even without its major attractions. It did help that my accommodation was a in a hilltop palace. The Valverde Sintra Palácio de Seteais was built in the 18th century in grand neoclassical style and is leased by the Portuguese government to the Leading Hotels of the World group.

Valverde Sintra Palácio de Seteais.

Driving down the horseshoe-shaped driveway towards the hotel entrance and the monumental arch that joins the building’s two wings, I had to dodge crowds of tourists who’d come to stare at the palace from the outside. Rarely have I felt as smug as I did when I handed over the hire car keys to a grey-suited valet and stepped inside, away from the hoi polloi. If anything, the residence was even more impressive on the inside, with golden sunlight spilling through French windows onto polished floors and walnut furniture, soaring ceilings and intricate botanical frescoes.

Castle of the Moors, Sintra

After checking into my Deluxe Garden room, which looked out towards the (closed) ruins of the Moorish Castle on the hills above, the only thing to do was grab a drink from the elegant bar, sit in the manicured garden and watch the sun set crimson in the smoky haze over the distant Atlantic. I could easily have spent two whole days by the heated pool, but I resisted the temptation to remain sedentary in my opulent surrounds. The next morning, after a buffet breakfast served with proper silverware on fine china, I set out to explore Sintra on foot.

Pena Palace in Sintra, Portugal.

Walking down steep, twisting lanes into the centre of town, I passed the (closed) road up to the banana-coloured Pena Palace and peeped over the gate into the twisted Gothic madness of the Regaleira Palace (also closed). Fortunately the National Palace, recognisable for its giant chimneys shaped a bit like a pair of bowling skittles, was open.

Home to a museum that recreates the feel of a royal household in the Middle Ages, the palace’s ornate tiling, friezes and furniture give a sense of Portugal’s wealth during the Age of Discovery. The palace is directly across the main square from Casa Piriquita, the bakery that invented the travesseiro, Sintra’s answer to the more standard custard tart. It’s a mix of floral almond and rich egg enfolded by an oblong case of delightfully flaky pastry, and well worth the wait in the fast-moving queue.

Casa Piriquita, the bakery which invented the Travesseiro

A challenging combination of labyrinthine streets and steep gradients make Sintra somewhat difficult to navigate by foot – most visitors opt to take the local buses, which travel in a circuit, or hire one of the slightly dodgy electric tuktuks that clog the streets. I was not so smart, and ended up with a serious thirst after a long day of walking around looking at palaces from a distance.

That’s how I found myself on the balcony of a no-frills locals’ bar called the 4 Caravelas, drinking a tiny, ice-cold bottle of Sagres beer next to a small man with a large, and very naughty, spaniel. The man was named Pedro and the dog Kaiser. Pedro and I started to chat while Kaiser made repeated attempts to run down the steps and out on to the road.

Diztinto restaurant

Pedro was a lifelong Sintra local: his grandfather had been born in the servants’ quarters of the Seteais and grew up to be a gardener there. As a teenager, he used to hop palace fences to smoke spliffs. But there was no hint of bitterness about the upstairs-downstairs nature of life in Sintra. “This is a beautiful town,” said Pedro. “Paradise.” A friend of his had recently opened a wine-focused restaurant called Diztinto, and Pedro put in a call to save me a table. There I feasted on battered broad beans, cured ham from the Alentejo region and beef stew with pickle juice, all washed down with a velvety avesso, a rare white wine grape almost unknown outside Portugal.

I wandered out into the warm, smoky night and ran into the smiling Pedro in front of another bar a few doors down. “Let me buy you a beer,” he shouted. I agreed, obviously. Then I bought him one. And at that point, it didn’t matter whether I’d seen all the palaces. I’d still made the most of Sintra.

Escape Route

Emirates has daily flights to Dubai from Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth, with onward flights direct to Lisbon. emirates.com

Rates for a double room at the Valverde Sintra Palácio de Seteais start at $350 during low season, with breakfast included. valverdepalacioseteais.com

The distances may look short but Sintra’s terrain is very hilly. Driving is near impossible so use the public 434 bus, which runs in a circuit. It’s $22 for a 24-hour ticket.

The writer was a guest of Visit Lisbon.

Originally published as I went to Sintra, Portugal, to find its castles closed, but hearts open