SINTRA · OCTOBER · PENA PALACE
October is the month the Sintra hill stops behaving like the Algarve. The nearest official thermometer, at Lisbon’s airport, averages a high of 72.7°F and a low of 58.8°F across the month, with 4.05 inches of rain. Pena’s terrace stands roughly 400 m above that instrument and 25 km from it, inside the cloud the ridge manufactures for itself, so those readings are the warm, dry end of what the palace will hand you.
The trade is easy to state. Rain multiplies: September records 1.41 inches, October 4.05, nearly three times as much. In exchange, the uphill walk through the park happens at 72.7°F instead of September’s 80.2°F, and the light still holds until just before 7 p.m. in mid-month. Whether that swap suits your date is what the normals below are for.
PENA PALACE · OCTOBER
October gives you Pena at 72.7°F with 11 hours of daylight and charges for it with rain on roughly one day in four, so bring a hood and take the earliest entry slot you can get.
AVG HIGH 72.7°F · 8.3 RAIN DAYS · SUNSET 6:59 P.M. ON OCT 15
Go for: cool walking weather on the park’s climbs, air 7.5°F cooler than September’s, and evenings in Sintra village that start in daylight.
Think twice before: locking a single fixed date. In an average October, 2.8 days record 10 mm (0.39 inch) of rain or more, and the hill is mistier than the airport that measured it.
Normals: IPMA 1991-2020, station 579 Lisboa Gago Coutinho · Daylight: sunrise-sunset.org · full sources at the end
On this page
- Pena Palace weather in OctoberHighs of 72.7°F and 4.05 inches of rain
- How cold it gets at nightLows of 58.8°F, and what to carry
- Crowds, tickets and tourist tax in OctoberWhat we verified and what we did not
- Things to do at Pena when it rainsThe park, the ramparts and the village
- A two-day Sintra planHour by hour, around a 6:59 p.m. sunset
- October vs September and NovemberHow the three months compare
- Is October a good month for Pena Palace?Our verdict, and who should shift dates
Everything here is dated to the month. The palace itself, its rooms and the walk up from the station belong to the Pena Palace guide, the rest of the hilltop to our Sintra page, and the twelve-month argument to the best time to visit Portugal.
Pena Palace weather in October: average highs, lows and rain days
| October normal | Value |
|---|---|
| Average high | 72.7°F (22.6°C) |
| Average low | 58.8°F (14.9°C) |
| Total 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 | 11h 14m |
Every figure here comes from one instrument: IPMA, the Portuguese national weather service, 1991-2020 normals, station 579 at Lisboa Gago Coutinho, altitude 103.9 m. That is a real thermometer rather than a model grid cell, and the distinction matters because the two disagree by degrees. It also sits 25 km southeast of Sintra and about 400 m lower than Pena’s terrace. Read 72.7°F and 4.05 inches as the coastal, low-altitude version of October, then subtract warmth and add water for the hill.
Measurable rain falls on 8.3 days in an average October, close to one day in four, and 2.8 of those days deliver 10 mm (0.39 inch) or more. Both counts use IPMA’s thresholds of 1 mm and 10 mm, not the 0.10-inch line American tables draw, so they do not swap with the rain-day number on a US forecast page. The flip side is the part travelers forget: about 22 days of the month record nothing at all.
Between the average low and the average high sits a gap of 13.9°F, and the hill adds wind on top of it. A waterproof shell with a hood beats an umbrella on terraces this exposed, one warm layer handles the walk back down after sunset, and shoes with grip earn their place on cobbles holding four inches of monthly rain. Our Portugal packing guide carries the full list.
On October 15 the day runs 11 hours 14 minutes. Sunrise comes at 7:45 a.m. and sunset at 6:59 p.m. local time, converted from 06:45 and 17:59 UTC with Portugal on UTC+1 in mid-month. That leaves the terraces lit through a late afternoon and Sintra village still bright when you come down for dinner. We did not verify the date the clocks go back, so plan the last week of the month an hour earlier.
How warm is Pena Palace in October? Highs of 72.7°F and lows of 58.8°F
Days average 72.7°F, nights 58.8°F, a spread of 13.9°F. September swings wider, 16.9°F between its 80.2°F high and its 63.3°F low. November swings narrower, 11.5°F between 63.7°F and 52.2°F. October’s middle position is exactly why it packs awkwardly: the morning belongs to autumn and a sunny two o’clock on the terrace still belongs to summer.
In practice that means long sleeves and a light jacket for an 8 a.m. coffee in the village, then a short-sleeved hour on the ramparts once the sun clears the trees. Carry the layer rather than wear it, and use a daypack instead of a tote, because you will be holding a ticket, a phone and a hood at the same time somewhere on the climb.
IPMA’s October normals we read carry no frost-day count, and with lows averaging 58.8°F at the station, ice is not this month’s business. Damp is. We also found no sea-surface series for the coast below Sintra, so we give no water temperature at all. Where such numbers do get quoted, they are usually averages of daily maxima and run a little warmer than a true 24-hour mean; if swimming is the plan, ask that question down at Cascais.
How busy is Pena Palace in October? Crowds, prices and the demand peak
October falls on the far side of the northern summer holidays, and Sintra works all year as Lisbon’s standard day out. Past that calendar fact we stay quiet: we found no monthly visitor series for Pena and no monthly room-rate series for Sintra, so we crown no month the busiest and no month the cheapest. A dry Saturday in October still fills the village lanes and the ticket line.
Buy from Parques de Sintra before you travel and take the earliest entry time offered. We could not verify October opening hours, the admission price or how quickly slots go, so we quote no figure for any of the three. What does not need verifying is the sequence: fix the Sintra date first, anchor the morning on Pena, and let the rest of the day float behind it.
We could not verify whether Sintra levies a per-night tourist tax in 2026, or at what rate, so we give no percentage and no euro amount. Ask the property to state every per-night charge at the time of booking, and treat it as a line item rather than a surprise at checkout. What a week in Portugal costs handles the wider budget.
The upgrade that genuinely changes October is the bed. Sleeping in Sintra rather than commuting from Lisbon buys both ends of a short day: you reach the gates before the first trains unload, and you are still on the hill when the 6:59 p.m. sunset does its work. Where to stay in Portugal lays out the alternative.
Things to do at Pena Palace in October
The climb is the thing October improves. Walking up through Pena Park happens at 72.7°F instead of September’s 80.2°F, a difference of 7.5°F that you feel on every set of steps. The month’s 4.05 inches also fill the stream beds and darken the ferns, so the wooded half of the estate looks nothing like it does at the end of a dry August.
Name the stops and the day builds itself: Pena’s terraces first, then the park below them, with Cruz Alta at its high point, the Valley of the Lakes and the Chalet of the Countess of Edla. The Castelo dos Mouros ramparts sit on the next crest, Quinta da Regaleira and the National Palace down in the village. We could not verify the park’s area, its path lengths or its October hours, so we quote none of them; Parques de Sintra publishes all three.
The stone does not move with the season, the air does. Going from September’s 3.7 wet days to October’s 8.3 is what turns a stroll along the ramparts into a walk with the hood up, and it is what puts cloud between Cruz Alta and the view on the wrong morning. Give the viewpoints two attempts rather than one if your stay allows it.
Free in October, as far as we could verify: nothing behind Pena’s gates. The village lanes cost nothing, the roadside viewpoints on the way up cost nothing, and a walk through the woods outside the paying estate costs nothing. We found no announcement of free-admission days for this month, so we promise none.
Pena Palace in October: a two-day itinerary
Day one runs on the light. Sunrise at 7:45 a.m. means breakfast in the dark end of the morning and the gates as your first appointment. Pena’s interiors and terraces before the middle of the day, the park and Cruz Alta after, lunch late in the village, the Moorish castle ramparts mid-afternoon while the sun is still high enough to show the coast. Be back on a terrace or a village street for the 6:59 p.m. sunset.
Day two takes the village: the National Palace kitchens, Quinta da Regaleira’s gardens and wells, the shops on the way back to the station. If the sky turns, and 2.8 days a month arrive with 10 mm or more, invert the order and spend the wet hours inside palace rooms, then keep the park in reserve for the clearing. Getting around Portugal covers the train back to Lisbon.
Pena Palace in October vs September and November
| Normal | 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 (0.04 in) or more | 3.7 | 8.3 | 9.3 |
Four weeks earlier, the air is 7.5°F warmer by day and the month collects 1.41 inches on 3.7 wet days, a quarter of what October gets on less than half the wet days. Four weeks later, highs fall another 9.0°F to 63.7°F, rain days climb to 9.3, and the total reaches 4.51 inches. October is the pivot between a dry hill and a wet one, and it leans toward the wet side more than its reputation suggests.
Shift to September and you gain dry ground and warmer evenings, and you lose the cool climb and the mist that makes the towers look the way they look in photographs. Shift to November and you gain quieter terraces, then spend the day at 63.7°F with rain on nearly one day in three and the light gone before dinner. Our September page makes the earlier case in full.
Is October a good time to visit Pena Palace?
Yes for walkers, photographers and anyone whose plan involves climbing: 72.7°F with a hood in the bag beats 80.2°F with none. No for a traveler with exactly one fixed day, no flexibility and a low tolerance for weather, because 8.3 wet days out of 31 is a real chance of losing the view you came for.
If that describes your trip, move to September rather than November. September holds 1.41 inches across 3.7 days and keeps highs at 80.2°F, which is the driest of the three months by a wide margin. November takes rain days to 9.3 and highs down to 63.7°F, and the shorter afternoon compresses the hill into a single visit.
What no other month in this trio offers is the combination itself: summer-length terraces at autumn temperatures, with mist that arrives and clears inside the same morning.
The last word
Give Sintra two dates rather than one. With rain on 8.3 days of the month and roughly 22 dry ones, a second morning on the hill is the difference between seeing Cruz Alta and reading about it, and it costs one extra night in the village. One last piece of arithmetic to carry up: the thermometer behind every number here sits at 103.9 m at an airport 25 km away, and Pena’s terrace stands about 400 m above it. Dress for the higher one.
Sources & data for this guide
- October normals (high 72.7°F, low 58.8°F, 4.05 in) · IPMA, climatological normals 1991-2020, station 579 Lisboa Gago Coutinho, altitude 103.9 m · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Rain-day counts (8.3 days at 1 mm or more, 2.8 days at 10 mm or more) · same IPMA normals · thresholds are IPMA’s, not the 0.10-inch threshold used in US tables · checked Sep 24, 2026
- September and November normals used in the comparison · same IPMA station and period · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Daylight, sunrise and sunset for October 15 (11h 14m; 06:45 and 17:59 UTC) · sunrise-sunset.org, converted to local time at UTC+1 · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Editorial caveat: the station is 25 km from Sintra and about 400 m lower than Pena’s terrace, so it reads warmer, drier and less misty than the palace. We found no thermometer on the Sintra hill itself.
- We could not verify Pena’s October hours, ticket prices, visitor numbers or a Sintra tourist-tax rate, so none appears above · check Parques de Sintra before you book.