One of the best travel decisions I’ve made
Our family was visiting Lisbon and then Seville and we had originally planned to rent a car to travel between the two cities but the more we looked at it, the more hassle we realized it was going to be. Between picking up the car, dropping it off, the crazy transfer fees if we returned the car in Spain or the cost of parking it for the week if we kept it, we decided that renting was going to cost only marginally less than hiring a car service while adding numerous headaches. I found Lisbon Limousine on the web and their manager, Joaquim, and I set the whole thing up via email. On our travel day, Joaquim, who actually ended up being our driver, arrived at our apartment in Lisbon five minutes early in an immaculate Mercedes van. He navigated Lisbon’s morning rush much more calmly than I would have while pointing out interesting sites in an English that was far better than my Portuguese. On his recommendation, we stopped in Evora to have lunch and see the Cathedral and Chapel of Bones. It was a really nice diversion and one we would likely have skipped on our own.
The real value of not driving ourselves, however, became apparent when we reached Seville. Upon arrival we discovered that the whole neighborhood around our hotel was completely shutdown by a Holy Week procession. If I’d been driving I might well have had an aneurysm at this point. Trying to find street parking for my rental car loaded with luggage in a city absolutely overrun with Holy Week tourists (and where I don’t speak the language)? Oof. Joaquim, however, was able to get some local insight from a couple of police officers and, in the end, managed to drop us within 100 yards of our hotel. It was a fantastic outcome as far as I was concerned.
The trip back to Lisbon, thankfully, wasn’t nearly as complicated. Joaquim again showed up a few minutes early and we made great time, arriving in Lisbon relaxed and ready for a good dinner.
Honestly, scrapping the rental car and letting a local do the driving was one of the best travel decisions I’ve made. We didn’t have time on this trip to see Sintra or Porto but we will be going back and when we do, I’m hiring Lisbon Limousine again.
