Pena Palace in November: Weather, Rain Days, Crowds and Daylight Hours

PENA PALACE · SINTRA · NOVEMBER

By November the Sintra hill has its winter habit back. Cloud forms on the ridge, sits in the tree ferns of the park, and lifts for twenty minutes at a time to show a palace painted red and yellow above the plain. The August queue at the gate has gone, and the weather takes its place in the planning.

November at the palace averages 63.7°F by day and 52.2°F by night, with 4.51 inches of rain across 9.3 wet days and 10 hours 06 minutes of daylight on November 15. Those numbers come from IPMA, the national weather service, measured at the nearest official station, and the hill itself runs colder and wetter than any of them. For the town, the tickets and the ride up on any date, our Sintra guide does that work.

On this page

• November weather at Pena Palace63.7°F days and 9.3 rain days
• How cold it gets at nightLows of 52.2°F on the hill
• Crowds, booking and prices in NovemberThe low season, and what we could not price
• Things to do on a wet November dayThe park, the Moorish castle, Regaleira
• A two-day plan around 10 hours of lightThe November itinerary, hour by hour
• November vs October and DecemberHow the three months compare
• Is November a good time to go?Our verdict, for and against

November sits in Portugal’s quiet half of the year, and Sintra behaves accordingly. Where you need the country rather than the month, the 12-month verdict sets November against the other eleven, and our getting-around guide covers the trains and the road up.

Pena Palace weather in November: average highs, lows and rain days

These normals come from IPMA, Portugal’s national weather service, and from one real thermometer: station 579, Lisboa Gago Coutinho, at 103.9 m. Its 1991-2020 November average high is 63.7°F (17.6°C), its average low 52.2°F (11.2°C), with 4.51 inches of rain in the month. That instrument stands 25 km from Sintra and roughly 400 m below the palace, while Pena sits in the cloud the hill makes for itself. Read every figure here as the mild end of the range.

Rain reaches the gauge on 9.3 days in an average November, counting anything from 1 mm (0.04 inch) up, and 3.9 of those days deliver 10 mm (0.39 inch) or more. IPMA counts from a lower threshold than the 0.10 inch used in most US tables, so the two sets of rain-day figures do not swap. In practice that means measurable rain about one day in three, a proper soaking roughly four days in the month, and a good deal of drizzle and hill mist in between that never registers at all.

Between the 63.7°F afternoon and the 52.2°F night lie 11.5°F, a narrow spread that still settles what goes in the bag. One warm layer plus a waterproof shell covers the whole day, and a shell beats an umbrella on an exposed hilltop. Grip matters as much: Sintra’s cobbles and the park’s stone paths hold water for hours after a shower, and the walk up from the village climbs under trees that keep dripping long after the sky clears. Our packing guide has the rest of the list.

On November 15 the sun comes up at 7:18 am and goes down at 5:24 pm local time, which gives 10 hours 06 minutes of daylight (Portugal runs on UTC through November, so those clock times need no conversion). Reach the gates at 2:30 pm and under three hours of light remain, and a misted hill shortens the usable part of that. The first train up, not the third, is what makes a November day at Pena feel long.

How warm is Pena Palace in November?

The month’s two anchor figures are 63.7°F by day and 52.2°F by night, 11.5°F apart. October’s afternoons average 72.7°F and December’s 58.8°F, so November’s warm end already leans toward winter, while its low still runs 4.5°F above December’s 47.7°F. Subtract for altitude before you pack, because the measuring station stands about 400 m below the palace gates.

At 9 am on the ridge that reads as a genuine morning chill: fleece zipped, a hat earning its place on the castle walls. By 2 pm in sun the jacket goes into the bag and a long-sleeve shirt is plenty on the terraces, then the jacket comes straight back out when the cloud rolls through, which on this hill happens without warning.

On freezing nights we have no count to give: IPMA’s published November normals for this station carry no frost-day figure, so we publish none. What the record does say is an average low of 52.2°F, 20°F clear of freezing, with December’s average low dropping only to 47.7°F. Nobody scrapes a windshield in Sintra in November, though the palace interiors and the park’s shaded valleys feel colder than either number suggests.

How busy is Pena Palace in November? Crowds, booking and prices

By the calendar, November is Sintra’s low season: the summer run has ended and the Christmas and New Year weeks have not begun. That is a fact about dates, not about rates. We found no monthly occupancy series and no month-by-month room-rate data for Sintra, so we crown no month the cheapest and quote no percentage.

Lodging in the village and in Lisbon is easier to leave late in November than in July, though we found no lead-time data for Sintra hotels and give no number of weeks. The palace entry is the half to settle early. Check the monument’s own site the week you travel for November opening hours, ticket price, and whether entry runs on timed slots, and build your day around what it lists.

Portuguese municipalities can add a per-night tourist tax to a hotel bill. We could not confirm whether Sintra charges one, or at what rate, so we give no amount, and our trip-cost guide handles the rest of what a week costs.

The one place extra money changes November is the bed. Sleeping in Sintra village rather than commuting from Lisbon hands you the first hour on the hill, before the day tours arrive and before the cloud has lifted, and it removes a round trip from a day that offers 10 hours 06 minutes of light. It also lets you abandon a bad weather day and return the next morning. A Lisbon day trip gets one attempt.

Things to do at Pena Palace in November

Mist is November’s own material up here. The hill manufactures cloud, the towers appear and disappear inside it, and the ferns of the park stay wet from morning to dusk, a version of Pena that a dry August afternoon never puts on. The second gain is space: ridge paths that shuffle in summer can be walked at your own pace, stopping wherever the view opens.

Inside the Parque da Pena the paths run to the Valley of the Lakes, the Chalet of the Countess of Edla and Cruz Alta, the highest point on the hill. Along the same ridge stand the walls of the Castelo dos Mouros, and down in the village sits Quinta da Regaleira with its initiation well. We could not verify November hours or admission for any of them, so no times and no prices appear here; each monument publishes both. Our Sintra guide maps how they connect.

Cruz Alta in summer is a platform in full sun. In November it spends long stretches inside the cloud, and the plain below shows up in gaps of a minute or two. The park’s streams and lake basins run full after a month that brings 4.51 inches at the airport and more on the hill, and the Moorish castle’s exposed walkway is where the 11.5°F day-night spread and the wind both make themselves felt.

Free in November, as in any month: the climb up the road from the village to the gates, the lanes of Sintra’s historic center, and the public viewpoints over the plain. We found no November free-admission days for the palace itself and name none. When one of the month’s 3.9 heavy days settles in, the village cafés and pastry counters are the cheapest shelter on the hill.

Pena Palace in November: a two-day itinerary

Day one starts before the light. With sunrise at 7:18 am, the first train from Lisbon puts you on the hill while the cloud is still lying on it. Take the palace interiors first and the park downhill afterward, then lunch in the village around 1 pm. Give the Castelo dos Mouros the early afternoon with the sun at its highest, and plan to be off the ridge by 5:24 pm, when the sun sets and the hilltop goes dark fast.

Day two belongs to Quinta da Regaleira and the village, both fine under drizzle, plus whichever ridge monument you missed. If the forecast turns, and it does roughly one day in three, run the day under a roof: interiors in the morning, an early train back and an afternoon in Lisbon, where the museums take no notice of hill cloud. Keep the ridge walk for whichever of the two mornings looks brighter.

Pena Palace in November vs October and December

Across the three months the afternoon figure does the heavy lifting: 72.7°F in October, 63.7°F in November, 58.8°F in December, a 9.0°F drop into the month and another 4.9°F out of it. Rain totals move less than the thermometer, with November the wettest of the three at 4.51 inches against October’s 4.05 and December’s 3.94, while December records the most wet days at 9.7. We found no sea-temperature series for this stretch of coast, so we give no water figure, and Pena is an inland hilltop in any case.

Shift four weeks earlier and October hands back 9.0°F of afternoon warmth, one fewer wet day on average at 8.3, and a later sunset, at the cost of company on the ridge: our October edition has that month in full. Shift four weeks later and December costs 4.9°F by day and 4.5°F at night, adds wet days at 9.7, and brings the Christmas weeks into the lodging calendar, while giving back the lowest rain total of the three.

Is November a good time to visit Pena Palace?

Yes for anyone who wants the rooms and terraces without a scheduled queue and who owns a waterproof jacket. No for a first and only day in Portugal locked in months ahead with no flexibility, because 9.3 wet days out of 30 is a real chance of drawing the grey one, and Pena inside flat cloud gives up the views entirely.

If the answer is no, October is the month to move to rather than December: 72.7°F afternoons, 8.3 wet days and the same park, paid for with more people on the same paths. December makes sense only when the trip is built around Lisbon at Christmas and Sintra is the day out.

What November holds among these three is the combination of 63.7°F afternoons, a palace moving in and out of its own cloud, and enough room on the ridge to stand still and look.

The last word

Settle one thing before you book: village bed or Lisbon commute. That choice buys the first hour at the gates and a second attempt if day one comes up grey. One number worth carrying up the hill: November’s 4.51 inches fall across 9.3 days, close to half an inch per wet day, heavier per day than December’s 3.94 inches spread over 9.7. Pack for a downpour and a bright hour in the same afternoon.

Sources & data for this guide

• November normals, 1991-2020 (high 63.7°F, low 52.2°F, 4.51 in) · IPMA, station 579 Lisboa Gago Coutinho, 103.9 m · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Rain-day counts at the 1 mm and 10 mm thresholds (9.3 and 3.9 days) · IPMA, same station and period · checked Sep 24, 2026
• October and December normals used in the comparison · IPMA, same station and period · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Sunrise 07:18 and sunset 17:24 UTC on November 15, 10 h 06 min of daylight, converted to local time · sunrise-sunset.org · checked Sep 24, 2026
• Editorial admission: the station is 25 km from Sintra and about 400 m lower, so the hill runs colder and wetter than these figures; we could not verify Pena’s November hours, ticket price or entry slots, and we found no occupancy, room-rate or lodging-tax data for Sintra, so we quote none.

To plan your stay

• Best Time to Visit Pena Palace: Weather, Rain Days and the Quiet Months
• Pena Palace in October: Weather, Rain Days and How It Compares With September
• Pena Palace in December: Weather, Rain Days and Daylight Hours
• Pena Palace in January: Weather, Rain Days and Winter Crowds

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• Cascais, Portugal: the Town Beaches, Guincho and Where to Stay
• Ericeira, Portugal: the Surf Reserve, the Beaches by Level and Where to Stay
• Lisbon Travel Guide: Neighborhoods, Things to Do, Day Trips and How Many Days