Sintra Boutique Hotel

Almost everybody sees Sintra in a day. They arrive on the morning train from Lisbon, queue for Pena Palace, walk through Quinta da Regaleira, and leave before dinner. What they miss is the town in the hours either side, when the tour coaches have gone and the mist comes down through the trees and the place returns to being a small mountain town with palaces in it.

Staying in the historic centre is how you get those hours, and this is one of the few hotels that puts you in the middle of it. The National Palace with its two enormous conical chimneys is a short walk. The Moorish Castle is above you on the ridge, Quinta da Regaleira with its inverted initiation well is close, and the trails into the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park start more or less at the door.

The hotel is small and eco-certified, with the practical details that implies: recycling, LED lighting, low-impact toiletries. Rooms are compact, which is normal for a historic building on a hillside street, and are soundproofed, air-conditioned and simply finished. Some look over the town, others into the wooded slopes behind.

Suntria, the restaurant downstairs, does Portuguese cooking through the day, and there is a bar, a library and a garden terrace. Room service runs around the clock, which is generous for a property this size. Note that breakfast is charged separately rather than included.

There is no pool and no spa.

Practically, the historic centre is steep and the streets are narrow, which makes arriving by car more trouble than it is worth. The train from Rossio in Lisbon takes about 40 minutes and the station is a walk downhill from the hotel. If you plan to reach the coast at Azenhas do Mar or Colares, you will want a car or a taxi, but for the palaces you do not.