Portugal travel tips

Budget travel in Portugal

What a visitor's money does in Portugal: every guide rated from very cheap to very expensive, cheapest first, then the things that cost travellers money without buying anything — the ATM, the taxi, the SIM.

Mid-range average across 7 guides · 5 is very cheap

Money

Euro (EUR) · 1 EUR = 1.15 USD · 1 EUR = 0.86 GBP

Euro country. Cards accepted widely. Avoid exchange booths in Rossio square.

ATMs

Avoid: Euronet, ATMs marked only in English near Rossio

Use: Multibanco (MB)

Multibanco is the national network and is normally fee-free on its side. If a machine is not Multibanco, walk on.

Getting around

A short ride in Lisbon: €5–9 across town — middling

From the airport: Lisbon airport to the centre €12–18

Cheaper than the meter, and the cheapest ride-hailing in western Europe.

City by city, cheapest first

Porto Good value

Francesinha is the local monster sandwich — heavy, cheesy, drowned in beer sauce. Pair it with a Super Bock. For seafood, head to Matosinhos.

Algarve Mid-range

Cataplana — clams, pork and coriander cooked in a copper clam-shell pot — is the regional dish. Grilled sardines from June to September, and percebes if you are brave. Eat one street back from the marina in Albufeira or Lagos and the price halves.

Madeira Mid-range

Espetada, beef on a bay-laurel skewer hung above the table, with bolo do caco bread thick with garlic butter. Scabbard fish with fried banana, which sounds wrong and is a classic. Poncha is rum, honey and lemon, and stronger than it tastes.

Azores Mid-range

Cozido das Furnas is a stew buried in volcanic soil for six hours and dug up at lunchtime — order it a day ahead. Fresh tuna and limpets, cheese from São Jorge, and pineapple grown under glass on São Miguel.

Lisbon Mid-range

Eat pastéis de nata at Manteigaria (not just Pastéis de Belém). Try bacalhau (cod) in any local tasca.

Sintra Mid-range

Travesseiros from Piriquita, a pastry queue that has not shortened in decades, and queijadas, which are older. The village restaurants are ordinary; Lisbon is 40 minutes away and eats better.

Douro Valley Mid-range

Posta à mirandesa, a slab of beef from the north, and the river restaurants do trout and lamprey in season. The port is obvious; the valley’s dry red table wines are the thing to come home with.

The cost rating is this site's own, for a visitor, from the guides' authors and the corrections readers send in. The general rules — the conversion prompt, shoulder season, the airport taxi — are in budget travel tips.

The guides in Portugal

yellow and white tram on road during daytimeLisbonPortugalHills, tiles, and pastéis de nataboats docked near seaside promenade]PortoPortugalPort wine, tiled facades, and a river worth staring atgray and yellow castle at the top of a hillSintraPortugalPalaces in a misty hill forest above Lisbon, one of them painted like a fairgroundOchre sandstone stacks and arches above clear water at Ponta da Piedade in the AlgarveAlgarvePortugalOchre cliffs, hidden coves and three hundred days of sun at the bottom of Europegreen and yellow boat on body of water during daytimeMadeiraPortugalA volcanic wall in the Atlantic, laced with irrigation channels you can walk for daysempty road beside green trees and blue body of water during daytimeAzoresPortugalNine green volcanic islands in the middle of the Atlantic, with crater lakes and whales offshorea large body of water surrounded by a lush green hillsideDouro ValleyPortugalTerraced vineyards falling into a river gorge, worked by hand since before port had a name