Portugal has a lot to supply as a vacation spot — stunning landscapes, vibrant cities, fascinating tradition, scrumptious meals and wine, and pleasant individuals. And better of all, it’s inexpensive in comparison with different well-liked European locations! Planning a visit to Portugal isn’t onerous, however if you wish to scratch beneath the floor, it would be best to learn the following tips first.
I fell slightly in love throughout my first journey to Portugal, but it surely wasn’t till I just lately had the chance to spend a number of weeks touring by means of the nation that Portugal actually received beneath my pores and skin and I developed a deeper appreciation for this particular nation.
Read on for my Portugal journey recommendations on attending to Portugal, when to go to Portugal, how lengthy to remain in Portugal, and Portugal journey suggestions, and get began planning your dream journey.
If you aren’t certain the place you need to go in Portugal, I’ve put collectively 4 pattern one-week Portugal itineraries which you can select from. If you’ll relatively have another person plan your journey and put collectively a tremendous journey by means of Portugal with distinctive experiences, I’d extremely suggest working with my associate EPIC Travel. Mention We3Travel when contacting EPIC Travel and obtain a free VIP welcome reward while you arrive in your EPIC journey to Portugal.
Getting to Portugal
Note: This submit could comprise affiliate hyperlinks. If you click on a hyperlink and make a purchase order, I’ll obtain a small fee. All opinions are my very own.
Tap Airlines, Portugal’s flagship service, presents direct flights to Lisbon or Porto from many US cities together with Boston, Newark, Washington D.C., Miami, Chicago, and San Francisco. Known as being an affordable choice for flying to Europe, TAP Airlines actually maximizes its free stopover program to encourage guests to spend time in Portugal. When you ebook a stopover with TAP Airlines, you possibly can keep from one to 5 nights in both Porto or Lisbon for no extra cost.
After flying TAP twice (notice: my flights have been complimentary as a part of a media journey), I discover them on par with different nationwide carriers equivalent to Aer Lingus or the previous Alitalia. As a part of the Star Alliance, it’s also possible to bid on upgrades or use miles to improve to Executive class or EconomyXtra. EconomyXtra seats provide spacious legroom and a beneficiant recline, whereas Executive class seats ship a full lay-flat mattress for snug transatlantic flights. (See a full evaluation of TAP Airlines Executive class.)
When to Visit Portugal
The greatest instances to go to Portugal actually will depend on the area(s) you propose on visiting, however typically, the shoulder seasons of May-June and September-October are going to be superb. April and November are identified to be wet all through the nation and whereas winter temperatures in Portugal aren’t frigid (normally within the 40s and 50s), you’ll get pleasure from extra time exterior throughout these shoulder season months.
The cities of Lisbon and Porto are all the time going to be busy, particularly throughout the summer season and vacation breaks. But let’s speak about a number of the different areas:
- Douro Valley, and northern Portugal: late August by means of October are superb within the north. Wine harvest usually runs from late August to late September, though once we have been there in early October a number of vineyards have been nonetheless harvesting and it was a good time to go to to see the grape stomping in motion.
- Interior Alentejo: this dry area will get extraordinarily sizzling in the summertime, with temperature hovering above 40-45 levels Celsius (above 100 levels Fahrenheit.) The superb time to go to can be in September or early October throughout the wine harvest when the temperatures are excellent for spending time exterior or enjoyable by the pool. May and June would even be nice, however July and August sound a bit insufferable to spend a lot time exterior of the pool or air con, and local weather change is barely making this extra excessive. It additionally makes temperatures a bit much less predictable. When I visited in October, the temperatures have been within the excessive 70s or low to mid-80s, though that is unusually heat.
- Coastal Alentejo: if you wish to benefit from the seashore, you must go to between May and October. While the seashores will probably be extra crowded with locals coming down from Lisbon, simply stroll a couple of minutes down the seashore and you’ll have loads of area to get pleasure from this space’s attractive huge sand.
- Algarve: the Algarve is actually hopping in the summertime when the vacationers flock to the coast, but it surely actually could be pleasing year-round. You is probably not swimming within the winter, however you possibly can get pleasure from climbing the cliffs and exploring the caves and shoreline. Plus the cities may be slightly quieter throughout the low season.
- Azores: the perfect time to go to the Azores is May-July, when the hydrangeas are in full bloom and the islands are bursting with coloration and plush greens. It can even be essentially the most crowded. But fortunately, the Gulf Stream retains the waters across the islands pretty heat 12 months spherical. No matter what time of 12 months that you just go to, the climate within the islands may be very temperamental and may change at a second’s discover so it’s best to be ready for solar, rain, wind, and fog — all in sooner or later!
How Long to Spend in Portugal
Portugal is definitely a reasonably small nation, not whilst massive as Indiana. But don’t underestimate how a lot time you could correctly discover the nation! I hear so many individuals speaking about doing Spain and Portugal in a single journey. Well, I can let you know that I’ve spent two weeks in Spain and altogether three weeks in Portugal and I’ve not come near seeing every thing that I’d prefer to see in both nation.
If you possibly can spare the time, I’d suggest spending at the very least two weeks in Portugal and exploring three to 4 areas in every journey. I’ve created 4 totally different, one-week Portugal itineraries in a separate submit, however some attainable 10-14 day itinerary concepts are:
- Porto (3 days) + Douro (2-3 days) + Lisbon (3 days) + Sintra (1 day journey) + Cascais or Comporta (3 days)
- Lisbon (3-5 days with day journeys) + Algarve (5 days)
- Porto (3 days) + Alentejo (5-7 days) + Lisbon (3-4 days)
- Azores: São Miguel (5 days) + Pico (3 -4 days with day journey to São Jorge) + Terceira (3 days)
Planning a Trip to Portugal
Planning a primary journey to Portugal isn’t onerous, there may be a number of data accessible that can assist you determine the place to remain and issues to do in Lisbon, Sintra, Porto, and Cascais. However, if you wish to enterprise past the unusual, you might have considered trying some assist planning your journey. Full disclosure, my current journey to Portugal was hosted by Epic Travel and its journey companions in order that I may expertise an EPIC Portugal itinerary.
EPIC Travel is a boutique company that focuses on journey to Portugal and Morocco. Its journey planners dwell in-country and have shut relationships with motels, guides, drivers, and tour operators on the bottom. EPIC focuses on planning customized itineraries for shoppers that need to journey deeper and revel in journey and cultural experiences alongside the best way.
In my expertise working with EPIC each in Portugal and after I employed them to assist me plan my Morocco journey, there are a wealth of causes to work with an company like EPIC to plan your journey to Portugal, together with:
- Unique experiences — EPIC can prepare experiences that you just couldn’t even suppose up by yourself since you didn’t know they existed. These are sourced by means of shut relationships on the bottom and taking the time to actually perceive tradition and have interaction with locals. Examples embrace cork trekking, bridge climbing, non-public tram excursions with chef’s tasting menus, personalised farm visits and cooking courses, and a lot extra.
- Boutique, upscale and luxurious motels — EPIC goes out of its option to discover fascinating motels that supply excessive contact customer support as an alternative of going with the standard choices you discover on tour itineraries. And greater than that, they’ll completely match particular person vacationers with an applicable resort based mostly on journey model and finances. Because EPIC stays in shut contact with resort administration, they’ll additionally pair you with the most effective room kind and have sought out motels that supply nice facilities for households together with villas with kitchens and youngsters’s actions.
- High-touch service — the EPIC crew works intently with shoppers to design a customized itinerary based mostly in your journey tastes and pursuits. They are additionally on-hand to assist alter on the fly or deal with any issues that come up. They even went as far as to greet us upon arrival at our resort and prepare our COVID assessments for the Azores.
- Save tons of time — Could you discover these distinctive experiences and motels by yourself? Maybe with sufficient digging. But why spend hours and hours researching and nonetheless not ensure in case you are making the best selections. It is a lot of a time and psychological vitality financial savings to work with an knowledgeable. And not somebody who’s simply outsourcing it to a third-party, however somebody with direct relationships in your vacation spot.
If you desire to assist planning and reserving your journey to Portugal, please attain out to EPIC Travel and allow them to know that you just examine them on WE3TRAVEL and you’ll obtain a VIP Welcome Gift as a thanks!
Money & Language Matters
Traveling by means of Portugal is actually fairly straightforward, particularly as an American. English may be very broadly spoken, though studying to say Bom Dia (good morning) and obrigado/obrigada (thanks) is a good suggestion [note: Duolingo only supports Brazilian Portuguese and the languages have a lot of differences.]
It can be a reasonably cashless economic system, with most eating places and outlets accepting Visa and Mastercard with a faucet and pay chip, and lots of supporting Apple Pay. Just ensure you are utilizing a bank card that doesn’t cost worldwide transaction charges and get in touch with your financial institution prematurely to allow them to find out about any worldwide journey so that they don’t block your transactions for worry of fraud (until you may have a journey card that doesn’t require this.)
However, you will see the few holdouts so it pays to both get some Euro out of your native financial institution (be sure you order it at the very least per week forward of your journey) or take some cash out of an ATM (be careful for ATMs that cost excessive charges) while you arrive. Not all banks/ATMs will settle for playing cards from different banks so it may be value it to alternate some cash earlier than you arrive within the nation for small purchases and suggestions (all the time request small payments.)
Before you go, be sure you try my submit on how a lot a journey to Portugal prices.
Tipping at eating places isn’t customary and in case you do go away a gratuity, it ought to be a small quantity utilizing only a few cash you may have readily available. I all the time suppose it’s a good suggestion to tip guides that present nice service, and people are normally fortunately accepted.
Food Matters
The meals in Portugal varies from high-end, tremendous eating with Michelin-starred cooks to informal tabernas serving up cheap, genuine dishes. Some dishes you will notice ceaselessly embrace:
- Pastéis de bacalhau – salt cod fritters or croquettes
- Pastel de nata (or Belem) – basic egg custard tarts
- Caldo verde – kale or cabbage soup (usually served as a starter)
- Sardines – usually grilled
- Fresh seafood – from shrimp in garlic butter to seafood rice to sea bass, monk fish, and octopus
- Bifana – the standard beef or pork sandwich
- Francesinha – sausage sandwich slathered in cheese and gravy present in Porto
- Piri piri hen – roasted or grilled with spices from Mozambique
- Iberian black pig – acorn-fed and just like Spanish jamon iberico however served each cured and as a grilled tenderloin
- Orange juice – don’t miss out on making an attempt a few of Portugal’s glorious oranges and different fruits
- Local honey – while you see native honey on the breakfast buffet, be certain to get pleasure from some!
Eating out in Portugal could be very inexpensive in comparison with different nations. If you’re consuming at an off-the-cuff taberna, you possibly can usually get a full meal for beneath 10 euros, 15 with a glass of wine to go along with it. One factor to look out for is the “couvert” which is often a small basket of bread and dish of olives dropped at the desk at the start of the meal. This is usually listed on the menu and must be ordered, however different instances it’s introduced routinely (however that doesn’t imply it’s free.) If you don’t need it, or don’t need to pay for it, simply flip it away.
Getting Around
Getting from place to position in Portugal isn’t onerous and most often, it’s straightforward to self-drive all through the nation on a well-established freeway system. I say that with a number of caveats!
- Do not try and drive in Lisbon or central Porto until you’re an skilled metropolis driver and you’ve got a spot to park at your resort
- Portuguese drivers could be fairly aggressive and prefer to tailgate and don’t essentially keep inside the strains
- Driving by means of small cities generally is a little nerve-wracking because the streets are extraordinarily slim (and sometimes one-way so you will have an excellent navigation system)
- There are a number of roundabouts/rotaries so ensure you are snug with enter and exit
I might additionally very extremely suggest hiring a driver or taking a tour when visiting vineyards. Not solely do you not need to drink and drive, however some generally is a bit tough to search out. Also, a number of the roads within the Douro Valley, particularly on the north aspect of the river are gravel, slim, and intently grip the sting of the cliffs.
You may also fly from Lisbon to Porto or the Algarve, however truthfully, the drive isn’t that lengthy so I discover it’s simpler to only drive. If you fly into one metropolis you possibly can decide up a rental automotive (if from exterior of the EU it’s possible you’ll want an International Driver’s Permit, verify together with your rental automotive firm) exterior of town and drop it off exterior of town on the return. Uber is pretty straightforward to search out within the cities and trams are additionally accessible for getting round city (though usually full as a result of they’re well-liked with vacationers.)
Packing for Portugal
Choosing what to pack for Portugal will fluctuate relying on when and the place you’re going, however there are a number of objects you could put in your packing record:
- Comfortable, non-slip footwear: the tile sidewalks are beautiful however they’re worn easy and slippery, particularly on the numerous hills in Porto and Lisbon and much more so when it rains;
- Travel umbrella and rain coat: talking of rain, you possibly can count on to come across some, particularly if visiting the northern a part of the nation or between October and April;
- Sunscreen, sun shades and a hat: when the solar does come out, it may be sturdy, even in October! Be ready with an excellent sunscreen and a hat if you can be spending a number of time exterior;
- Bug spray or lotion: in case you are visiting the Alentejo area, particularly round farms or rice fields, you’ll encounter some flies and mosquitos, so greatest to be ready;
- Travel-safe bag: Lisbon is understood to have pickpockets, particularly round crowded squares and scenic overlooks. Don’t lose your valuables, carry a bag that provides theft-protection. I convey my Travelon locking sling bag with anti-theft and anti-slash options.
- Motion illness meds or bands: in case you are driving by means of the Douro Valley or the winding roads within the Azores, it would be best to be ready in case you undergo from movement illness.
So are you able to plan a visit to Portugal? I’d suggest reaching out to EPIC Travel to see how they may help and studying a few of my different articles about Portugal.
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