Lisbon · Portugal
Lisbon Airport Car Hire: Collecting at Humberto Delgado (LIS)
The airport sits inside the city: seven kilometres from the Baixa, two minutes from the ring road west.
125 cars in the city
59 are automatic
55 take a debit card
Free cancellation on most
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Our Fleet
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Dropoff Date
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That is the whole fleet for these dates. Insurance options and the full rental terms are confirmed on LocalRent before you pay.
Seven kilometres from the Baixa, which changes the hire
Most capitals put their airport out in the fields and give you a motorway to calm down on. Lisbon did not. Humberto Delgado sits inside the city, about seven kilometres north-east of the Baixa, close enough that the metro red line starts at the terminal. Three minutes after leaving the car park you are in ordinary Lisbon traffic, in a car you have been sitting in for three minutes.
So the first drive is a city drive: hills, cobbles, shared tram lanes and one-way systems, with no motorway in between to get used to the clutch. The people who enjoy collecting here most are the ones heading straight back out, since the ring road west is nearer the car park than the Baixa is.
Where you actually meet the car
Four answers cover almost every booking made here, and the voucher settles which one you have before you fly.
At a bay in the airport car park
The shortest version. You leave arrivals, cross to the level named on the booking, and the handover happens beside the car rather than across a counter.
On a shuttle to a depot nearby
Several suppliers keep their fleet in Prior Velho, the parish immediately north of the runway, and run a minibus to it. You pay in waiting at both ends.
Prior Velho pickupsOn a later date, once the walking is done
Nothing says the hire must start when the flight lands. The red line reaches the terminal, so a car that starts on the day you leave Alfama for Sintra is a normal way to do Lisbon.
Not at your hotel door
None of the 125 cars bookable here are delivered to an address. Later means a later date at a pickup point you choose in the search.
Handing it back at Humberto Delgado
The return is the half of the hire nobody schedules, and here it runs straight into a check-in desk.
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01
Fill up before the airport road
Fuel is easier to find on the approach than inside the airport complex, and most contracts here are full to full. Keep the receipt until the car is signed off.
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02
Follow the car return signs, not departures
The two split well before the terminal. Stay in the departures lane by mistake and you get a second lap of the airport road with a flight to catch.
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03
Go to the address on the voucher
Collect from a depot and you return to the depot, with the shuttle back part of the booking. Check the time of the last one if you fly early or late.
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04
Close the hire in front of a person
Someone checking the car while you stand beside it ends the rental there. If you are dropping keys into a box, photograph the gauge, the mileage and all four corners first.
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05
Leave time for the last stretch on foot
Neither the car park nor the depots sit at the check-in desks. Budget for the shuttle if you have one.
7 km
from the terminal to the Baixa
125
cars bookable in Lisbon
59
of them are automatic
55
accept a debit card
Out of the car park, and then which way
The exit road commits you within about a kilometre, so it helps to know which one you want before you are in the lane for it.
Seven kilometres, and the last two are the slow ones
Decide where the car sleeps before you set off. On-street spaces are EMEL zoned and enforced, and most visitors end up in the underground car parks at Marques de Pombal, Restauradores or Praca da Figueira. In town the limit is 50, and the alcohol limit is 0.05, or 0.02 for new drivers.
You never have to touch the centre
The ring road takes you west onto the IC19 and Sintra is about 30 km away, which is why collecting here suits a Sintra first day. Park low in the town: the 434 bus exists because parking near the palaces is as bad as everyone says.
Two ways to cover the same 30 km
The A5 is a toll motorway and it is quick. The Marginal, the N6, runs along the water and takes exactly as long as you let it. Most people take one out and the other back.
Two bridges, one of which bills you on the way home
The Ponte 25 de Abril collects its toll northbound, coming back into Lisbon, not on the way out. The Ponte Vasco da Gama is the long crossing east of the city.
The small box on the windscreen decides your day trips
Portugal collects much of its motorway toll electronically. There is no booth to stop at, and on some roads no cash lane at all: you pass under a gantry, it reads a transponder, and if there is nothing to read the charge arrives later as a fine rather than as a toll.
Hire cars here usually carry one, charged as a daily fee on top of the rental. Raise it while you are still standing beside the car at the airport. The drive in from the terminal needs none of it, the A5 towards Cascais does, and so does the trip back over the Ponte 25 de Abril.
Tolls at a glance
- Ponte 25 de Abril
- toll collected northbound only
- Ponte Vasco da Gama
- tolled, east of the city
- Electronic-only motorways
- transponder, or a fine later
- The transponder itself
- a daily fee on top of the hire
Collecting and returning at LIS: what people ask
At the place named on your voucher: either a bay in the airport car park, or a depot a few minutes north in Prior Velho with a shuttle to reach it. The voucher names a supplier and a contact rather than a brand lit up in arrivals.
Treat it as its own errand rather than the last ten minutes of the trip. Fuel up before the airport road, follow the car return signs where they split from departures, and allow for the shuttle back if you collected from a depot.
It depends what the first days look like. The centre is walkable and the metro red line runs from the terminal, so a car in a paid space while you are up in Alfama costs you twice. Collect on arrival if you are heading straight out of town.
No. The drive in needs nothing. The transponder matters on the motorways beyond the city, including the A5 towards Cascais, and on the Ponte 25 de Abril, which charges northbound on the way back in. Most hire cars carry one for a daily fee.
Put your flight number on the booking so the supplier can see the delay before you do. Airport bays and the depots north of the runway keep different hours, so a late landing is a reason to prefer whichever one is staffed at that time.
Put your landing time in and see the real list
The counts on this page are the whole city on one day. Your dates narrow them to the cars a supplier will actually hand over at the airport.
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