Hi all- we'll be in Lisbon at the end of this month and are planning to head to Sintra on a Saturday morning. I was originally planning to take the train to Sintra and then a taxi/uber to Pena Palace but see from the train schedule that it only runs hourly on weekends, so we'd have to leave quite a while before our entry time to be sure of getting to the palace on time. Reading these threads, it seems lik an uber will be faster and not much more expensive since we're a family of four. I do wonder about availability though-- will it be relatively easy to get a driver who will accept the ride? Or is that a risk we'll be taking? Thanks for your help and advice.
Raj
Posted by
49 posts
There should be plenty of drivers. When we were in Lisbon in Oct, I used Bolt twice, including one trip from our Airbnb to Sintra. Both time I got a driver assigned to me within seconds, just as easy as hailing a Uber or Lyft within US. Bolt is supposedly a little less expensive than Uber. There is also a discount code that I used and it brought the fare down to around 20 e. Can't guarantee if the code still works though. With 4 people, it will definitely be cheaper than taking the Metro to the train station, then train to Sintra, then Bus or Uber to Pena palace.
Having said that, Sat is probably the busiest day at Sintra, so if you are able to go there on a diffrent day, you may want to consider that. However, it's December now, so maybe it won't be as crowded as in peak season.
For more details, see my earilier post https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/portugal/practical-tips-learned-from-our-5-day-stay-in-lisbon-part-1
Posted by
Eastern Iowa, USA
9069 posts
With Uber or Bolt (I suggest having both apps, though, yeah, many drivers drive for both), you should have no problem getting a ride there. Lisbon has a large number of Uber/Bolt drivers, and Sintra is a decent fare, though no guarantee of a return fare to Lisbon.
Getting back though, you are subject to the number of drivers out in that area. Late in the day, with all the other day-trippers heading back to Lisbon, it could be an issue. I would have a public transport option mapped out.
Posted by
Pennsylvania
403 posts
We had no difficulty getting an Uber to Sintra from Lisbon. It was early in the morning, because we had tickets for one of the first time slots. We chose Uber because we had heard of the big crowds on the train and local bus in Sintra. It wasn’t too expensive to take an Uber either.
The only issue is that we got dropped off in a rather random spot. I believe it was my fault for simply entering ‘Pena Palace’ and letting Uber populate the address. We ended up getting dropped off in a little parking lot a good way up the mountain and actually used the walking path system to walk down to the Palace entry gates. I think the gps was trying to get us to the actual Pena Palace, not the entrance gates. It didn’t take long (15 minutes or so?) to walk down but it added a bit of unnecessary drama to the morning.
I would recommend getting the exact address for the entry gates and inputting that into your ride share app.
To get back to Lisbon we took the train and that was easy enough.
Posted by
OP
McLean, VA, USA
13 posts
Thanks for all of the info and advice. I was thinking that we'd take the train back anyway since the timing won't matter as much and we'll want to walk around the city a bit after the palace and castle. I'm hoping that the crowd levels are down this month and so the weekend won't be as bad as I've heard it can be during peak season.