SINTRA · NOVEMBER · 1991-2020 NORMALS
Sintra keeps its whole cast through the winter: Pena on the ridge, the Moorish Castle’s wall running along the crest, Monserrate’s gardens on the north slope. What November changes is the wrapper around them. Afternoons top out near 63.7°F, the hill spends part of the month inside its own cloud, and on the 15th the sun is gone at 5:24 pm, which puts a hard edge on any two-palace day.
That is not a reason to stay down in the city. The gates still keep long hours, the Park of Pena runs 09:00 to 19:00 with last admission at 18:00, and 210 hectares of walled parkland climb far better at 63.7°F than at October’s 72.7. The cost of the trade is water: 4.51 inches across the month, the highest of the three monthly totals in the table further down.
THE MONTH AT A GLANCE · SINTRA · NOVEMBER
November gives Sintra cool climbing weather at 63.7°F and full-length gate hours, and charges for it with 9.3 rain days and a 5:24 pm sunset.
AVG HIGH 63.7°F · 9.3 RAIN DAYS · 10H06 OF DAYLIGHT ON NOV 15
Go for: the 210-hectare Park of Pena and Monserrate’s 3,000-plus species walked in 63.7°F air, with palace interiors saved for the wet days.
Think twice before: building a coast day into the trip: 9.3 days record measurable rain, and we could not verify a sea-temperature series for this shoreline.
Normals: IPMA station 579, 1991-2020 · Tickets and hours: Parques de Sintra, Sept 22, 2026 · full sources at the end
On this page
- Sintra weather in November63.7°F days, 4.51 inches, 9.3 rain days
- Night temperatures, and can you swim?52.2°F lows, and what we know about the water
- Ticket prices and gate timesPena 20 EUR, Moorish Castle 12 EUR, last entries at 5:30 pm
- Things to do in Sintra in NovemberPena’s 210 hectares, Monserrate, Cabo da Roca
- A two-day planTwo days built around a 5:24 pm sunset
- November, October or December?How the three months compare, figure by figure
- Is November worth the trip?Our verdict, and the month to shift to
Most visitors come up from Lisbon for the day, and in November that day runs from 7:18 am to 5:24 pm. Every figure here for air temperature and rain comes from one official station, and that station is not on the hill: hold the difference in mind before you pack for the ridge using a reading taken near the coast.
Sintra weather in November: average highs, lows and rain days
| November normal | Value |
|---|---|
| Average high | 63.7°F (17.6°C) |
| Average low | 52.2°F (11.2°C) |
| Precipitation | 4.51 in |
| Days with 0.04 in (1 mm) or more | 9.3 |
| Days with 0.39 in (10 mm) or more | 3.9 |
| Daylight, Nov 15 | 10h06 · 7:18 am to 5:24 pm |
These are IPMA normals, from the Portuguese national weather service, and from a real thermometer rather than a model grid cell: station 579 at Lisboa Gago Coutinho, 103.9 m above sea level, period 1991-2020. November there averages a high of 63.7°F, a low of 52.2°F and 4.51 inches of rain. Read them with one correction applied. The station sits roughly 20 km away and much lower, while the Sintra hill makes its own cloud and runs several degrees colder and a good deal mistier.
In an average November, 9.3 days record at least 0.04 inch (1 mm), so measurable rain lands on about one day in three and two days in three stay dry. The heavier end matters more for a hill day: 3.9 days reach 0.39 inch (10 mm) or more, roughly one day in eight. Those are IPMA’s own thresholds, not the 0.10-inch bar most US tables use, so the counts do not swap with an American forecast page.
Between the 52.2°F night and the 63.7°F afternoon sit 11.5 degrees, and that narrow gap does most of your packing. One warm layer, one shell that genuinely sheds rain, and shoes with grip for cobbles that stay wet on a hill under cloud. Nothing here calls for a heavy coat, and nothing here forgives sandals. Our Portugal packing guide has the rest of the list.
On November 15 the sun rises at 7:18 am and sets at 5:24 pm local time: 10 hours 6 minutes of usable day. The gates outlast the light. Pena’s palace takes its last admission at 5:30 pm and the park at 6:00 pm, the Moorish Castle at 5:30 pm, all of them after sunset, so the final slot buys a walk in the dusk rather than a visit.
How warm is Sintra in November, and can you swim at the coast?
The month’s two anchors are 63.7°F by day and 52.2°F at night, 11.5 degrees apart. October swings wider, 72.7 and 58.8, a spread of 13.9 degrees. December tightens to 58.8 and 47.7, or 11.1. On the ground that means an afternoon that never turns hot and a morning that never turns bitter, on a hill where the cloud rather than the thermometer decides how the day feels.
At the 9:00 gate you want the jacket you traveled in; by two in the afternoon on a dry day you will be carrying it up the slope. Rain rearranges the order without touching the temperature, the shell going on first and staying on. Worth knowing for a cold start: Monserrate’s park opens at 09:00 and its palace at 09:30, so the first half hour of that visit happens outdoors whatever the sky is doing.
We could not verify a frost-night count for Sintra, so we give none. The monthly average low of 52.2°F sits just over 20 degrees above freezing, and the instrument that measured it stands at the airport, not on the ridge. We also found no sea-surface series for this coast, so no water temperature appears here. Where such figures turn up elsewhere, they are usually averages of daily maxima, a touch warmer than a true 24-hour mean, and should be read that way.
How busy is Sintra in November? Ticket prices, gate times and booking
We found no occupancy series and no monthly room-rate series for Sintra, so we crown no month cheap and no month expensive. What we can quote is published and fixed: on 22 September 2026 Parques de Sintra listed the Park of Pena at 12 EUR for adults, the Essential visit to park and palace at 20 EUR, and the Full Tour at 45 EUR, with children under 6 free.
No timed-entry rule and no advance-booking window could be read from the operator’s page, so we name no number of weeks ahead. The clock does the sorting instead. The Moorish Castle takes its last admission at 5:30 pm, the Convent of the Capuchos closes at 5:30 pm, and the Cabo da Roca lighthouse shuts its courtyard at 5:30 pm as well. Arrive on the hill at two in the afternoon in November and a two-site day has already gone.
We could not verify a lodging-tax rate for the municipality, so no percentage appears here. Ask the hotel to show the tax line on your confirmation before you pay, and build the wider budget with our Portugal cost guide.
Paying more changes exactly one thing in this month: the 4.50 EUR round-trip transfer between the Pena park entrance and the palace door. In dry weather it is a convenience. On one of the 3.9 days that deliver 0.39 inch or more, it removes an uphill walk in the rain at the start of the visit, and 4.50 EUR is the whole price of that.
Things to do in Sintra in November: Pena, Monserrate and Cabo da Roca
All of it is one property: 946 hectares inscribed by UNESCO in 1995 under criteria (ii), (iv) and (v), wrapped in a buffer zone of 3,641 hectares, sitting inside the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park and protected by national law since 1994. Walking a landscape on that scale is a different proposition at 63.7°F than at October’s 72.7, and November is the month that makes the uphill sections ordinary rather than a decision.
The Park of Pena covers 210 hectares behind a stone wall, taking in the Tapada do Mocho and the Moorish Castle. Ferdinand II began it around 1840 and planted it with species brought from North America, Asia and New Zealand. Monserrate holds 50 hectares on the northern slopes, its gardens carrying over 3,000 exotic species laid out after a study of the land’s microclimatic zones. Prices as published on 22 September 2026: Monserrate 12 EUR, Moorish Castle 12 EUR (10 EUR ages 6-17 and over-65s), Capuchos 11 EUR, National Palace of Sintra 13 EUR.
Those plantings do not move with the calendar. The air does. In a month delivering 4.51 inches on a hill that manufactures its own cloud, Monserrate’s north slope reads green and dripping rather than dry, and the palace opens at 09:30 when you need the roof. Out at Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point of mainland Europe, the lighthouse courtyard and interpretation center run 09:30 to 17:30, and the Atlantic that supplies the Serra’s cloud arrives there first.
Free in November as in any month: Villa Sassetti, open 10:00 to 18:00, and the gardens of the National Palace of Sintra in the town center. One piece of seasonal arithmetic to note at Sassetti, though. On the 15th, its last 36 minutes fall after sunset.
Sintra in November: a two-day itinerary
Day one starts at the 09:00 gate of the Park of Pena, with the palace door at 09:30 when it opens, 20 EUR for the Essential visit and 4.50 EUR more for the transfer if the sky looks committed. Late morning goes to the Moorish Castle at 12 EUR, wall-walking in cool air. Lunch in town, then the National Palace of Sintra at 13 EUR, open until 18:30, its gardens free. Sunset at 5:24 pm lands mid-visit, so keep the indoor stop for last.
Day two belongs to the north slope: Monserrate’s park from 09:00 and its palace from 09:30, 12 EUR, then the Convent of the Capuchos at 11 EUR before its 17:30 close, or the run out to Cabo da Roca, where the lighthouse asks 5 EUR for the Essential visit and 10 EUR to climb the tower. If one of the month’s 3.9 heavy days turns up, invert the order and take the interiors first. We could not read a Serra bus timetable from an operator page, so plan around a car or a taxi and confirm times locally (getting around Portugal covers the wider network).
Sintra in November vs October and December
| 1991-2020 normal | October | November | December |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average high | 72.7°F | 63.7°F | 58.8°F |
| Average low | 58.8°F | 52.2°F | 47.7°F |
| Precipitation | 4.05 in | 4.51 in | 3.94 in |
| Days with 0.04 in or more | 8.3 | 9.3 | 9.7 |
Across the three months the highs step down steadily, 72.7°F to 63.7 to 58.8, with the lows following at 58.8, 52.2 and 47.7. Rain refuses to step the same way. November carries the largest total of the three at 4.51 inches against October’s 4.05 and December’s 3.94, and yet December logs more wet days, 9.7 to November’s 9.3. November’s rain therefore arrives in fewer, heavier deliveries. No sea-temperature series was available to us for any of the three, so we leave the water blank.
Move four weeks earlier and October hands back 9.0 degrees of afternoon and one fewer day of measurable rain. Move four weeks later and December takes 4.9 degrees off the high, adds four tenths of a rain day, and trims the total to 3.94 inches. November sits closer to December on both the thermometer and the rain-day count while carrying more total rain than either, which is the trade in one line. Our October page runs the same figures in full.
Is November a good time to visit Sintra?
Yes, if your Sintra is palaces, gardens and steps. 63.7°F is climbing weather, the gates keep their long hours, and 946 hectares of World Heritage landscape do not shrink in the rain. No, if the plan leaned on the coast: 9.3 wet days, a 5:24 pm sunset and no water temperature we can vouch for make a beach afternoon a gamble with poor odds.
If that lands as a no, shift to October rather than December. October gives 72.7°F highs, 58.8°F lows, 8.3 days of measurable rain and 4.05 inches of it, which is a warmer version of exactly the same trip. December takes the temperature down another 4.9 degrees and gives back nothing on wet days. For the full twelve-month view of the country, our best-time guide does the ranking.
What November alone lines up is a mismatch in your favor: the Park of Pena open 09:00 to 19:00 against only 10 hours 6 minutes of daylight, so the gates stay unlocked past the point where the light gives out.
The last word
Two days, not one, is what this month forces: 10 hours 6 minutes of daylight will not carry Pena, the Moorish Castle and Monserrate with lunch in the middle. And if the ridge spends your morning inside its cloud, remember that the same operator runs eleven parks and monuments, among them the National Palace and Gardens of Queluz down on the plain and the Portuguese School of Equestrian Art, neither of which asks you to climb anything.
Sources & data for this guide
- November normals (63.7°F / 52.2°F, 4.51 in) · IPMA 1991-2020, station 579 Lisboa Gago Coutinho, altitude 103.9 m · checked Sep 22, 2026
- Rain-day counts and their 1 mm / 10 mm thresholds · IPMA, same station and period · checked Sep 22, 2026
- October and December normals used in the comparison table · IPMA, same station and period · checked Sep 22, 2026
- Sunrise 07:18, sunset 17:24 and 10h06 of daylight on November 15 · sunrise-sunset.org · checked Sep 22, 2026
- Ticket prices, opening times and last admissions (Pena, Moorish Castle, Monserrate, Capuchos, National Palace of Sintra, Villa Sassetti, Cabo da Roca) · 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-plus species · UNESCO World Heritage Centre, file 723 · checked Sep 22, 2026
- What we could not verify: a Lisbon-Sintra train fare or journey time, a bus timetable inside the Serra, a sea-surface temperature series for this coast, a municipal lodging-tax rate, and any occupancy or room-rate series. We quote none of them · noted Sep 22, 2026