Hello-
We will be visiting Lisbon in the next few weeks for about 1 week. We plan to rent a car to go up country to Nazare, Obidosh, & possibly Coimbra (only planning on going 1-2 days for that portion). Any recommendations on rental companies? Also any experience with buying extra insurance through the rental company vs having credit card and/or transferable insurance with current auto insurance provider? Lastly- we do plan to take the train to Sintra. How far in advance should we buy tickets for both the train and entrance to Sintra? Thanks in advance!
Posted by
Cascais, Portugal
1798 posts
Take a look at Auto Europe for the car. It’s a consolidator and gives you several options from which to choose. I’ve used them for almost 20 years and always been pleased.
The commuter train to Sintra from Lisbon doesn’t take reservations. For the palaces in Sintra, buy as soon as you know when you want to go. They are always crazy busy.
Posted by
SF Bay Area
58 posts
We used the broker Zest Car rental on the recommendation of someone on the forum and we were pleased with the service. We used them twice: a couple in days outside Porto, then down in the Algarve, picking up in Faro, and returning in Lisbon. First one was a ‘secret offer’, which turned out to be Thrifty. Faro one was with MasterKings, which was super easy, both Faro and Lisbon. We did take the local extra insurance because we didn’t want to have to hassle with any damages internationally.
We went to Sintra in late September and bought our tickets for 9:30 am the day before. The train was full, but not packed. National Palace was not crowded, we bought our tickets at the door. Peña Palace we only went to the terraces, so bought them a couple of weeks beforehand. The same with Quinta and Monserrate.