SINTRA · FEBRUARY · PENA PALACE
February is the month the Sintra hill keeps mostly for itself. The palace still wears its yellow and red above the treetops, the afternoon still climbs to about 60.3°F, and the ridge still manufactures its own cloud. The crowd at the terrace rail thins, and the mist sits in the pines for hours at a stretch before tearing open on a view that runs to the Atlantic.
You have already chosen Pena. What a February date decides is how many days of the month carry rain, how much light falls between the morning train from Lisbon and the last descent through the park, and whether moving the trip four weeks buys a better visit. The IPMA normals answer most of that, and we say straight away where the thermometer sits.
FEBRUARY AT A GLANCE · PENA PALACE
February hands you a 60.3°F afternoon, 7.8 wet days and a 10-hour-48-minute day: take it if quiet terraces and hill mist suit you, and shift to March if you want the warmth.
AVG HIGH 60.3°F · 7.8 WET DAYS · 10H 48M OF DAYLIGHT ON FEB 15
Go for: space at the rail, cloud moving through the park, and a day cool enough that the climb from town is a pleasure rather than a chore.
Think twice before: banking on views. The palace stands about 400 m above the station that measures these normals, and the hill is colder, wetter and mistier than any coastal figure.
Climate: IPMA 1991-2020, station 579 Lisboa Gago Coutinho · Light: sunrise-sunset.org · full sources at the end
On this page
- Pena Palace weather in February60.3°F highs, 2.80 inches, 7.8 wet days
- How cold it gets on the hill47.1°F dawns and what to wear
- Crowds and booking in FebruaryLow season, hours we could not verify, lodging tax
- Things to do in Sintra in FebruaryPark of Pena, Moorish Castle, Regaleira, Monserrate
- A two-day Sintra itineraryTwo days built around a 6:14 pm sunset
- February vs January and MarchHow the three months compare, degree by degree
- Is February a good time to visit?Who should go, who should wait
One habit saves the trip: treat Sintra as a hill with its own weather, not as a suburb of Lisbon. Twenty-five kilometers and 400 meters separate the two, and in February that gap shows up as cloud, wind and wet granite. Everything below is dated to the month; the ticket-and-transport detail lives in our Sintra guide.
Pena Palace weather in February: average highs, lows and rain days
| Measure | February, 1991-2020 normals |
|---|---|
| Average high | 60.3°F |
| Average low | 47.1°F |
| Day-night spread | 13.2°F |
| Precipitation | 2.80 in |
| Days with 0.04 in (1 mm) or more | 7.8 |
| Days with 0.39 in (10 mm) or more | 2.4 |
| Daylight on February 15 | 10h 48m |
| Sunrise / sunset, February 15 | 7:26 am / 6:14 pm local |
IPMA, Portugal’s national weather service, publishes the 1991-2020 February normals used here from station 579, Lisboa Gago Coutinho: average high 60.3°F, average low 47.1°F, 2.80 inches of precipitation. That is a real thermometer at 103.9 m, not a model grid cell. It is also 25 km from Sintra and roughly 400 m below the palace terraces, so every figure here describes the coastal plain. Pena stands in the cloud the Sintra ridge makes, and runs colder, wetter and mistier than these numbers.
An average February records 7.8 days with at least 1 mm of rain, so measurable rain lands on about one day in four. Heavy weather is scarcer: 2.4 days reach 10 mm (0.39 inch) or more. Check the threshold before you compare with an American table, because US counts usually start at 0.10 inch and the two sets are not interchangeable. For a three-night stay, expect one wet spell, often a few hours rather than a lost day.
The 13.2°F between the 47.1°F dawn and the 60.3°F afternoon is modest by American winter standards, and it still dictates the bag. A fleece under a hooded rain shell covers the whole day, and the shell does the harder work: hill mist soaks a jacket without ever registering as rainfall. Bring shoes with grip for Pena’s cobbles and the park’s stone stairs. Our packing guide carries the full winter list.
February 15 gives 10 hours 48 minutes of daylight, sunrise at 7:26 am and sunset at 6:14 pm local time, since Portugal keeps UTC through winter. On the ridge the useful light ends sooner than the clock says, because the hill’s own shoulder shades the western walks of the park well before six. Plan the descent rather than the arrival: you want the steps behind you while you can still see them, with dinner back in Lisbon afterward.
How warm is Pena Palace in February?
Set the two ends of the day side by side and February is a narrow month: 60.3°F at its average peak, 47.1°F at its average trough, 13.2°F apart. Read both as the warm end of what the hill will give you. The station that measures them sits 400 m lower and 25 km inland from the palace gate, and altitude takes its cut.
Before ten in the morning that feels like a New England October: fleece zipped on the battlement walk at the Moorish Castle, hands in pockets when the wind crosses the ridge. By two, in sun, the courtyard at Pena is shirt-sleeve warm and the fleece goes into the bag. The palace rooms stay cool indoors, so the layer you peel off outside goes back on inside. Anyone standing still at the terrace rail for photographs feels the wind long before the temperature.
We found no frost-night count in the February normals we read, so we give none. What the record does say is an average low of 47.1°F, fifteen degrees above freezing, measured well below the palace. Higher ground runs colder, and these figures cannot tell you by how much.
How busy is Pena Palace in February? Crowds, booking and the lodging tax
February falls in Portugal’s low season, a fact of the calendar rather than a ranking. School holidays sit elsewhere, the Algarve is dormant, and the Lisbon day-trip flow into Sintra runs at winter volume. We found no monthly occupancy series and no monthly room-rate series for Sintra, so we crown no month cheapest and print no percentage off.
What still needs fixing in advance is the date itself. We could not verify Pena’s February opening hours or its ticket price, so we publish neither: take both from the monument before you commit, then let the train and the room follow. Winter flights and winter nights are ordinary purchases a few weeks out, and the seasonal picture for the wider trip sits in what Portugal costs and the flights page.
We could not verify a Sintra lodging-tax rate, so no percentage and no per-night figure appear here. Ask your hotel what lands on the final bill, whether it is charged per person and per night, and whether children are exempt. That is how the charge is normally written in Portugal, and it is settled at the desk rather than in the booking total.
One upgrade changes February more than any other: sleeping in Sintra town instead of commuting from Lisbon. With 10 hours 48 minutes of daylight to spend, an hour saved on the morning train is close to a tenth of the usable day. A room ten minutes from the gate also gives you somewhere warm and dry to sit out an afternoon downpour instead of standing under a chestnut tree waiting for it to pass.
Things to do at Pena Palace and in Sintra in February
February buys space at the rail and the hill’s best trick: cloud pouring uphill through the pines, then splitting open over the coastal plain within a minute. Camellias carry Sintra’s gardens through the cool months, and the tree ferns in the park take the damp as a compliment. The climb from town, punishing in August heat, becomes a pleasant forty-minute walk when the afternoon tops out at 60.3°F.
Give the Park of Pena the hour most visitors sacrifice: wooded paths, ponds and lookouts wrap the palace and stay quiet even when the terraces do not. Uphill on the same ridge, the Moorish Castle walls hand the view back toward Pena. In town, Quinta da Regaleira has its initiation well and Monserrate its gardens, and the Vila Sassetti path drops on foot from the castle to the historic center. Prices and hours for all of them live in our Sintra guide.
Gardens move slowly, air moves fast, and February’s difference is in the air. Monserrate’s planting looks much as it does in May, while a 47.1°F dawn and a cloud-wrapped ridge change the walk to it completely. Granite cobbles hold water for hours after each of those 7.8 wet days, and the stepped paths through the park are where people slip. Wet stone, not cold, is the season’s real hazard, as our safety guide says of Portuguese hill towns generally.
We could not verify any February free-entry day at the palace, so we name none. What costs nothing in any month: the climb through Sintra’s old streets, the Vila Sassetti trail, and the roadside viewpoints on the way to the castle gate. In a month with 2.80 inches of rain and long mid-week lulls, those walks are the part of the day you can improvise.
Pena Palace in February: a two-day itinerary
Day one starts at the gate for opening, hour confirmed with the monument the night before. Do the palace interior first, then the terraces around ten while the cloud is still moving. Give the Park of Pena eleven to half past twelve, drop into town for a long lunch out of the wind, and spend two to four at Quinta da Regaleira. Be back on the hill road or the train platform by half past five, with sunset at 6:14 pm.
Day two goes up to the Moorish Castle early, walks the walls, then descends the Vila Sassetti path to the center and finishes at Monserrate. If the sky turns, invert it: the palace rooms, Regaleira’s tunnels and the town’s cafés absorb a wet morning, and an afternoon train puts you back in Lisbon in time for a museum and dinner. Two days here is the right shape in winter, because the short day rules out cramming.
Pena Palace in February vs January and March
| Measure | January | February | March |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average high | 57.9°F | 60.3°F | 65.1°F |
| Average low | 46.0°F | 47.1°F | 50.5°F |
| Precipitation | 3.78 in | 2.80 in | 2.63 in |
| Days with 0.04 in (1 mm) or more | 9.9 | 7.8 | 7.2 |
Against January, February gains 2.4°F on the afternoon, 1.1°F on the night, and loses two wet days, 7.8 against 9.9. Against March it gives up 4.8°F on the high and 3.4°F on the low for almost the same rain count, 7.8 against 7.2. We could not verify a February sea-surface temperature for the Sintra coast, so none appears here. If you meet one elsewhere, check whether it averages daily maxima, which reads a little warmer than a true 24-hour mean.
Shifting four weeks forward buys warmth and very little dryness. Shifting four weeks back, to January, costs you an inch of extra rain and two more wet days for a hill that is quieter still. February is the point on that curve where the afternoons turn usable without the spring arrivals, and where a walking day in the park stops being an act of endurance.
Is February a good time to visit Pena Palace?
Yes, if you came for the building and the park rather than for sunshine, and if you can take one wet day in four without rewriting the trip. Photographers, garden walkers and anyone who dislikes queues get the best version of Pena all month. No, if this is a single fixed day inside a tight itinerary and the forecast has to cooperate, because the ridge can keep its cloud from breakfast to dusk.
If that describes your trip, wait for March: 65.1°F afternoons, 50.5°F nights, 7.2 wet days, and enough extra light to add Monserrate to the same day without hurrying. Move only if warmth is the reason. Our month-by-month verdict for Portugal sets the whole year against it.
No other month combines an empty terrace with a climb you can make in a fleece, and the hill’s winter cloud is the one piece of Sintra theater that summer never stages.
The last word
Book the bed in Sintra town, confirm the palace hours with the monument, and hold the second morning loose so the weather can pick which day gets the walls and which gets the interiors. One number to carry up the hill: February sits at 2.80 inches of rain against January’s 3.78, nearly an inch less, and that gap is most of what winter here gives back. Wear the shell, watch the steps, and let the cloud do its work.
Sources & data for this guide
- February normals: high 60.3°F, low 47.1°F, 2.80 in · IPMA, climatological normals 1991-2020, station 579 Lisboa Gago Coutinho, altitude 103.9 m · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Wet-day counts: 7.8 days at 1 mm or more, 2.4 days at 10 mm or more · IPMA 1991-2020, same station · thresholds are IPMA’s, not the 0.10-inch threshold of US tables · checked Sep 24, 2026
- January and March normals used in the comparison · IPMA 1991-2020, same station and period · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Daylight 10h 48m, sunrise 07:26 and sunset 18:14 UTC on February 15, converted to local time · sunrise-sunset.org · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Scope caveat: the station sits 25 km from Sintra and about 400 m below the palace · the hill runs colder, wetter and mistier than these readings
- We could not verify Pena’s February hours, ticket price, any free-entry day, a Sintra lodging-tax rate, an occupancy series or a sea-surface temperature · none of those figures appear here · check the monument and your hotel when you book