Lisbon: Pena Palace, Regaleira, Sintra, Cabo, Cascais Small Group

This tour covers a lot of ground in one day! Highlights included seeing Pena Palace from the outside while learning about its rich history, walking through the famous Initiation Well at Quinta da Regaleira, and visiting the lovely beach town of Cascais. Our tour guide was clearly knowledgeable, and the itinerary packs a ton into the schedule. However, we specifically booked this experience because it was advertised as a small group tour with a maximum of 8 people. On the morning of our tour, another guide had an issue arise, so the company combined two tours into one. This resulted in 16 people in our single group and required the entire tour to be conducted in two languages (French and English). Because every piece of information had to be relayed twice in both languages, everything felt extremely rushed. Lunch ended up being pushed back until after 3:00 PM, and our guide was visibly stressed trying to keep us on schedule. Combining the groups defeated the whole purpose of paying for a small-group experience. It has the foundation of a fantastic tour, but the company’s decision to combine groups significantly compromised the quality of the day.

I want to start by saying the tour guide was great he was very knowledgeable and was able to share a lot of great facts. The reason for the two stars first was because of the booking process I felt was very misleading and confusing. There is an outlined itinerary, but I found out later there was no combination of booking that even match’s that itinerary. I was told then told it’s a “sample” itinerary, which doesn’t make sense to me why it even exists felt a bit like a bait and switch. There was also another review that mentioned the tour felt like it was a marathon and I would say I’d have to agree there were many times where I felt it was a bit rushed. We weren’t able to really take in the sites because we were almost speed walking from point to point. The tour is not for the faint of heart you must be in decent shape because there are a lot of steep hills and the pace is extremely fast so lace up your jogging shoes.

Had a wonderful tour with Hugo to Sintra and the Lisbon coast. Sintra was a highlight of the whole trip, especially the Palace. Hugo was very informative throughout, even giving us pointers for what to do on our time at each stop. Great tunes in the car too! What a great day. Would recommend.

Marcus our tour guide was excellent, organized, prompt, very knowledgeable and made the tour fun and enjoyable. His stories and detailed history brought Sintra to life for us. It was a great balance of narrative and guiding paired with free time for lunch. We really appreciated the tickets being included with his ability to go to the front of the line with hardly any wait time! Highly recommend Marcus and this tour!

Our trip was cancelled the night before due to overbooking, we were very disappointed. We are still waiting for a refund. Regards Diane Carson

Hugo, our guide was very knowledgeable, kind, and helpful. He took us to three locations, didn't rush us allowing plenty of time for photos. He shared his knowledge very generously and willingly, going well above what one would expect.

We had a great day. Our guide Gonçalo helped us create enjoyable memories which will endure. His knowledge and experience was obvious. The small groups - ours was just 5 - made the experience pleasant and efficient. Wear very comfortable shoes. This will be a day with a lot of walking, especially up and down hills.

Even if the places visited are amazing, this tour experience was horrible. Our tour guide knowledge hardly passed the first line that any AI or Google search would tell you about the places we visited. If asked the explanatations were poor and clearly wrong a few times. He scared all of us in the car with his dangerous driving and made us feel unconfortable when skipping some queues and having some arguments fights with other tour guides or the ticket collectors. On top of all that ,we could not get to see the interiors of Pena Palace (even though we had paid extra to do so) becuase "it was not the way that tour package worked", a poor explanation from our guide (like all his explanations) who told us to place a complaint to Viator. Of course, Viator refused our request for a refund becuase the tour operator didn't agree to it. A nice setup in which no one took responsability even if we clearly paid more than the basic tour price and our ticket had that visit to the interior of Pena Palace in the list of inclusions for the trip.

Our tour guide Mauro came across as a very carrying individual and told us that he would look into our issue which was when we booked the Pena Castle you had two choices. One without viewing the inner chambers and the other with viewing the inner chambers. We picked viewing the inner chambers at a cost of $130.00 Canadian dollars. Well when we got to Pena Palace I asked my tour guide why we didn't see the inner chambers and he stated they don't show you the inner chambers ever and that he would look into a refund for us. He gave us his no. On WhatsApp and said he would contact his boss and get back to us. After a good tip as well he has yet to get back to us or answer our messages and Viator the same. We will never book with them again.

Jamie was an excellent, caring guide! He was so very personable and gave us all lots of interesting information in English and Spanish. He did not rush us and was very attentive. He was also an excellent driver!

Ricardo was very informative and entertaining. We had a great time and saw so much we could have never done if we tried to visit sintra on our own. So worth it!

Trip was okay but our guide was running a marathon with no consideration for those not as fast as him. It was very hot, A lot of strenuous uphill walking which we expected but we went so fast there was barely time to stop and take pictures along the way much else catch our breath. He stopped at a few spots and said take pictures but there were many more shots to be taken that were rushed. Then after all the rushing we ended up with extra time at the end for lunch and shopping. Think the guide could have timed the whole thing better and found him a bit arrogant and condescending. Didn’t really learn a lot from the tour. Would have been better off doing the tour on our own at our own pace.would have gotten a lot more out of it. Don’t know what Cabo is… no mention of it…and Cascais was 45 minutes on your own to explore… if you still could…if you’re young and can run a marathon this trip might be for you…make sure you take a gallon of water…otherwise look for another option

At our first stop, Quinta da Regaleira, our guide Jaime ENCOURAGED us to leave non-essential belongings in the van before the climb, which can be strenuous. Shortly afterward, my partner had a medical situation and we were unable to continue. We returned to the base but could not retrieve our belongings because the parked van was locked. I immediately called the Modern Tours office, explained the situation, and asked them to contact Jaime. I planned to wait there until the group returned about an hour later so I could retrieve my belongings. The office specifically told me NOT to wait. I was told they had contacted the guide, that my belongings would be safeguarded, and that I could collect them later that evening in Lisbon. I trusted their assurance and left. When the van returned, my belongings were missing. What made an already upsetting situation much worse was the response from the person in the office. When I told him the company was responsible for failing to safeguard belongings they knew were inside the locked van, he questioned whether I had even left them there and accused me of fabricating the entire story simply to get a refund for the tour. The loss itself was upsetting, but being treated as though I were dishonest after following THEIR guide’s recommendation and THEIR office’s instructions was completely unacceptable. If Modern Tours does not accept responsibility for belongings left in its vehicles, its guides should NEVER encourage passengers to leave valuables in the van or assure customers that those belongings will be safeguarded.

Terrible experience with this company. After my partner could not continue the climb to Regeleira with Jaime at the first stop of our tour, we called the office to let them know our belongings were in the locked van and offered to wait until the tour group returned to base which was going to be an hour later. The person in the office said not to worry that he would personally see to giving me back my belongings and contacted the Jaime the guide to make sure they were safeguarded upon his return to the parked van and we would meet back in Lisbon. But when the van returned back to Lisbon my equipment was mysteriously gone which would have been impossible unless the van was broken into. The tour operator told me that I must have fabricated the story to get a refund and also had the audacity to tell me that I cared more about my equipment than my partner’s health because I initially suggested waiting for the tour to return at the first stop to get my equipment. I’m an avid traveler and have gone to many tours and have had to cancel for one reason or the other and never expected a refund if it was my fault nor did I ask for one here. I simply asked what they prepared to do to make things right when they failed to make sure my belongings were safeguarded. (By the way, the guide ENCOURAGED the small tour group to leave their non essential belongings in the van before the climb which is what I did.) I have never had a situation where the tour operator was responsible for having my belongings STOLEN and then proceed to blame me or accuse me of lying instead of taking responsibility for such gross negligence. It was obvious the tour guide forgot to safeguard my equipment when he returned to the van and then 8 hours later my things were stolen without any possible explanation that made sense. The tour person then started ghosting me on what’s app and by telephone. But then quickly answered the call when my partner called from a different number. It was very strange that a serious business would display such disgusting behavior. He was unprofessional, disrespectful without any class whatsoever in the way he handled this unfortunate situation. Not sure if he is the manager or just an employee that answers the phone but he is a terrible representative of this company. If I can make a prediction they will likely reply to this review by once again not taking responsibility. And they should stop telling their customers to leave their things in the van when they go up the climb. Shady! STAY AWAY from Modern tours of Lisbon.

Selected English tour and was placed in an all Spanish group. Translation was minimum. Shuttle is then pulled over and detained because insurance was not renewed for over an hour.

This was a great experience! Due to an extreme heat wave, the Pena Palace was closed, but the tour operators were quick to come up with an alternative plan, and give us options. We went ahead with the tour and it did not disappoint! Tiago was an amazing storyteller and guide, and his tour of the Quinta de Regaleira grounds was a highlight! Thank you for a wonderful day!!

It is a difficult uphill walk so anyone who is not in good cardio shape may want to rethink. We were good and had a good time.

This was a fantastic tour however one of our group was not able to complete the walk to the Pena Palace. The tour should contain a detailed description of the difficulty accessing the Palace. The rest of the locations were realy good and we enjoyed them. Our tour guide Jamie was fantastic! Very funny and knowledgeable. he made the tour worthwhile :)

This was a very informative trip and gave us so many places to visit. You could tell Hugo really loved the chance to talk about how the Masons planned and built the CM castle. One true negative which was NOT Hugo’s fault. My husband has mobility issues and we didn’t realize how difficult parts of this would be. Hugo tried extremely hard to make it easier but there were some areas that just weren’t easy to access. It would be nice to have a better description of the climbs so that visitors would really understand how difficult this trip would be for the mobility impaired.

1. The tour was very enjoyable as the driver/tour guide (Hugo) was knowledgeable, experienced, and patience. He had to repeat the same things to Englishmen speakers and Portuguese speakers and he showed his patience. 2. TripAdvisor operator (note: not the tour guide or his company) was terrible. As the description of our originally booked tour being very confusing regarding whether admissions to palace and regaleira were not included, we were not notified of this until about 24 hours prior to departure time. Y that time, all entrance tickets were sold out. When I messaged to ask if the tour can purchase admission tickets for us and that we would be disappoint of not. TripAdvisor cancelled our trip without our request to cancel it. That was terrible. 3. We quickly re-book another tour (more expensive one) and it turned out the newly booked tour was fine and enjoyable as reviewed in my first bullet of this review. Finally, I hope TripAdvisor can improve on whether we are supposed to buy tickets ourselves or notify us much earlier. Thank you. Jay

This was a full day excursion and well worth every moment, step and hike! Hugo was attentive to every one of us(8 small group) and made sure the educational information was done in Portuguese, and English. Brilliant guide!

The day is long and there is much walking as the description states, but what a beautiful tour and to have such an excellent guide as Carlos. He is extremely knowledgeable, friendly, patient and enjoyable as a guide. My husband and I loved every moment of the tour. It is a nice balance of guided and time on own without feeling rushed. Enought time to both shop and have lunch. The fact is it slso a small tour ( capacity of 8) is perfect. Sintra is just beautiful and as my husband is a fan of Oak Island he loved going down the Quinta da Regaleira Initiation Well. The views from Pena are beautiful . We happened to time the Christmas markets in Cascais, a lovely seaside town. HIghly recommend the tour and Carlos.

Cabo da Roca and Cascais are so beautiful! Maybe for future trips spend more time in this places. Sintra is really beautiful but full of tourists. Edi was perfect guide with amazing knowlege and great sence od humor!

I joined a small group tour last week and was disappointed with my experience with the guide Édi. His comments and attitude at the start of the tour felt unprofessional and made me uncomfortable. He focused mainly on the other guests, which affected the overall experience. After sharing my honest feedback, his response was also not very courteous. On a positive note, another guide from the company, Lara, was exceptionally kind and professional. I think the tours themselves are good, but I would recommend requesting a different guide. Definitely not Edi as he is extremely unprofessional! What a horrible experience.

Wonderful tour wonderful guide. He was so informative and brought each area alivr with his enthusiasm.

Hugo was the highlight of our visit to Portugal! He was so knowledgeable and informative about the history of Portugal as he was born and raised there. He gave us plenty of time to explore, eat and shop around and we really enjoyed the experience. The itinerary was packed with amazing locations including the charming town of Sintra, Cascais, Quezel Palace, and more. Hugo was the best tour guide ever!

Guide was energetic, informative, and made the trip the highlight of our time in Lisbon. We have been on 4 tours so far and this one was by far the best. Highly recommended

Laura was wonderful! A veritable font of information about Portugal and its history. Very kind and flexible with the itinerary to suit our very active family when we wanted to do some extra hiking. Just a delight!

Thank you very much for your kind support and service ! Everybody was satisfied with the quality of services you kindly ensured for this trip. The guides and drivers were very professional, they were very attentive with our needs, nice and professional. I can tell you form now that we would like to have them on our future groups. Gabriel

Lara made our trip!! What an incredible adventure, well worth it. The palace was stunning and the terrain was so beautiful. Lara educated us in such a fun way. I learned so much and laughed along the way. Thank you for an amazing memory.

The guide was amazing , very nice person , she had patience and she took her time to explain in détails , every aspect of the trip , very sociable . She is also an amazing driver , very safe . We had an incredible with Lara , we look forward to book and having her as a guide AGAIN!

Thank you so much for Lara amazing guide yesterday — I really think the trip was much more enjoyable because of her fantastic explanations of the places, Her helpful advice on what to do and where to go, and of course your great recommendation on where to eat.

This was a great trip thanks to your tour guide, Lara Barbosa. She was funny and informative. She made the tour special for everyone. We had a good mix of history and time to relax. It was wonderful to be able to visit the sites and not have to worry about driving. Learning more about the history made the trip more interesting. I never thought I would see Sintra, Cabo de Roca and Cascais in one day and I'm really glad I did. I high recommend- wonderful time!

Lara was great! She drove, she explained much history, she was pleasant, funny, and provided a warm balance against the chilly weather while we visited Sintra and Cascais.

I had an amazing one-day trip from Lisbon to Sintra, Cabo da Roca, and Cascais, and it was made even more special by our fantastic guide, Lara. She was incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about the history and beauty of these destinations, offering fascinating insights into the sights of Sintra, the stunning views at Cabo da Roca, and the charming coastal town of Cascais. Lara made sure we were comfortable, took great photos, and gave us plenty of time to explore each spot. This tour is a perfect way to experience the region, and I highly recommend it to anyone visiting Lisbon!

Bare minimum effort guide, couldnt be bothered answering questions and most explanations (the few given) were beyond rushed.

Carlos is a fun and charming individual. The travel group size was also the perfect size with other travelers who were very nice.

We had an amazing day with our guide Lara Barbosa :D She provided us with a lot of knowlege about the history of the sites and gave us good recomendations for shopping and eating. She's funny and took care of us very individually. With Lara the trip never got boring ;P Sintra has a lot of nice handmade souvenirs. The Pena Palace is very crowded, but is a very interesting and beautiful building.

Lara was great funny informative and always keeping us up to date and very flexible and nice, if anyone needed help then she was there and easily accessible as well as giving us our own time to explore

It was an incredible tour, the company is well organized in all aspects and we had all the necessary assistance from the guide Lara who was extremely attentive.

I took a tour with guide Lara at the Palácio da Pena, and it was simply amazing! She knows everything about the place and tells the stories in a light and fun way—nothing boring at all. Plus, she has perfect timing to avoid queues and even points out the best spots for photos! The itinerary was very well planned, allowing us to enjoy every detail of the palace and gardens without rushing. It was a super relaxed tour, full of interesting facts and laughter. If you’re going to Sintra and want to make the most of it, ask for Lara! It’s totally worth it!

The tour was a good experience and good opportunity to see others things except Lisboa, Lara was really good and gave to us good vides

I had a marvellous trip out from Lisbon with Modern Tours earlier today. My trip was led by Lara Barbosa and took in the Palace of Quelez, the beautiful town of Sintra, Cabo da Roca and Cascais. The original plan had been to visit the Pena Palace in Sintra. But the recent storms have felled so many trees that it, and many other attractions in the area have been closed for several days. Nonetheless, I had a very good day and thank Lara for her many facts, humour and stories along the way. I would certainly book with the company again.

We had an amazing time on Lara’s tour of Sintra and Cascais! She brought such a fun and energetic vibe to the day while keeping everything informative and engaging. Her knowledge of Pena Palace was impressive, and she shared fascinating historical details that really enhanced the experience. We also loved her unique perspective from Brazil, tying together the histories of both countries in a way we hadn’t heard before. The van was clean and comfortable, making for a smooth ride. Cascais was a great way to end the day, with plenty of free time to explore and enjoy the beautiful coastal views. Highly recommend this tour with Lara!

We had an incredible day exploring Sintra, Cabo da Roca and Cascais, even though the weather was far from ideal. Our guide, Lara, truly went above and beyond to make sure we had the best experience possible. From the moment we set off, she shared fascinating stories about Lisbon's history, culture and traditions. She played us wonderful local music and recommended great restaurants. Even though the part of the itinerary had to be adjusted due to the weather, Lara handled everything seamlessly, ensuring we still got to see amazing places and enjoy the trip. Her passion for Portugal (and Brazil :)) and her kindness made the whole experience unforgettable.

The trip had been amended as Pena Palace was closed due to the weather. However, did the rest of the activities plus a visit to Palacio de Queluz. We were well looked after all day by Lara who kept us entertained and well informed.

I went on a trip with Julia as our guide, and honestly, it couldn’t have been better! She was super friendly, fun, and knew so much cool stuff about all the places we visited. You could tell she really enjoys what she does, and that made the whole experience even more awesome. Her explanations were clear, interesting, and full of fascinating facts that brought the history and culture of the area to life. She was very well-prepared, organized, and attentive to everyone's needs, making sure that each participant felt included and comfortable throughout the tour. Julia also had a great sense of humor and answered all our questions with patience and enthusiasm. It’s clear she loves what she does, and that passion made a big difference. I can honestly say that this was one of the best tours I’ve ever been on. I highly recommend Julia as a guide — she made the trip truly unforgettable.

Had an amazing trip to Sintra and I have to say, Julia made it so much better. She was absolutely fantastic—super friendly, super knowledgeable, and just a joy to be around. The trip was really well-organized, everything ran on time and they even had links to maps with all the must-see spots in Lisbon, Sintra, and Cascais. Even though it was a rainy day, Julia kept the vibe fun and upbeat, and we didn’t miss a beat. Plus, they had umbrellas ready for us! She shared so many interesting facts and made the whole day feel relaxed and enjoyable. Greate service, greate day. Muito obrigada

We had the most amazing day out visiting the most beautiful magical enchanting Sintra, CaboRoca and Cascais. Fantastic journey and amazing views. Our guide Filipe was extraordinary, so knowledgeable and very fun and friendly with it. Thank you Filipe for making it extra special for us. Taylor-Maynards