Travelling to Sintra? Please leave your car behind.

If you are visiting Sintra or have friends on their way, do everyone a real favour and ask them to leave their car at home.  Parking is expensive and sparse and the old streets were not designed with vehicles other than horse carriages in mind.

Sintra: a UNESCO World Heritage site, one of the most attractive royal towns in Portugal and certainly one of the most popular destinations.  

When the monarchs first put Sintra on the map, in their bid to escape the summer heat of Lisbon, cars were not even a distant dream - today they can be a real world nightmare in the town center.

If you are visiting from Lisbon for the day, consider taking a train to Sintra and going on foot instead of driving.  

If walking is not your favorite thing, you can always take the 434 bus to visit the beautiful Pena Palace and Moorish castle. Be warned that in summer time the 434 bus queue can be such that some visitors have to wait for the next bus.

Without any doubt though, the most environmentally conscious way to explore is on foot.

But the most enjoyable way to cover the distance between the parks and palaces is by bicycle! With an electric assisted E-bike, you get the all the fun and freedom of cycling without the effort of pedal pushing up the hills of Sintra, and you will have no trouble at all to find parking.  Enjoy!

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