Night before flight out of Lisbon
 

We'll be traveling to Portugal in October. We'll fly into and out of Lisbon. I figure we'll see Lisbon the first few days we're there, then rent a car and do a driving trip to various parts of the country.

Our flight out is just after 12 noon on a Wednesday. Does it make sense to arrange things so we spend our last night in Sintra and drive to the airport the next morning? Does that drive (Sintra to LIS) allow us to avoid driving through Lisbon on local streets? I assume it is a relatively short drive, correct?

The airport is near downtown Lisbon so why don't you stay in Lisbon that last night.

stay in Lisbon

I agree that staying in Lisbon the night before is a good way to do it, but if you would otherwise want to spend the night in Sintra, from Sintra to the airport is a pretty easy straight shot. You would take the highway out of Sintra towards Lisbon (the IC-19?) to the Segunda Circular which will take you right to the airport. You won't have to go into Lisbon, just skirt around the northern edge. Many people commute from Sintra to Lisbon every day, and it's true there's a lot of traffic, but even in heavy traffic it can't be much more than an hour from Sintra to the airport. Worst case scenario, 1 1/2 hours. But if you need to be at the airport at 10:30 or so, you will miss the worst of rush hour.

A bit closer to the airport but on the same road from Sintra to Lisbon is Queluz with its very nice pousada. If you want to visit the Queluz palace (well worth it in my opinion) and then have an easy drive the next morning to the airport, that's another option.

Queluz has just recently been renovated..Lovely place as is the palace. It was getting a little shabby but I quess that's par for the course if you are a 400 yr old lady..Check out web site pousadas.pt and maybe you will find a special..Another nice place is Pestana Palace, so check it also...both have parking and superior breakfasts..Portugal is a magical place.

Thanks for the responses.

FYI, my goal is to NOT have a car at any point in Lisbon. The idea is to pick up the car at the airport on our way FROM Lisbon, drive from place to place, then drop off the car. Sometimes in major cities we drop the car back at the airport the day before we leave, stay in the city and then take a taxi or public transit to the airport the next morning. Maybe we'll do that in Lisbon.