Sintra (Portugal) City Guide | Would you live here?
Vložit
- čas přidán 27. 07. 2024
- Josh and Kalie from ExpatsEverywhere breakdown what life would be like in Sintra, Portugal. It is known to be a fairytale town but why is that and if you live there, will it always feel like that? Let's take a look at things like the weather, housing costs, things to do, tourists, and more. Learn the history of the city and see if this UNESCO World Heritage Site is for you.
* ABOUT US *
Josh and Kalie left the US for a life abroad in 2009 and haven't looked back. They have lived in Spain, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and are currently in Portugal. Yes, they realize they only moved to countries starting with the letter "S" until they spoiled that streak with their move to Portugal. Follow ExpatsEverywhere as we aim to get information to you through expat interviews, city breakdowns, expat life, travel, vlogs, and more.
* D7 VISA FOR PORTUGAL *
We have a course to help DIY the D7 visa for Portugal. The course includes step-by-step videos, checklists, resources, recommendations, discounts, and more. It breaks down the timeline and when and how to do things, plus gives action items to keep you on task but not be overwhelmed. Check it out here: expatseverywhere.thinkific.com
* USEFUL RESOURCES *
Below are a list of other services that we use/recommend for living abroad. If you have any questions about them, feel free to email us. Some links we provide we might make a commission and you might receive a discount or promotional offer. We always try to make a deal with companies we like to create a win/win for us and YOU!
* TRANSFER CASH *
Wise (formally TransferWise) | Banking/Transfer Partner (affiliate link) Get free transfer fees (conditions apply) transferwise.prf.hn/click/cam...
* WATCH YOUR SHOWS *
SurfShark | VPN Partner (affiliate link) Get 40% off subscription at get.surfshark.net/aff_c?offer...
* YOU NEED THESE FOR YOUR D7 *
Need your NIF and/or bank account for Portugal? Use our special link with Bordr to receive €10 off for each. No code needed. The discount will be applied at check out when using this link: www.bordr.io/?via=expatsevery...
* INSURANCE ABROAD
Need insurance? Use Insured Nomads or William Russell!
Insured Nomads: www.insurednomads.com/?ref=ex...
William Russell: refer.william-russell.com/l/E...
*LEARN A LANGUAGE
Ling is a fun way to learn and practice a language. Use our special link: partners.ling-app.com/186564/1...
Want something more intense?
Join the journey with Portuguese with Carla: journey.portuguesewithcarla.c...
Mia Esmeriz Academy
school.learn-portuguese.org/c...
* FORWARD YOUR MAIL *
Wanting to get your mail forwarded to you while abroad? Use Anytime Mailbox! Be sure to use this specific link when you sign up: www.anytimemailbox.com/?affke...
* TAXES *
Are you an expat who wants help with your taxes? Use our link here for Taxes for Expats and get $25 off: www.taxesforexpats.com/ref/239
* GET IN TOUCH *
Questions? E-mail us at info@expatseverywhere.com
Want more? Go to www.expatseverywhere.com
Follow us on Facebook: / expatseverywhere
Follow us on Instagram: / expatseverywhere
Follow us on Twitter: / expert_expat
Check out our Patreon page: / expatseverywhere
#ExpatsEverywhere
* EXTRA HELP *
Looking for an expat consultant? Check out Expat Empire (expatempire.com/) and get 10% off when you tell them that ExpatsEverywhere referred you!
Sintra is like Portugal's "Versailles": Landscape, architecture, history, ... totally worth the visit.
😁 Yep, totally worth a visit. - Josh & Kalie
I’d agree with all of your points. I think for us one of the toughest things about figuring out where to live in Lisbon is that it seems the majority of the international schools are outside of Lisbon in non-walkable areas, and so not the areas we would want to live in. Looking forward to more Lisbon area content from you guys! Thanks
I live were and isn't only the palaces but the countryside that it is totally worth to live no need the car to go out you can walk every were to all the monuments and the countryside .As far the tourists in the winter their is less only in the summer the number increases . And if you know very well the area they can be avoid . And for people than don't want live in the noise town it is ideal it is quiet and you have everything near the monuments and the countryside plenty places since you have 36 scenic trails in the Sintra area to walk or go hiking or going mountain bicycle . If people come over were they need to explore beyond the tourist area . As far the housing situation when I did bought my house 2018 I did managed to buy in the right area near from everything and despite begin near the area is quiet but near from the market and the two train stations and near of the school that it is a excellent school I can't complain very happy were I live .
Hi Isabel, are you Portuguese or a foreigner? - Josh & Kalie
@@ExpatsEverywhere Hello I'm Portuguese but I did lived in UK from 1999 until 2018 and I did start living in Sintra 29 Jully 2019 . I hope that you managed to find a house in Porto my advice go see in different times of the day when you find the right one
I’m visiting Europe for the first time in June. Going to Barcelona and Lisbon for 10 days, your videos have given me a lot of great info. Keep up the great work!!!
The best thing we love in Sintra, is its nature, its amazing forests, the especially closer to the ocean coast side. At times it feels like you have been teleported in an ancient era. The only thing that was annoying, it's a lot of walls, we were walking a lot, before we have found open entrance in the forest...
Great information on Sintra. Very helpful indeed! Thank you very much for the effort in making this video.
Thanks, Macy. We appreciate that. 🙏 - Josh & Kalie
Info packed as usual. You guys deliver again! Much needed, Condensed breakdown of what life would be like in that area. Thank you so much!! Can't wait for the next video!❤
Thanks, Mo! You get it. 💪 😉 - Josh & Kalie
I agree...Sintra is incredible to visit, but like you I wouldn't expat that!! I looked there, Cascais, across the river (Barreiro and Setubal district), but think we may have found a hidden gem...Torres Vedras!
😁 You've got it! We need to see Torres Vedras. - Josh & Kalie
Hi:
Before I found Coimbra thanks to you in July 2021, in fact I was searching in the Sintra area since the beginning of 2018. Sintra is too touristy as you say. I selected Malveira da Serra, 10 Km away from Sintra to the ocean . Through Streeview I discovered an electric fence in Cabo da Roca & safety concerns frightened me 🙄. Definitely I agree with your opinion about Sintra, your channel si really a great help. Looking forward to the artisan brewery fest in 3 weeks in Porto 🤣😂 .Thanks!
Hey, thank you very much for the kind words of support. I just checked our dates and I'm really bummed that we are flying out with my parents to Athens on the 19th! Otherwise, we would have been there at least one of the days. - Josh
@@ExpatsEverywhere You have to make a little vid in Athens! Regards! 😅
We might try to update one that we've already done. 😁
Great points! Sintra is also nearish the big Cascais shopping mall and Cascais amenities, as well as being closer to areas like Ericeira. I can’t imagine living in Portugal (or anywhere else!) without a car, so I can easily imagine living in Sintra away from the tourist center. It’s a milder climate close to Lisbon. I love that whole area!
Thanks for sharing your takes! - Josh & Kalie
Sintra is the perfect place to go to when it's too hot in Lisbon. There are some sites in Sintra that barely get any tourists!
Thanks for sharing this wonderful video n d lovely guide.
So nice of you. Thanks, Yasin. - Josh & Kalie
@@ExpatsEverywhere 🙂
@@ExpatsEverywhere We in Malaysia welcome 1st Syawal today, 2nd May, n celebrate Eid. 🙂
Enjoyed the video!
Thank you. ❤️ - Josh & Kalie
Very informative, as always. I went to Braga last month, because my husband and I had been thinking about retirement there. It’s really nice there!
Yea, we really like Braga as well. Thank you very much for watching. - Josh & Kalie
Sintra is a must visit...which accounts for all the tourists. As for CUF...excellent hospital. I just had surgery at the CUF in Lisbon and what a gorgeous hospital with exceptional care. Aside from the pain, it felt like a spa experience. Highly recommend CUF if you need medical assistance. My doctor is at the CUF in Torres Verdes only surgery was in Lisbon. Plus it works very well with private insurance companies in Portugal.
Sintra is from another world !
😁
Add it to the list of places to check out when I'm living in Portugal! I'm a sucker for the old castles. Already checked out the Castles of Guimaraes and Braganca.
It's a beautiful place for a visit for sure. - Josh & Kalie
Good info on this and your other videos. Thanks. Where does Portugal stand in regards to electrification, I.E. the transition to electric cars? Can one get around the country with ease in an EV or is it a charging desert like the northern plain states in the US?
Thank you. We don't know where they rank, however, we can say that we do see a lot more charging stations and such in the cities than we expected. If the trip is planned, we would think you could get around pretty easily. - Josh & Kalie
Hello friend!!! Greetings from Brazil
Hey back from Porto. - Josh & Kalie
@@ExpatsEverywhere Thank you friend
Sintra is beautiful and worth a few visits but I wouldn’t expat the heavy tourist part of Sintra. Everyone should visit it though!
It's exactly how we feel. Thanks for watching. - Josh & Kalie
Some of the places you should check out in Sintra include:
Azenhas do Mar (village)
Broas (village)
Capela Nossa Senhora da Peninha
Cascatas de Anços
Castelo dos Mouros
Convento dos Capuchos
Jardim da Condessa de Edla
Lagoa Azul
Matinha de Queluz
Moinho de D. Quixote (unique bar/restaurant)
Monserrate (Palace and Botanical Garden)
Palacio da Pena
Palacio de Sintra
Palacio de Queluz
Parque da Liberdade
Parque da Segueteira
Parque Sassetti
Quinta da regaleira
Quinta Nova de Queluz
Bacalhau na Vila (Restaurant)
Lagoa dos Mosqueiros
Quinta Da Ribafria
Quinta Nova da Assunção - Belas
Palácio e Parque Biester
Jardim Botânico de Vale dos Lagos
The Beaches
....
Visit Viseu, Viseu is the city with the highest quality of life in Portugal
Glad to see that you got to see Sinatra. I mentioned it a year or so ago when you first visited Cascais. I’m the guy who has visited there 5 times when my daughter lived in Cascais. Did you get to take the short train ride down the mountain to the small beach town that as a beautiful sandy surfing beach? I can’t recall for sure but I think it was one of those cog trains, maybe a 20 minute ride.
Say sintra because sinatra at the moment is with god !
@@joseph8947 I think the difference is that when a town/area is too touristic you stop having normal local amenities, normal prices and normal everyday life. Things/places get overflown/overcrowded. In a small town like Sintra with its narrow streets that is definitely what you see. In Porto, unless you go to some commercial area, or a particular tourist attraction, almost anyone living there can avoid those overcrowded areas, it can feel normal.
Joseph, we speak to our core audience and they also don't want a car. We state that a lot and we say that we wouldn't live in Sintra, that's not deceiving. What would be deceiving is if we hate Sintra and say that "It's great guys and everyone should consider living there."
As far as Porto goes, after spending nearly a month in Lisbon, Porto feels like a small city or large town. It also feels like home with laidback, kind people. Yes, tourism has ramped up, however, they're really localized in Baixa, Ribeira and Cedofeita to some extent. Ribeira we almost never go to as well as Baixa, but Cedofeita has some good restaurants, cafes, places to chill and it's where friends live.
We're glad that we got to cover it as well. There are several small beach towns. 😅 - Josh & Kalie
@@joseph8947 The town of Sintra is actually small, you are probably confusing the town with the municipality. In the town itself it is not so easy to avoid the tourists and the extra traffic that comes with it, specially during summer. There are of course other towns, cities and villages in Sintra municipality that could be pleasant places to live in, but as far as I understood, that particular comment was about what is basically the town of Sintra. Anyone who has lived or worked in Porto would understand how much different those realities are.
There is the town of Sintra and the municipality of Sintra (concelho) which includes different towns. The town of Sintra and the northern slope of the Serra de Sintra (Mountain of Sintra) is a Unesco World heritage site (SINTRA WORLD HERITAGE
CULTURAL LANDSCAPE). Please do not confuse these two areas, town and municipality. The latter is just an administrative region and the former is a town with a specific historic, architectural and landscape character.
We're not confused by it. 😁 Sintra "City" Guide. Do you think it should be Sintra "Town" Guide? - Josh & Kalie
@@ExpatsEverywhere Well, but there is no Sintra city. There is the town of Sintra and the cities of Queluz and Cacém, as well as other towns. That is why it becomes confusing, because there are many different places in a very big area (3 times larger than Lisbon), and by calling it Sintra (city) we end up not actually knowing what the opinion is about (probably Cacém?).
For us, it's that "City Guide" is more used than "Town Guide". The hang up for us is clearly how we don't talk about geography in the same way as the terms that are used in Portugal. - Josh
@@ExpatsEverywhere Sintra City Guide is correct. It refers to the town or city of Sintra. The municipality is a wider region that comprises more cities.
@@ExpatsEverywhere here is this extract from wikipedia that probably will help to understand the difference between city/town and municipality in Portugal "There are 308 municipalities in Portugal. They are usually named for their biggest city, or at least, their historically most important city or town. However, the municipality is usually much larger than the city or town after which it is named". The municipalities are divided in civil parishes. Sintra municipality has 11 civil parishes, of which Sintra (Santa Maria e São Miguel, São Martinho e São Pedro de Penaferrim) is just one and refers to the area of the town/city of Sintra. Sintra is actually a town, but sometimes is referred to as a city in English- language tourist guides. However, a city doesn't equal to a municipality. As I said, a city or a town is a urban centre whereas a municipality is a region that includes several cities/towns.
A good tip for Sintra. You will be greeted by a lot of Tuk Tuks to take you up to the castles etc. Don't. They are super expensive and just a total rip off. Take an uber... it's only about 4 Eur to the castle.
Good call. We didn't take the tuk tuks - Josh & Kalie
What is a t2 or t3?
T refers to the number of bedrooms. A T0: studio, T1: one bedroom, and so on.
You guys getting a bit weight I assume it's from pasteldenata and the amazing food portion sizes in Portugal:)
Ouch. - Josh & Kalie
Anything else? Wow!
Ya, that was rude and really unnecessary! I wonder who sits behind the computer and what you look like? Josh and Kalie look great and luckily for every rude comment, there are 40-50 positive ones!! Ugh...SM!
@@staceybrown7522 🙏
@@tamaramadelin4831 🙏
Sorry, but this video is confusing to me. Not sure what you're talking about. Is this about the Town of Sintra or about the Municipality of Sintra? As you speak not only about the "enchanted part" but also about the beach part and the east part (whatever that means), I suppose your're referring to the Municipality (but still it may be misleading). In that case, in my humble oppinion, it seems to me that your knowledge of the whole Municipality is way too superficial to make such definitive assumptions over an area that is much wider and complex than what one could assume from this single video. In my opinion you should define better what's the subject (place) of your video and gather more detailed information on the places (at least beyond Porto area) when you talk about them to avoid such superficial (and at some points misleading) analysis. For instance, your comment on the lack of nighlife is a little bit absurd, being it a residential, historic and cultural town. Sintra is part of the Lisbon area and of course when people living in this area go out they all naturally go to the partying places (be it Bairro Alto, Cascais, or whatever). You can't have everything in the same place. It's impossible and not even desirable, as your own negative observations show, like "this place is too touristy", "this place lacks charm", "this place is too full of people in the Bars", "this place lacks nightlife". Metropolis have different areas (and Sintra is part of a Metropolis), people choose to live in the one that better fits their taste/needs and whenever they need something else they go around (if your choice is to live in a calm place, it is just natural to move everytime you want to go partying). As we say in Portuguese "não se pode ter sol na eira e chuva no nabal". The advantages of a place for living is not only about what it offers by itself but also about what is offered close by. And that is why a Metropolis like Lisbon (which includes 16 Municipalities), with so many diverse places availabe for everything you want just around the corner, is so nice. I hope you don't see these observations as negative but as an incentive to improve by conveyin more sound and meaningful information. All the best!
Not sure how you want us to answer this but we're sort of saying the same thing. Many, many foreigners think Sintra is São Martinho but the broader context of Sintra as you know and stated is a municipality and is diverse. We did however, focus on the Santa Maria e São Miguel, São Martinho e São Pedro de Penaferrim area while highlighting there's a beach in the municipality of Sintra.
You said, "for instance, your comment on the lack of nightlife is a little bit absurd, being it a residential, historic and cultural town. Sintra is part of the Lisbon area and of course when people living in this area go out they all naturally go to the partying places (be it Bairro Alto, Cascais, or whatever). Kalie's quote in the video, "Since it’s known to be a fairytale and charming town, there’s no surprise that there aren’t clubs. If you want that then maybe living here isn’t for you or if you just want it every once in a while, you can head to Lisbon for that. Jumping on the train is quite easy or you can always hire a car." So we addressed that. Not sure why that was your reference.
Here's where we can agree though. Is the video superficial? Sure. It's an overview like many videos that we make with this style. They are 6-14 minute videos that can't touch on a huge amount of details and it's to give people an overview. Sorry it didn't meet your expectations. - Josh
@@ExpatsEverywhere I think the "problem" here is that the differences between municipality, "freguesias! and city can be confusing. What is considered the town of Sintra is in fact a small area, with its limits not necessarily coinciding with the limits of one particular "freguesia", while the municipality of Sintra has 2 other cities besides Sintra, that are actually bigger than the town of Sintra. This also explains why it becomes weird to talk about the beach of Sintra since that is located in another village.
Putting it in another way, when we talk about municipalities and "freguesias" that is just the administrative organisation, while when we name a village/town/city we are talking about a very particular geographic location with certain urban limits, with its own particular historical development.
@@ExpatsEverywhere Hey Josh, thank you very much for your reply. I appreciate your videos and that's why I watch them. I understand it's difficult to treat complex issues in such short time and I'm sorry if my comment seemd too harsh but, as ppietra p explained (better than I did), the reality of Sintra is really complex. That's why some observations seemed weird and why I made the suggestion for you to try better defining the subject (place) in each video (at least, in this one, in my view, this is lacking, due to the vastness and diversity of the Municipality of Sintra). Indeed, the meaning (and the weight) of saying "I wouldn't expat the town of Sintra, neither Praia das Maçãs, nor Portela de Sintra" is very different from saying "I wouldn't expat the whole Municipality of Sintra". I hope we can agree on this point as well:)
On the issue of the lack of nightlife, I agree with Kalie's quote and thank you for remembering it. Anyway, mentioning the issue in such a short video still seems a little bit pointless to me as:
1) Excluding some short stays in Airbnb, I guess few people would bear living in a place such as Bairro Alto as it turned out to be nowadays (I suppose you agree with this, from what I heard in a recent Expats Everywhere video);
2) The fact that you're able to easily access the crazy Lisbon nightlife (that attracts people overseas) without being affected by it could, actually, at least in my view, be seen as a big plus, even among clubbing enthusiasts (this is why I tried to highlight the importance of evaluating the quality of a place for living not only by what you find there but also by what you can access (easily) in the surrounding areas).
Whishing you the very best and looking forward for the next videos,
Helder
This is where it was tricky for us to talk about it without unpacking it in an insanely boring way. 😁
Hey Helder, thank you very much for your message.
I would hope only a few people would want to live in Bairro Alto although two conversations with realtors at different companies they said a lot of foreigners have shown interest in buying a residence there, which astonishes us. We're 100% with you on that one. It's wild there.
Hope you have a good week ahead. - Josh
I do plan on visiting Sintra but I wouldn't live near it. It's a bit too touristy for my liking.
Nice, you should certainly visit but we agree about living there. - Josh & Kalie
Sucks they don't even have a McDonalds
www.mcdonalds.pt/restaurantes/sintra-retail-park Bada-Ba-Ba-Baaaahhhhh! - Josh & Kalie
Don't say that there's at least 4 McDonald's 3 burger King KFC and a lot of that crapy food
When in Portugal eat Portuguese food, avoid American chains, they’re all the same and expensive, besides Portuguese food is healthier ....
Nice overview, but the "city" looks really boring. I am glad I did not visit it while I was in Lisbon.
Beautiful place to visit but not the right spot for us to live. - Josh & Kalie