We don’t have much time in Portugal so we do not want to rely on public transportation. When we leave Lisbon to go to Lagos (staying 3 nights and the place we are staying seems walkable to town and beach)) and then go from Lagos to Sintra (staying one night and catching a flight the next day home to US). The Air B&B has on street parking in Lagos and hotel in Sintra has parking if available. Should we rent a car or hire a driver (there are four of us) when we go from Lisbon to Lagos and then from Lagos to Sintra? Any recommendations for where to rent a car or hire a driver?
Posted by
Bend, Oregon
2648 posts
Private drivers for journeys of 3+ hours are rarely cheap. I would look at renting in Lisbon and returning in Sintra. Unless you are planning to leave directly after a transatlantic flight. I never recommend driving immediately after landing.
Posted by
SF Bay Area, CA, USA
516 posts
Driving and parking almost anywhere in Portugal is usually easy - even Sintra. Rental cars are usually inexpensive in Portugal. The cheapest we have found has been to pick up and return to the Lisbon airport. It's really easy to pick up a car from the airport on your way out of Lisbon using the subway. The past couple of years we rented through AutoEurope or their sister company Kemwel. We found the prices dropped right up until a few days before the rental. Just make sure you have the toll tags activated as some of the toll roads by Lagos are automated.
Posted by
OP
3 posts
Thank you for the recommendation and also making me feel at ease that we will find parking!
Posted by
Mid-Atlantic area
7501 posts
If you know where you will be visiting look up parking lots prior to going over and bookmark them to whichever app you use for navigation. In many towns there are free lots, but you need to know where they are ahead of time. Pay lots and parking garages are fairly well marked.
When we did a Portugal trip a year ago, we changed it to a Spain/Portugal trip because renting a vehicle in Lisbon was significantly more than renting in Madrid for the duration we wanted and the time of year. We rented in Madrid and skipped Lisbon altogether. No idea why it was so much more at that time, because it seems to have been an anomaly.
Posted by
Vancouver, BC, Canada
1422 posts
Try ZestCarRental.com and compare. Good luck.