SINTRA, PORTUGAL · JULY · 1991-2020 NORMALS
The Sintra hill spends much of the year manufacturing its own weather. In July it mostly stops. The official 1991-2020 normals for the area put the average high at 82.9°F (28.3°C) and the month’s total rainfall at 0.11 inches, close to nothing, and on July 15 the sun stays up for 14 hours and 39 minutes. Palaces that fight mist in March stand in clear air, and the line for Pena’s terrace stands in it too.
What the month takes away is the cool and the quiet. Nights average 64.4°F (18.0°C), the climb up from the town is done in full sun, and every gate in the Serra shuts long before the light does. Pena’s palace stops admitting at 5:30 p.m., on an evening that stays bright until 9:02.
THE MONTH AT A GLANCE · SINTRA · JULY
July is the driest and brightest of Sintra’s three summer months, and the Serra’s own cloud keeps the hill several degrees below the 82.9°F measured down on the coastal plain.
AVG HIGH 82.9°F · 0.4 RAIN DAYS · 14H39 OF DAYLIGHT ON JULY 15
Go for: sunset at 9:02 p.m. local on July 15, 0.4 wet days in an average July, and park gates open to 19:00 at both Pena and Monserrate.
Think twice before: planning a late-afternoon palace. Pena’s palace and the Moorish Castle both stop admitting at 17:30, three and a half hours before the sun goes down.
Climate: IPMA station 579 · Hours and prices: Parques de Sintra, read Sep 22, 2026 · full sources at the end
On this page
- Sintra weather in July82.9°F highs, 0.11 in of rain, 0.4 wet days
- Day and night temperatures in July82.9°F by day, 64.4°F before dawn
- Crowds, ticket prices and opening hours12 to 45 EUR at Pena, and the 17:30 cutoff
- Things to do in Sintra in JulyPena, Monserrate, Capuchos, Cabo da Roca
- A two-day plan for SintraTwo days timed to a 9:02 p.m. sunset
- Sintra in July vs June and AugustHow the three months compare, degree by degree
- Is July a good time to visit Sintra?Yes for early risers, no for empty terraces
Sintra’s palaces stand inside a UNESCO cultural landscape inscribed in 1995, and eleven parks and monuments in and around the town answer to one operator, Parques de Sintra. Every climate figure here is measured about 20 km away at Lisbon’s airport, the nearest official station, and the hill itself runs colder and mistier than that reading. The town in every other month, and how it connects to Lisbon, sits on our Sintra guide.
Sintra weather in July: average highs, lows and rain days
| Measure | July normal |
|---|---|
| Average high | 82.9°F (28.3°C) |
| Average low | 64.4°F (18.0°C) |
| Precipitation | 0.11 in for the month |
| Days at 1 mm (0.04 in) or more | 0.4 |
| Days at 10 mm (0.39 in) or more | 0.1 |
| Daylight on July 15 | 14 hours 39 minutes |
| Sunrise / sunset, July 15 | 6:22 a.m. / 9:02 p.m. local |
These numbers come from IPMA, Portugal’s national weather service, and specifically from its 1991-2020 normals for station 579, Lisboa Gago Coutinho: a real thermometer at 103.9 meters, not a model grid cell. The station sits some 20 km from Sintra and far lower. Read the 82.9°F high as the coastal plain’s figure. The Serra manufactures its own cloud and sits several degrees colder and much mistier, and higher ground anywhere in this landscape is colder and wetter still.
IPMA counts 0.4 days in an average July reaching 1 mm (0.04 inch), two wet days across five Julys, and 0.1 day reaching 10 mm (0.39 inch), so a genuine soaking turns up in roughly one July out of ten. Those are the national service’s own thresholds, not the 0.10-inch bar American tables use, so the counts do not swap cleanly with the rain-day number on a US forecast page.
Between the 82.9°F afternoon and the 64.4°F night there are 18.5 degrees, and the hill widens that gap rather than closing it. A long sleeve belongs in the daypack for the upper town after dark, along with more water than a city day needs. Our Portugal packing list handles the rest of the bag.
On July 15 the sun rises at 6:22 a.m. and sets at 9:02 p.m. in local summer time, 14 hours and 39 minutes apart. Very little of that late light can be spent indoors. Pena’s park takes its last admission at 18:00 and the palace at 17:30, Monserrate’s palace closes at 18:00, the Convent of the Capuchos at 17:30. The final three hours of daylight belong to the streets, dinner and the free gardens.
How warm is Sintra in July?
The 82.9°F high and the 64.4°F low are means, not ceilings: they describe a typical day, and the record behind them holds hotter ones. The 18.5-degree spread between them is the figure to plan around, because the Serra adds its own cooling and its own fog on top of it, often within a twenty-minute walk.
Before ten in the morning a shirt and a light layer are enough, especially in Monserrate’s park on the northern slopes. From about noon the plain reads like high summer, and the shade inside Pena’s 210 hectares of wooded park becomes the reason to be there. Hat, water, and the 4.50 EUR round-trip transfer between the Pena park entrance and the palace door if the uphill in full sun holds no appeal.
Frost never enters a Sintra July: the mean low is 64.4°F and the IPMA normals we read carry no frost count for the month. One gap we should name: we found no sea-surface temperature for this stretch of coast, so we give no water reading, and the swim question belongs down the hill with Cascais and Ericeira.
How busy is Sintra in July? Crowds, ticket prices and opening hours
We found no occupancy series and no monthly room-rate series for Sintra, so we crown no month expensive and rank no month cheap. What we can quote is fixed. The price list Parques de Sintra published on September 22, 2026 shows one tier per site and no summer rate: Pena’s park alone at 12 EUR, park and palace together at 20 EUR, the Full Tour at 45 EUR, children under 6 free.
We could not verify a timed-entry capacity or a booking lead time for Pena, so we quote no number of weeks in advance. The constraint we can date is the clock. Pena’s palace and the Moorish Castle both take their last admission at 17:30, Capuchos closes at 17:30, and the National Palace of Sintra in the town center closes at 18:30. Arrive in Sintra after five in the afternoon and you have bought an evening in the streets, whatever the light suggests.
On lodging we came up empty as well. We could not verify a tourist-tax rate for the municipality, so we give no percentage. The same applies to getting here: our sources carried no Lisbon-to-Sintra train fare, no journey time we could confirm from an operator page, and no bus timetable inside the Serra. Price that leg with our transport guide or the car guide.
Paying 4.50 EUR for the round-trip transfer inside the Park of Pena changes a July afternoon more than any other spend, since it carries you between the entrance and the palace door instead of walking that climb at two o’clock. Above it, the 45 EUR Full Tour is the top of three tiers, while the 20 EUR Essential already covers the park and the palace that most visitors come for.
Things to do in Sintra in July: Pena, Monserrate and Cabo da Roca
Both Pena’s and Monserrate’s parks stay open to 19:00, and on July 15 the sun sets two full hours after that. No other season here hands over a garden hour that late. The reverse is also true: from 18:30 onward every interior in the Serra is locked, so rooms belong to the morning and trees to the afternoon.
Pena’s park covers 210 hectares behind a stone wall, taking in the Tapada do Mocho and the Moorish Castle, planted from about 1840 by Ferdinand II with species brought from North America, Asia and New Zealand. Monserrate covers 50 hectares on the northern slopes, with over 3,000 exotic species laid out according to the microclimatic zones of the ground, 12 EUR for adults. The Moorish Castle is 12 EUR, or 10 EUR from 6 to 17 and over 65. Capuchos is 11 EUR, the National Palace of Sintra 13 EUR.
A garden’s planting does not shift with the calendar, the air does, and that gap is what makes the season. The plain reads 82.9°F while the hill sits several degrees under it beneath its own cloud, and that is why a north-slope walk at Monserrate can feel like another trip entirely an hour after Pena’s terrace. Cabo da Roca offers no shade at all: the westernmost point of mainland Europe, courtyard and interpretation center open 09:30 to 17:30, 5 EUR for the Essential visit and 10 EUR to climb the tower.
Free in July as in any month: Villa Sassetti, open 10:00 to 18:00, and the gardens of the National Palace of Sintra, open to anyone while the palace behind them charges 13 EUR. All of it stands within a UNESCO property of 946 hectares ringed by a 3,641-hectare buffer zone, inside the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park and classified a National Monument.
Sintra in July: a two-day itinerary
Day one starts at the top. Be at Pena’s park gate for 09:00 and inside the palace when it opens at 09:30, which puts the terraces behind you before the afternoon reaches its 82.9°F average. Down to the town for a long lunch, then the National Palace of Sintra at 13 EUR, indoors and open until 18:30. Close the day at the Moorish Castle, last admission 17:30, gate at 18:00, with the walls in low light.
Day two runs west and lower. Monserrate opens its park at 09:00 and its palace at 09:30, 12 EUR, and the 50 hectares take a morning at walking pace. The Convent of the Capuchos, 11 EUR, closes at 17:30, and Cabo da Roca shuts its courtyard at the same hour. If the Serra’s cloud settles on the hill, and it does even in July, flip the order: interiors at Monserrate and the National Palace first, gardens once it lifts. We could not confirm a bus timetable inside the Serra, so build the day around a car or a taxi and check times locally.
Sintra in July vs June and August
| Measure | June | July | August |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average high | 79.0°F | 82.9°F | 84.2°F |
| Average low | 61.7°F | 64.4°F | 65.3°F |
| Precipitation | 0.53 in | 0.11 in | 0.20 in |
| Days at 1 mm (0.04 in) or more | 2.0 | 0.4 | 1.0 |
Across the three summer months the spread is small by day and smaller by night. July runs 3.9°F warmer than June and 1.3°F cooler than August in the afternoon, and its nights sit 2.7°F above June’s and 0.9°F below August’s. Rain is where they separate: 0.53 inches and 2.0 wet days in June, 0.11 inches and 0.4 in July, 0.20 inches and 1.0 in August.
Moving back four weeks to June buys afternoons almost four degrees cooler and costs five times as many wet days, 2.0 against 0.4. Moving forward to August adds 1.3°F to the afternoon and doubles the wet days, still only 1.0 in a whole month. Neither swap is dramatic on the thermometer. The larger difference between them is the school calendar and the crowd it brings, and we cannot put a number on that.
Is July a good time to visit Sintra?
Yes, with one condition attached: the day has to start early. July is the driest of the three summer months at 0.11 inches, with 0.4 wet days and light until 9:02 p.m. It serves families badly if the plan involves a two o’clock climb to Pena’s palace, and it serves anyone hoping for an uncrowded terrace no better, because July is the heart of the European summer calendar.
If the answer is no, June is the shift to make, and our June page lays out the trade: 79.0°F days and 61.7°F nights, paid for with 2.0 wet days and 0.53 inches instead of 0.11. For a wider window across the country, the twelve-month verdict for Portugal puts the shoulder seasons in order.
What July gives that neither neighbor matches: the driest of the three at 0.11 inches paired with 14 hours 39 minutes of daylight on the 15th, enough to fit a palace morning at Pena and a full garden afternoon at Monserrate into one day, with dinner outdoors after both gates have closed.
The last word
Book the Pena morning, keep the afternoon low and shaded, and the rest of a July visit arranges itself. The landscape was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1995 under criteria (ii), (iv) and (v), and eleven parks and monuments in and around the town report to a single operator, which is why the hours rhyme: nearly everything in the Serra stops admitting between 17:30 and 18:00, three hours before a July sun touches the Atlantic at Cabo da Roca.
Sources & data for this guide
- July normals (82.9°F, 64.4°F, 0.11 in), rain-day counts and their 1 mm / 10 mm thresholds · IPMA, 1991-2020 normals, station 579 Lisboa Gago Coutinho, altitude 103.9 m · checked Sep 22, 2026
- June and August normals, same station and same period · IPMA · checked Sep 22, 2026
- Sunrise 05:22 UTC and sunset 20:02 UTC on July 15, converted to local summer time · sunrise-sunset.org · checked Sep 22, 2026
- Opening hours and ticket prices at Pena, the Moorish Castle, Monserrate, Capuchos, the National Palace of Sintra, Villa Sassetti and Cabo da Roca · Parques de Sintra – Monte da Lua · checked Sep 22, 2026
- Inscription year and criteria, the 946-hectare property, the 3,641-hectare buffer, park areas and plantings · UNESCO World Heritage Centre, file 723 · checked Sep 22, 2026
- We could not read a Lisbon-Sintra train fare, a journey time or any bus timetable inside the Serra from an operator page, and we found no sea-surface temperature and no municipal lodging-tax rate. Prices and hours change: confirm with the operator when you book.