Sintra is the day trip from Lisbon, and more than half the tours on sale go there, so the real question is not where but how: an eight-seat minivan with a guide who holds the Pena Palace slot, a private car, or a coach. The ranking below compares every day trip on one rule, the traveller rating weighted by how many people left one, with no more than four tours of any one kind so Fátima, Arrábida and the Templar towns get a hearing next to Sintra. Prices start at €29 and the typical booking is €85; the small-group Sintra tours that lead the list sit in between.
82 day trips from Lisbon compared from €29 refreshed August 21, 2026
The review-weighted rating decides the order and no operator pays for a place. Tours with fewer than 250 reviews wait until enough travellers have rated them, and the list seats at most four of any one kind, which is what keeps it from being twenty Sintra minivans in a row. Every entry is a full day out of the city with transport included unless the title says otherwise.
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16 of 82 day trips from Lisbon on sale in Lisbon make the list: products with fewer than 250 reviews are held back until enough travellers have rated them, and no kind of experience takes more than 4 rows. For the city's full picture, see every tour and ticket in Lisbon.
18 compared from €41 typically 9h 4.78 average
The second most-booked day out and a long one: nine to ten hours for the sanctuary at Fátima, the monastery at Batalha, the cliff at Nazaré where the giant waves break in winter, and the walled town of Óbidos at the end. From €41, most around €110 in an eight-seat group. Reviewers who are not there for the pilgrimage still rate it highly for Nazaré and Óbidos, so do not skip it on religious grounds.
7 compared from €72 typically 8h 4.89 average
Forty minutes south across the bridge: a limestone ridge over turquoise water, the fishing port of Sesimbra, and the Moscatel wineries of Azeitão. Fewer tours, smaller groups and, in the reviews, the most relaxed day of the lot. From €72, more than Sintra because most include a tasting and lunch. The pick for a second or third visit to Lisbon, or for anyone who has had enough palaces.
16 compared from €75 typically 8h 4.96 average
Mostly to Sintra, a few to Fátima or the coast. A private car from €75 per group, most around €215, with the itinerary bent around you: Pena at opening before the coaches, Regaleira in the afternoon, Cascais for dinner. For four people it costs about the same per head as a small-group tour and rates a notch higher. Confirm whether palace tickets are included; in half the listings they are not.
34 compared from €29 typically 8h 4.83 average
The tours that hold the top of the ranking: eight people in a minivan, Pena Palace, Quinta da Regaleira, Cabo da Roca and an hour in Cascais, eight to ten hours door to door. From €29 without tickets, €44 with the Pena slot pre-booked, most around €70. Pay for the version with tickets in April to October: Pena sells out its timed slots and a guide without one queues like everyone else.
5 compared from €67 typically 8h 4.77 average
The long shots: the Templar castle at Tomar with Almourol on its island, Évora and the Alentejo plain, or the boat to the Berlenga reserve from Peniche in summer. From €67, small groups, eight to ten hours. Few reviews yet because few people go, which is exactly why the ones who do rate them so well. Skip the Porto-in-a-day tours: seven hours of motorway for three in the city.
€85 median price, from €29
A small-group Sintra day is the benchmark at around €70 per person, and €29 is the floor for a seat in a minivan without palace tickets. Add roughly €20 to €30 per person for Pena and Regaleira entry when the tour does not include them. Fátima days cost a little more for the extra distance, Arrábida more again for the wine and lunch, and private cars start at €75 for the vehicle, which splits well at three or four. Nothing here needs booking months ahead, but the cheapest small groups fill first.
8h typical duration · 100% with free cancellation
Eight hours is the median and the honest minimum: Sintra is forty minutes away but the hill road, the palace queues and the Cascais stop eat the day. Fátima loops run nine to ten hours, Arrábida seven to eight with a long lunch. Almost every tour leaves between eight and nine in the morning from a central meeting point or your hotel. Wear shoes for cobbles and bring a layer: Pena sits in a cloud more often than Lisbon does, even in August.
Practical answers on prices, neighbourhoods and booking windows, written against the same data the ranking uses.
Sintra, by a distance, in reviews and in bookings: the small-group tours that combine Pena Palace, Regaleira, Cabo da Roca and Cascais hold the top of our ranking. Fátima with Óbidos and Nazaré is the second choice for a first visit; Arrábida and Setúbal are what travellers pick when they have already seen Sintra.
From €29 for a seat in a small-group Sintra minivan without palace tickets, with a median of €85 across everything on sale. Fátima tours start at €41, Arrábida wine days at €72, and a private car from €75 for the vehicle. Prices here come from the latest data refresh, not from a brochure.
The train from Rossio is cheap and takes forty minutes, but from the station you still need the 434 bus or a tuk-tuk up the hill, and Pena timed tickets sell out in season. A small-group tour costs more and solves both problems, adds Cabo da Roca and Cascais, which the train does not reach, and that is why reviewers rate the tours so highly.
Not well. They are in opposite directions and each is a full day; the few combined tours spend the day in the van. Give Sintra its own day and pair Fátima with Óbidos and Nazaré, which lie on the same road north.
A week is enough most of the year, two to three weeks for small-group Sintra tours from May to September, when the eight-seat vans with Pena tickets included sell out first. Every tour in this ranking offers free cancellation, so booking early costs nothing if plans change.