Hi
I have heard two different things about Sintra. We are planning on staying one night.

We can either take the train from Lisbon to Sintra, stay a night, then back to Lisbon and take train to Evora. Stay two nights in Evora, rent a car and go north.
Or
Take train to Evora, stay two nights, get car and drive to Sintra , stay one night and then head north
1. take the train from Lisbon - with two busses in the town you can see everything you would want. avoids narrow streets to drive in and limited parking
2. Drive to Sintra from Evora. The car would be useful. Parking is okay

Which one is better?

Thanks

It is extremely hard to park in Sintra, unless your hotel has parking.

I personally, would not want to drive in Sintra. If you plan on going up to the castle, the roads are extremely narrow and very, very steep. I did not go to Evora so I can't speak to that. Taking the train from Lisbon to Sintra is very easy and fast. The only issue I had with the train was that they will pack you in like sardines even though there are multiple trains daily. I was there in the summer, it was extremely hot. Get there a little early to get a seat. Once in Sintra there are buses and car hires readily available.

I would (and did) take a bus not a train to Evora. The bus station is more central. I would not (and did not) spend a night in Sintra either, but I don't like moving hotels for just one nigh. It didn't look like a good place to have a car.

Thank you all for your advice. It really helped. We have decided to do Sintra as a day trip from Lisbon, go to Evora and then head North west above Sintra towards Obidos, Alcobaca, Tomar Conibria and Conimbriga. Are anyone of these centrally located enough that we could use it as a base or would we have to keep back tracking ? Is it better to just keep heading north.

thanks

One vote to take the train. It's just so easy and you don't have to worry/stress about parking