Sintra Private Personalized Half-day Experience

The driver was coughing the entire time. He should not have been driving people around if he was sick. He also talked way too much. And he could not accompany us inside of Sintra. So we basically laid a lot of money for a tour guide and just got a sick driver.

Although this did not allow us to see the inside of the palace, it was great overall. Our guide took us to several very interesting points and allowed us to explore on our on.

It’s a self guided tour. The driver will share information on the history and points of interest at each stop.

Informative elegant driver with historical and local facts. Excellent driver, which was a relief with all the cliff switchback roads!

Excellent. Our Driver was informed, friendly & polite. Very considerate. On time. He was always where he said he would be. We liked him a lot.

Nano was an outstanding tour guide. He was happy to work with us and tailor the experience to our wishes. He was also knowledgeable and passionate about his home town. 5 star Tip. Ask about the pillow pastry

Cannot get into the castle as advertised. Strenuous walking and climbing. Most of tour was cascais and coastline

Great day with Tiago! He was very knowledgeable and shared a lot of history of Lisbon and the surrounding area. Would highly recommend!

My wife and I had a wonderful half-day tour with our extremely friendly and knowledgeable guide, Hugo. We'd highly recommend this tour for those who do not have a full day to spend in Sintra, but would like to see as much as possible in a short period of time. Hugo is a fantastic guide and his English is flawless.

Sintra is a beautiful and special place, but Diego was able to navigate efficiently through heavy traffic, and was able to give us a first rate tour in a limited amount of time we had available to explore. With his experience he was able to give us a fantastic tour of Sintra and Cascais that we would not otherwise been possible for us.

Description of this tour was not clear and therefore some expected spots were not experienced as we expected.

The half-day Sinatra tour with Tiago was incredible. He was extremely accommodating, pick us up at our Airbnb, and transported us to Sinatra, stopping enroute so that we could get shuttle tickets for the trip into Peña Palace. His knowledge of Lisbon history was impressive, and we thoroughly enjoyed our time with him!

Our driver, Luis, was amazing. He was courtesy and caring about our interests. He shared wonderful information about life and history in the region. Provided great recommendations for restaurants and places to go and time to spend at each tourist site. Wonderful time!

Our guide Rui was fantastic! Very informative and asked what we wanted to see and do. Would recommend.

The driver was wonderful (5 stars) but: 1) this should NOT be advertised as a tour highlighting PENA Palace. You get nowhere near it. Barely got a photo through trees from half mile away a long way up the hill. You do not get to tour the grounds outside the palace on this tour. You do get to take a photo of a pond through an iron gate. Wow! The photo shown by Viator is not what you get. Very deceptive advertising. 2) Sintra was nice but a bit over-rated. Don’t go in summer, you may never get there. If you like crowds, go there. 3) I would recommend the tour that includes Sintra and Monserrat Palace and gardens. It was wonderful. 4) Pena Palace requires ticket reservations (not included in this tour) and takes several hours. Don’t plan to spend time in Sintra afterwards. You will be exhausted.

Paolo was an amazing guide! We truly enjoyed not just the tour, but our conversations with him. He told us much about the history of this country and the sites we visited. He also flexed the plan for the day once he got to know us a bit better and knew what we’d enjoy. I’d absolutely recommend him to anyone!!!

Nuno was awesome! He was a very insightful, diligent, and courteous driver. Nuno provided us with facts from Lisbon to Sintra and back which we loved as a curious group. It was so nice having a van to take us to the top of the steep hills and wait for us to explore the Palace. However, this is marketed as a Half Day Tour which it was not. If you are doing a half day do not think that you will get to all the items on the schedule the tour provides it is misleading. You will only get to go to the Pena Palace with this amount of time. It takes a long time to get through Sintra due to traffic therefore almost half of your 'Half Day Tour' is spent driving. Just as a heads up, this is more of a car service than an actual tour.

My husband and I were very disappoited. The tour was to include the Pena Palace and gardens. The guide told us he knew nothing about this and that Pena palace was booked for the morning. My understanding was that the viator guide was to take care of the tickets. The excursion cost close to 300.00. We visited another palace and Sintra. I called viator to complain and someone was suppose to get back to me. I have heard nothing back. This is very poor practice. I believe we should get some of our money back

We made the most of our last day in the Lisbon area with a last minute, late-day half-day tour. It turned out perfect thanks to our guide and driver Carlos, who is very professional, knowledgeable, affable and accommodating! Thanks Carlos! Cinco estrellas!

There was not enough time to visit the Pela palace as the traffic is really heavy in Sintra. Sat in traffic for a long time

Our guide Daniel arrived right on time in a very clean and comfortable van. Daniel was very fluent in English, and he was a wealth of knowledge about Portugal. We extended our trip from 4 hours to the whole day, which was well worth the additional cost. A real bonus to us was all the suggestions for what to do on the remainder of our trip in Portugal. An even bigger bonus was the fact that Daniel help coordinate the recovery of a lost cell phone from an Uber driver who didn't speak any English. We all commented on what a nice and personable man he was. Highly recommended.

Excellent service from Daniel, we were picked up on time but he arrived early, knowledgeable about the area, made sure I bought the correct tickets. After the palace he showed us to a lovely Port shop for a class with drinks before dropping us at a restaurant where made sure we were able to get a table before leaving us. 10 out of 10 would recommend

Our driver was fabulous and very flexible with our itinerary. The vehicle was new and very clean. Highly recommend.

What a great way to see Sintra in half a day with a very knowledgeable guide…We were picked up on time in a nice clean car….very enjoyable spending our time with Andre who spoke English very well….would recommend this half day tour.

Guide, Victor, was wonderful. Car was very comfortable. We saw the highlights of Sintra and had a great time.

It was merely "an uber ride to and from Sintra". There was no tour. We were merely dropped off and picked up. We couldn't even get tickets to Pena Castle. You had to buy separately in advance. Viator totally misrepresented the description of this option. btw...Sintra is nice and worth seeing.

We had a terrific tour guide, Rui, who catered to our needs for a panoramic tour perfectly. He was very knowledgeable about history and shared a great deal with us. It made for a great day that was well paced.

The two castles were great and Sintra town was also worth seeing. The guide was very knowledgeable and patient.

We had a fantastic time. Victor Ribiero wad our driver/ tour guide and he was delightful. He was full of information and gave us a great tour. I highly recommend this tour and please ask for Victor- he was very enjoyable and informative.

Sintra is a beautiful and magical place. We loved it. But the best part of our trip was our wonderful guide, Diogo Silva. He is a rock star! So knowledgeable and helpful and lots of fun!!!!

Nice to be picked up at our hotel for an extra fee. Our driver came from Lisbon, so this made sense. The drive was nice to Ericeira and then onto the Pena Palace. Unfortunately, our time at the palace seemed rushed allowing just an hour visit. I wasn't feeling well, so it didn't matter much to me. My wife would have liked to have stayed longer. Our driver was kind and considerate. Even stopping at a Pharma so I could buy some meds.

Memorable Half day trip to Sintra with our driver Diego. He was on time & filled up the excess time at start by taking us to the Old Town for a pastry stop & showing us the beach side suburb of Cascais. He was an excellent driver and very charming.

We wanted to visit Sintra without spending an entire day on a bus with strangers. Our driver, André, was an absolute delight. He was prompt, knowledgeable about local history, and provided personalized suggestions about how to structure our time in Sintra.

The gentleman was very well dressed and full of information. He wanted to know what we wanted to do--we thought the tour was planned. We spent over 2.5 hours of the 4 in the car. This tour needs to be more specific on what your going to see.

Tour was great. Hugo was nice and knowledgeable. The car and ride were very comfortable. It was great to be able to customize our experience as we wished throughout the day

The trip was amazing! Our guide Diego Souza was very knowledgeable and was able to show us a lot in very a relatively short time. He was very kind and the fact that he speaks Spanish was a plus!

Our guide was wonderful and gave us a tour of Sintra that exceeded our expectations. He was so knowledgeable and thoughtful. We had a great time and highly recommend this tour!

This half day tour packs in a lot of sights. Really enjoyed the beautiful city of of Sintra, Caiscais and seeing the westernmost point of Portugal. If you are looking to get into all the castles, you'll need to plan for a longer tour than this one but for us, this was a great way to cover a lot of ground quickly and without the stress of having to figure out the stops ourselves.

We had a lovely afternoon and our host Paulo was very welcoming, friendly and knowledgable. The tour did include much more driving than we had originally anticipated but this was okay, as the vehicle was very comfortable and cool and we got to see Sintra where we stopped for 1 hour to visit inside the palace. Then we got to see Cascais and our highlight was the most westerly point in Europe, it was a beautiful sight. I think knowing what I know now, if we had the time doing this trip in the full day would be much better and less jam packed however I had time constraints with my group so we still managed to fit a lot, see a lot and grab a lot of photos in a short space of time. I also now know if I go back to Lisbon which I will, what areas I would like to go to, stay in etc so we got a very good insight into the neighbouring regions as well. But overall, feel great value for money.

Our driver/guide (Nuno) was FANTASTIC!!! Professional, on-time, knowledgeable…he knew how to navigate the crowds/lines and he even helped us get tickets to the various sites. Our tour vehicle (a Mercedes van) looked brand new. We will definitely book through Viator in the future!

You could just Uber to Sintra. This package is expensive and they do not book any sights. We rushed to book once in the car and Peña Palace was sold out. What exactly is the product here? The driver himself was great but terrible communication by Viator ruined the trip.

We couldn’t have made the trip to Sintra without Hugo. We only had time for a half day visit, so we booked a four hour private transport excursion. We had no idea how crowded and challenging it would be to visit Pena Palace — we didn’t know we had to book tours in advance. Hugo had great recommendations—first he helped us book same day tickets for Pena Palace at a kiosk with no line, and he recommended we visit the Palace of Queluz first, while we waited for our timed entry to Pena Palace. Queluz wasn’t even on our radar—it was FANTASTIC. We’re so glad we didn’t miss it—it wasn’t crowded at all, and the audio guide app was excellent. So after our amazing visit to Queluz, Hugo drove us to Pena Palace. What a pain in the butt to get there!!! It was so nice to have a knowledgeable driver—Hugo managed the timing for us, told us where to go for the tram, and how we could reach him when we were done with the tour. It was a madhouse! But with tips from Hugo, it all went surprisingly smoothly. Pena Palace is a MUST SEE attraction if you’re staying anywhere near Lisbon. And, if you need to schedule your visit for a half day, Hugo is the best person to help you do it.

A very relaxing, beautiful and informative tour. I highly recommend the private tour for people who want a more personalized and efficient tour. You’re able to see all the important sites but without the waiting times and lines of large group tours. Carlos our driver was amazing & had so much great information to share about the area and history.

Our guide Andre was wonderful and very knowledgeable. He shared many insightful stories about the places we visited. He adapted to our scheduled visits to the castles and ensured we made the most of our time in Sintra and Cascais. He had great recommendations for breakfast and lunch, and shared some more about places to visit and where to eat in Lisbon too. I don't think we would have seen so much or had such delicious food in a day without him. Overall a wonderful experience. Well worth the money.

Had a wonderful but short day in Lisbon and Sintra. We made the best of 4 Hours by making our way out of Lisbon to Sintra where we enjoyed the palace and the beautiful scenery. Then a drive to the western most point of Europe and along the coast with stops to take photos. A perfect day.

I have been using Gold Compass for the second time but my friends were blown away with the beautiful sightseeing and the service of our Chauffeur Rui. My personal experience says, ‘AChauffeurs’ is an excellent Portugal Chauffeur service provider and no other service providers can match them. We praise the kind of chauffeur service they offer. Rui was not only very polite, but very friendly and what impressed us his knowledge and guidance for the sightseeing so that we can see as many as beautiful museums and other worthy sights. Excellent service provided by AChauffeurs. They respond to my queries very promptly from the office. We found the car very comfortable and spotlessly clean. Rui in his clean uniform welcomed us everything with his very warm wide smile. I will use Gold Compass as an when I am in Portugal. I also will recommend the company to my friends. Thank you very much for making our Lisbon Trip very memorable. Rui we really enjoyed your company and we appreciate your gestures and services.

Nuno our driver was fantastic. Brought 4 adults and two kids (in car seats) to the Peña castle. He was so knowledgeable about the area and made the entire process smooth. Would highly recommend.

Sintra was beautiful and quaint. There were many shops and cafes to relax. The entire tour was informative with lots of time for taking photos. Our driver, Hugo, did an awesome tour with many opportunities to stop and see the sights.

This was a great tour! Our guide was very professional and helpful! Made the best out of our very short time. I just wished that I had saved his info. There’s nothing that I can find on the app to recommend him to my friend who is now in Lisbon and hoping to do the same tour.