SINTRA · OCTOBER · AVERAGE HIGH 72.7°F
October takes 7.5°F off Sintra’s afternoons and puts the rain back on the hill. IPMA’s 1991-2020 normals for the month read 72.7°F for the average high and 58.8°F for the average low, with 4.05 inches of precipitation falling across 8.3 days, against September’s 1.41 inches across 3.7. The monuments have not changed their clocks for it: the Park of Pena still opens at 09:00 and still closes at 19:00.
Two days is the unit the month rewards. Parques de Sintra runs eleven parks and monuments, from Pena and the Moorish Castle to the Cabo da Roca lighthouse, and October 15 gives you 11 hours 14 minutes of daylight to move between them, with the sun down at 6:59 p.m. local. Budget by ticket rather than by day: the Park of Pena alone is 12 EUR, park and palace together 20 EUR, the Full Tour 45 EUR, children under 6 free.
THE MONTH AT A GLANCE · SINTRA IN OCTOBER
October is the walking month in Sintra: afternoons at 72.7°F instead of September’s 80.2°F, rain on roughly one day in four, and every gate still on its long-season hours.
AVERAGE HIGH 72.7°F · 8.3 RAIN DAYS · 11 H 14 OF DAYLIGHT ON OCTOBER 15
Go for: the 210 hectares of Pena’s park and the 50 hectares of Monserrate on foot at 72.7°F, plus Villa Sassetti free from 10:00 to 18:00.
Think twice before: planning a coast day around it: 4.05 inches of rain, nearly triple September’s 1.41, and a hilltop that runs colder and mistier than the airport thermometer these normals come from.
Climate: IPMA 1991-2020, station 579 · Hours and prices: Parques de Sintra, read Sept 22, 2026 · full sources at the end
On this page
- Sintra weather in October72.7°F highs, 4.05 inches, 8.3 rain days
- What to wear in OctoberThe 13.9°F gap between dawn and mid-afternoon
- Ticket prices and opening hoursPena at 12, 20 and 45 EUR, and what we could not price
- Things to do in Sintra in OctoberPena, Monserrate, the Moorish Castle, Capuchos
- A two-day plan for SintraTwo days built around a 6:59 p.m. sunset
- October versus September and NovemberHow the three months compare, degree by degree
- Is October a good time to visit Sintra?Our verdict, for park walkers and for beach days
Every figure here comes from one thermometer: IPMA station 579 at Lisboa Gago Coutinho, 103.9 m above sea level and about 20 km from the Serra. It is a real instrument rather than a model grid cell, which is why we use it, but it sits lower and drier than the palaces do. The Sintra hill makes its own cloud and runs several degrees colder and much mistier, and the high ground is wetter still. Read the normals below as the valley’s, then add a layer before you climb.
Sintra weather in October: average highs, lows and rain days
| October measure | Normal, 1991-2020 |
|---|---|
| Average high | 72.7°F (22.6°C) |
| Average low | 58.8°F (14.9°C) |
| Day-night spread | 13.9°F |
| Precipitation | 4.05 in |
| Days with 1 mm (0.04 in) or more | 8.3 |
| Days with 10 mm (0.39 in) or more | 2.8 |
| Daylight on October 15 | 11 h 14 min · 7:45 a.m. to 6:59 p.m. |
IPMA, Portugal’s national weather service, puts October’s average high at 72.7°F and the average low at 58.8°F in its 1991-2020 normals, with 4.05 inches of precipitation over the month. The same series gives September 1.41 inches. So the rain almost triples in four weeks while the afternoon gives up 7.5°F, and that single pair of numbers is the whole character of the month.
Measurable rain falls on 8.3 days, roughly one day in four, and 2.8 of those bring 10 mm (0.39 inch) or more, a real soaking two or three times in the month. Those are IPMA’s thresholds, 1 mm and 10 mm, not the 0.10-inch line that US tables use, so the counts do not swap with an American forecast page. What the monthly figure cannot tell you is how the wet days fall, and we found no hourly breakdown, so treat any October day as capable of carrying an hour of rain.
Between the high and the low sits 13.9°F, and it lands on the two ends of the day you actually use: the 09:00 gate at the Park of Pena and the walk back down after five. A mid layer and a shell cover it. Grip matters as much as warmth, because Pena’s paths are granite and gravel under a closed canopy and 2.8 heavy days a month keep them dark. Our Portugal packing guide handles the rest of the suitcase.
On October 15 the sun rises at 7:45 a.m. and sets at 6:59 p.m. local time, 11 hours 14 minutes apart. Pena’s park takes its last admission at 18:00 and shuts the gate at 19:00, one minute after that sunset. The Cabo da Roca lighthouse closes its courtyard at 17:30, an hour and a half before the sun reaches the Atlantic, which makes the westernmost point of mainland Europe a mid-afternoon stop this month rather than a sunset one. Both light readings are dated to October 15.
How warm is Sintra in October?
72.7°F by mid-afternoon, 58.8°F before dawn, 13.9°F between them. Set against the neighboring months, October’s afternoon runs 7.5°F below September’s 80.2°F and 9.0°F above November’s 63.7°F. It is the last month of the year in this series before the average high drops into the sixties, and the first since spring when a full day of climbing does not happen in summer heat.
Dress for two days inside one. At the 09:30 palace opening the valley is still near its 58.8°F low and the hill above it colder, so a fleece and a packable shell belong in the daypack. By the time you come down from the Moorish Castle the same sky is working on 72.7°F and the fleece is ballast. Sun still counts at this latitude in the open stretches of Monserrate, even when the Serra has spent the morning in cloud.
IPMA’s normal low for the month is 58.8°F, and we found no count of nights at or below freezing in October, so we claim none. We also found no sea-surface series for the coast below the Serra, so no water temperature appears above. If you read one elsewhere, check what it measures: the sea figures in most month tables are averages of daily maxima, a little warmer than a true 24-hour mean. For a beach afternoon, Cascais is the easier pairing than the Sintra coast.
How busy is Sintra in October? Crowds, prices and the demand peak
October falls outside the European school summer, which is a calendar fact rather than a price. We found no occupancy series for Sintra and no monthly room-rate series, so we crown no month cheapest and none expensive. What we can date is the ticket. Parques de Sintra published the Park of Pena at 12 EUR, the Essential visit to park and palace at 20 EUR and the Full Tour at 45 EUR on September 22, 2026, and we saw no separate low-season tariff alongside them.
We could not read a booking window from the operator either, so we set no deadline in weeks. The constraint we can prove is the clock: the palace at Pena stops admitting at 17:30 and the Moorish Castle at 17:30, while Pena’s park gate stays open until 19:00. A late start out of Lisbon costs you the interiors, not the grounds. No train fare or journey time from Lisbon appeared on an operator page we could read, and no bus timetable inside the Serra, so we quote neither (our getting-around guide covers the network).
We could not verify a lodging-tax rate for the municipality, so no percentage and no per-night amount appear above. What the day itself costs is on the price list: 20 EUR at Pena, 12 EUR at the Moorish Castle, 12 EUR at Monserrate, 13 EUR for the Essential visit at the National Palace of Sintra, 11 EUR at the Convent of the Capuchos, before food and transport. Our trip-cost page puts that inside a whole Portugal budget.
One upgrade genuinely changes an October day, and it costs 4.50 EUR: the round-trip transfer between the Pena park entrance and the palace door. That climb is a warm walk in July and a wet one on 8.3 days this month, and skipping it twice returns most of a daylight hour to a day that only has 11 h 14 of them. The 45 EUR Full Tour buys more rooms, not more shelter. Add the transfer at the gate when you buy the 20 EUR ticket.
Things to do in Sintra in October
Walking is what this month adds. The Park of Pena covers 210 hectares behind a stone wall that also encloses the Tapada do Mocho and the Moorish Castle, and Monserrate adds 50 more on the northern slopes of the Serra. Covering either on foot at September’s 80.2°F is work. At 72.7°F it is a morning, and the two together are the reason a Sintra trip in October wants two days rather than one.
Ferdinand II began Pena’s park around 1840 and planted it with species brought from North America, Asia and New Zealand. Monserrate’s gardens hold over 3,000 exotic species, set out after an analysis of the microclimatic zones of the ground: the park opens 09:00 to 19:00, the palace 09:30 to 18:00, 12 EUR for adults. The Moorish Castle runs 09:30 to 18:00 with last admission at 17:30, 12 EUR for adults and 10 EUR for ages 6 to 17 and over 65. The Convent of the Capuchos closes earliest of the group, 17:30, at 11 EUR.
Cloud is the variable that October moves. The World Heritage property covers 946 hectares inside a 3,641-hectare buffer zone, inscribed in 1995, and it sits high enough that the airport thermometer 20 km away cannot see its weather: expect the Serra colder and much mistier than 72.7°F on an afternoon when Lisbon is bright. That works against the Moorish Castle, whose whole value is the view down the ramparts, and for Monserrate, where wet air on north-facing slopes is exactly the climate that planting was chosen for.
Two visits cost nothing: Villa Sassetti, open 10:00 to 18:00, and the gardens of the National Palace of Sintra in the town center. With the free gates closing at 18:00 and the sun not setting until 6:59 p.m. on October 15, the last hour of daylight belongs to the streets, the pastry counters and the palace’s twin chimneys from below.
Sintra in October: a two-day itinerary
Day one goes uphill. Be at the Park of Pena for the 09:00 opening, take the 4.50 EUR transfer up, and be at the palace door when it opens at 09:30 on the 20 EUR Essential ticket. Come down through the 210 hectares on foot by late morning, then walk the ramparts of the Moorish Castle, 12 EUR, well inside its 17:30 last admission. Back in town by four, the National Palace of Sintra stays open until 18:30 at 13 EUR, and its gardens are free.
Day two heads west. Monserrate’s park opens at 09:00 and the palace at 09:30, 12 EUR, and the Convent of the Capuchos at 11 EUR needs to be reached before its 17:30 close. If the afternoon is clear, run on to the Cabo da Roca lighthouse, 09:30 to 17:30, 5 EUR for the Essential visit and 10 EUR to climb the tower. If one of the month’s 2.8 heavy-rain days lands on you, drop the ramparts and the cape and spend the hours indoors at Monserrate and the National Palace instead.
Sintra in October vs September and November
| September | October | November | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average high | 80.2°F | 72.7°F | 63.7°F |
| Average low | 63.3°F | 58.8°F | 52.2°F |
| Precipitation | 1.41 in | 4.05 in | 4.51 in |
| Days with 1 mm or more | 3.7 | 8.3 | 9.3 |
| In short | Dry paths, hot climbs | Comfortable walking, one wet day in four | Winter rain pattern, afternoons in the sixties |
Across the three months the average high falls 16.5°F, from September’s 80.2°F to November’s 63.7°F, and October takes the middle at 72.7°F. Rain does not follow that line evenly: 1.41 inches over 3.7 days in September jump to 4.05 over 8.3 in October, then edge up to 4.51 over 9.3 in November. October’s water is therefore much closer to November’s than to September’s, while its afternoons stay nearer September’s. All four rows come from the same IPMA station and the same 1991-2020 period, and no sea-surface series was available to us.
Shift four weeks earlier and you buy 7.5°F, 4.6 fewer wet days and 2.64 inches less rain, and you pay in heat on a 210-hectare uphill park with no shade above the tree line at the castle. Shift four weeks later and the rain adds only 0.46 inch, while the afternoon average drops another 9.0°F: November’s real penalty is temperature, not water. If the whole trip is still unplanned, our 12-month verdict for Portugal takes the question wider.
Is October a good time to visit Sintra?
Yes if the trip is about the parks. Two hills, 260 hectares of planting between them, several miles of ramparts and paths, all of it at 72.7°F instead of 80.2°F, is the best walking arithmetic of the second half of the year. No if your plan hangs on the coast or on guaranteed views from the Moorish Castle: 8.3 rain days and a hill that generates its own mist will take some of those afternoons away from you.
If that is your plan, go in September. The same station records 1.41 inches over 3.7 days, less than half of October’s wet count, and afternoons at 80.2°F that make the drop down to the beach at the end of a palace day worth the detour. You will climb in more heat and share the gates with more of the summer, but the sky is the part September sells.
No other month puts a 72.7°F afternoon, a Serra green again after the first real rain since spring, and a park gate at Pena that stays open to 19:00, one minute past the October 15 sunset, into the same day.
The last word
Decide which hill gets your clearest morning, Pena’s 210 hectares or Monserrate’s 50, and keep the National Palace in town, open to 18:30, as the roof for whatever the wet days do to an afternoon. One fact we have held back: the whole landscape lies inside the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park, has been protected by Portuguese law since 1994, and the World Heritage property is classified a National Monument. That is the reason the walls, the paths and the 1840s planting are still there to walk in the rain. Add the 4.50 EUR transfer at the gate.
Sources & data for this guide
- October normals, rain-day counts and the 1 mm / 10 mm thresholds · IPMA, 1991-2020, station 579 Lisboa Gago Coutinho, 103.9 m · checked Sep 22, 2026
- September and November normals · same IPMA series, same station, same period · checked Sep 22, 2026
- Sunrise 06:45 UTC and sunset 17:59 UTC on October 15, converted to local time · sunrise-sunset.org · checked Sep 22, 2026
- Opening hours and prices for Pena, the Moorish Castle, Monserrate, the Convent of the Capuchos, the National Palace of Sintra, Villa Sassetti and the Cabo da Roca lighthouse · Parques de Sintra – Monte da Lua, Opening Times and Prices · checked Sep 22, 2026
- 946-hectare property, 3,641-hectare buffer, 1995 inscription, Pena’s 210 hectares, Monserrate’s 50 hectares and 3,000 species, Natural Park and National Monument status · UNESCO World Heritage Centre, file 723 · checked Sep 22, 2026
- We could not read a Lisbon to Sintra train fare or journey time, a bus timetable inside the Serra, a sea-surface temperature series, a lodging-tax rate or an occupancy series from an operator or official page, so none of those figures appear above. Hours and prices change: check the operator when you book.