We strongly recommend Villa Roma Townhouse/Apt. It is perfect for a couple or a couple with 1 child. It also has free parking for those with rental cars. Parking space is *very* rare within Sintra’s major historical areas. The property is within the Historic District.
Will stay again either in Villa Roma apartment or will try the apartment in the center of town should we want to explore neighboring areas or using Sintra as our base to explore areas around it. We have recommended Villa Roma apartment to our friends and will continue to recommend it.
We learned it a bit late while dining on our last night at the Hotel Tivoli Palacio de Seteais. Next time we visit and stay at Villa Roma, we will avail of the early hot breakfast available at the hotel, which is merely 200 m from us. We also learned that cafes outside of the historic districts and within adjacent local towns open early for hot breakfast as well. Our main issue with traveling in Portugal's main tourist areas/neighborhoods, is breakfast. Most places do not open until 11AM for hot meals. Those which open early at 7AM or 8AM only served pastries. Now that we know better, we will have happier tummies early in the day :-).
Even with the dark rainy days we were there, the apartment still had enough natural light to keep us upbeat 😀. The views to the interior courtyard apartment is gorgeous. So waking up to hundred year old trees, perennial flower gardens, bushes and birds singing made us feel so at home. The views further down to the valley and beyond from the unit is inspiring. We love gardens, so, being able to enjoy a private garden (shared only with 3 units in Villa Roma compound) was a daily treat. Due to the low late October season, we were the only ones enjoying the garden. There is a small outdoor terrace to enjoy the garden and views while sipping morning coffee.
Villa Roma apartment is also directly across Quinta da Regaleira. So, our views from the kitchen and front door is the Quinta da Regaleira. It's incredible.
Our favorite time is walking at night to and from town. At this time, we had the streets and the normally busy Quinta da Regaleira area all to ourselves. Nighttime walking in Sintra's historic district and the main commercial area, without the hordes of day tour bus tourists, is such a delight. And therefore, was our favorite thing to do.
Parking was a great plus as we had a rental car. Being in front of Quinta da Regaleira and with one of the rare parking spaces in the area, the front parking is used by others and small vans for Quinta da Regaleira. We had no problem with privacy nor with noise issues despite others using the parking space. The drivers were respectful and did not linger in the front parking lot while waiting for tourists to come back. In fact, we had to check if there were cars parked, for the parking space was incredibly quiet for a shared space. Activity "kicks off" around 9 am and dies down around 4 or 5pm.
Just note that due to the incredibly narrow roads in Sintra, the 1 way streets do add 30min to 1 hr of one’s drive when coming back or leaving, depending on where one is heading from or to. Make sure to check g-maps for the one way roads are tricky. G- maps we found, has been quite accurate.
For example: the 2 way street ends at Hotel Tivoli Palacio de Seteais, a mere 200 meters from Villa Roma Apartment. It then becomes one way between Hotel Hotel Tivoli Palacio and Villa Roma. Therefore, a 5 min trip to areas west (eg. Palace of Monserrate) can be close to an hour coming back due to the one way streets.
Also note that commencing 2022, certain streets are blocked off from non-residents. This is common all over the areas close to Sintra’s major tourist attractions. Therefore, best to park at the property, then use buses. Using car hires, except when only necessary, is irresponsible, as it adds to the heavy traffic in Sintra’s historical areas. The roads are incredibly narrow. No one needs more traffic especially with an extensive, very clean and modern buses for tourists.
So, we only used our car coming in and heading out of Sintra. We walked a lot and made use of the intensive tourist public buses offered to and from main tourist destinations within Sintra. The buses are easy to use (easiest to just pay cash every time you hop in), are modern, clean and drivers are quite adept in navigating the extremely narrow Sintra roads. And best of all, much less congestion if using buses.
The apartment is renovated, has modern amenities, has gorgeous large picture frame windows, with enough space to relax and unwind. There is a large, private, 1 bedroom with a double bed (large space compared to most bedrooms we’ve stayed in Europe; more like a regular American bedroom size :-) ), therefore, is spacious for 2. We had to get used to the smaller beds in Europe when compared to the large American king-sized beds:-). Also common in our European travels are small and max 2 pillows per person. American bedrooms have large and many pillows :-). But, we eventually got used to the less pillow situation. Still harder with the smaller European beds, but, we made do.
There a living room alcove with a twin size bed (no privacy door). We used this space to unpack and pack plus luggage storage, making such arduous tasks so much easier and faster.
The living room, albeit cozy, has a comfortable loveseat, with cute 2 cute little chairs we used as ottomans, and a small work/dining table. It has wonderful books along the wall book shelves, which we wished we could read. The living room has French doors leading to