Accessibility to Sintra's mountain-top palaces

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Photo credit: João Marrazes
At the same time as Greta Thornberg visited Portugal and stirred the global warming conversation in Portugal, the City of Sintra announced the ban of private car traffic to Sintra mountain, affecting the accessibility to Pena Palace and the Moorish Castle.  An historic city on a mountain, the traffic in Sintra's narrow, hilly streets has become close to chaotic, taking from the charm of the town, as cars queue bumper to bumper and drivers search for scarce parking spots, making the Sintra experience all too stressful. The new traffic rules seem drastic, but are aimed for sustainability and safety for residents and visitors alike.

The traffic from the Historic Center up to the palaces is already one way, the change now is that only authorized vehicles are allowed to drive up.  These are: residents; vehicles of City Hall, Natural Park and Monte da Lua, as well as the utility companies; Licensed tourist transports, taxis and ubers, as well as all security and emergency vehicles.

So how do our visitors reach the palaces? By public transportation, taxi, uber, and other tourist transports,  bicycle and of course on foot. We have a private car park for our guests' vehicles and maps developed by us in both paper and digital format for the beautiful walk to the palaces.  We can also arrange a bicycle hire for you.


Contact us through info@casadovalle.com or tel. 219 244 699 for more information.
Scrolling down you will see the map of the public car parks of  Sintra.




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