Guarda car hire & Guarda car rental offers cheap and discounted car hire in Portugal.
Compare Guarda car rental rates of the most important car hire providers in Guarda and save on you car rental.
• Guarda car hire is part of Internet Travel Group - one of the largest independent car rental brokers.
We offer more then 5000 car hire locations throughout the world.
• Our global buying power enables us to offer huge car rental discounts to our clients.
Car rental partners in Guarda Downtown
For your convenience our partners have offices in Guarda . Please click on office details and/or terms & conditions for more info on the car hire location.
GUARDA at over 1000m is the highest town in Portugal built on a plateau on the north-east flank of the Estrela Mountains. It is chilly and windswept all year round and offers superb views. The city was founded in 1197 by Dom Sancho I to guard his borders against both Moors and Spaniards and though the castle and walls have all but disappeared its arcaded streets and little squares can be distinctly picturesque.
The train station is 3km north of the centre but there is fortunately a connecting bus that meets the entire major trains; the bus station is about four hundred meters southeast of the cathedral in the heart of the old town. Dour and grey the castellated facade of the Cathedral looks like the gateway of a castle but around the sides the exterior is lightened by flying buttresses pinnacles and grimacing gargoyles. Inside it's surprisingly lofty with twisted pillars and vaulting influenced by the Manueline style. The huge carved stone retable is by João de Rouão a leading figure in the sixteenth-century resurgence of Portuguese sculpture at Coimbra. A short way east there is modern and imaginative displays of local archeology art and sculpture in the Museu de Guarda. Of the Castle on a bleak little hill nearby only the square keep survives while the walls are recalled by just three surviving gates. The cobbled streets of the old town though are fascinating in themselves - the tangled area between the Porta da Estrela and Porta do Rei north of the cathedral has changed little in the past four hundred years.
There are two tourist offices: a central one on Praça Luis de Canões where you can pick up a town map: and a more helpful one next to the modern Câmara Municipal. Places to stay are fairly easy to come by if not especially cheap: try the attractive Pensão Moreira Rua Mouzinho de Albuquerque 47 or cheerful rooms at the Casa de Sé just off Praça Luis de Canões on Rua Augusto Gil 17 off the central square. There is also a modern hostel on Av Alexandre Hercularo on the way to Guarda's campsite open all year in a park a short way from the castle; remember though that nights can be extremely cold. The restaurants between the Porta da Estrela and the church of São Vicente are cheap and cheerful.
