Portugal

Portugal is a Schengen country on the euro, so most Western visitors enter visa-free for 90 days in any 180. The newly live EES registers your biometrics on first entry to the Schengen zone — expect that at your first EU airport, not specifically at the Portugal border. ETIAS, the €20 authorisation most non-EU visitors will need, is expected during 2027 with no confirmed date yet, and under-18s and over-70s are exempt from the fee.

A 2026 change in the nationality law lengthened the residency road to citizenship (to ten years for most non-EU nationals, seven for EU and lusophone citizens) — but that’s a concern for people moving to Portugal, not for tourists, whose 90-day visa-free entry is unchanged.

The classic first trip is a line down the west: Porto and the Douro Valley in the green, wetter north; Coimbra, Fátima, Óbidos and Nazaré across the Centro; Lisbon with Sintra, Cascais and Belém in the mild middle; the historic Alentejo interior around Évora; and the sunny, dry Algarve coast in the south (Faro, Lagos, Sagres and the Benagil caves). Trains and coaches link them; a week does two or three regions properly, not all five.

The Atlantic islands are a different trip. Madeira (Funchal, the levada walks, mild year-round) lies about 1,000 km south-west, and the Azores (São Miguel, whale-watching, volcanic crater lakes) some 1,400 km out into the ocean — both are reached by plane, not ferry, so treat each as its own holiday rather than an add-on to the mainland.

April–June and September–October are the sweet spots: warm, far quieter than high summer, and cheaper. Summer is hot and packed, especially the Algarve, though the southern beach season stretches comfortably into October. The climate splits north–south — Porto green and wetter, Lisbon mild, the Algarve dry and sunny — so pack for the region, not the country.

The one seasonal hazard is inland fire. The wildfire season runs July to October in the rural north and centre, and recent years have been severe (2025 burned roughly 284,000 hectares, about double 2024). It doesn’t touch the coastal cities or resorts, but it can bring smoke and road closures to the interior on the worst days — check the forecast if you’re touring the Centro or the Douro in high summer.

The national operator CP links the cities well — Lisbon to Porto in about 2h40 on the Alfa Pendular. Don’t be misled by talk of a high-speed line: it’s under construction and not expected until around 2030 (the first Porto–Soure phase targets 2028), so it’s not an option for your trip. Lisbon and Porto both have cheap, easy metros with the airport on the line, and Rede Expressos and FlixBus coaches fill the intercity gaps.

The electronic tolls are the rental-car trap. Many motorways have no booths — gantries scan automatically. A rental firm fits a Via Verde transponder that auto-bills your card (plus a small daily fee); confirm it’s active at pickup. A foreign-plated car must pre-register (EasyToll at a border kiosk, a prepaid TollCard, or Via Verde Visitors) or risk fines. Good news since 1 January 2025: the Algarve’s A22 and the A23, A24 and A25 are now toll-free.

Sintra’s Pena Palace needs a timed-entry ticket for the interior — pick a date and slot online, days ahead in summer, and arrive in your window or lose it. Sintra town clogs with traffic, so go early and take the shuttle or the 434 bus rather than driving in. Beyond Sintra, the staples are straightforward: Lisbon’s Belém (the monastery and the tower), the iconic Tram 28, Porto and the Douro, and fado in Alfama or Coimbra — and the original pastéis de nata are at Pastéis de Belém.

The Algarve’s Benagil sea cave is now access-controlled. Since August 2025 you can’t swim to it, land on the inner beach, or take an unguided kayak — entry is by licensed boat tour or guided kayak/SUP only, enforced by maritime police with heavy fines. Book a tour rather than turning up with an inflatable.

Lisbon’s crowding is real — Alfama, the trams, Belém and the Sintra day-trip are the pinch points, and the Time Out Market has become almost a byword for the crush. The nightly tax above is the visible cost of that popularity. The 2023 clampdown on short-term lets (Alojamento Local) was largely reversed by a late-2024 law, so licensing is set municipally now — Lisbon and Porto still cap new lets in their saturated central zones, but the national freeze is gone.

Cards are near-universal on the domestic Multibanco network, and contactless works almost everywhere — but the local MB WAY app needs a Portuguese bank account, so it’s not for short-trip visitors. Carry a little cash for small cafés and rural markets. Tipping is modest and not expected: round up, or 5–10% for good restaurant service, and nothing for a counter coffee.

Portugal is very safe, so the real risks are small: pickpocketing on crowded tourist transit (Tram 28 above all, plus trams 15/24/25, the Santa Justa lift, the Time Out Market, Cais do Sodré, and Porto’s São Bento) is the main one. Tap water is safe to drink everywhere, plugs are European Type F at 230V, and the emergency number is 112. One language note: Portuguese is not Spanish, and locals appreciate a few words of their own — and rather dislike being addressed in Spanish. Weighing Portugal against its neighbour? See Portugal vs Spain, measured.

• Boarding Tram 28 in the Alfama crushSkipa loose bag or a back pocket — this is the city’s pickpocket hotspotGoa zipped bag held in front; the multilingual warning signs aboard aren’t decoration
• Queuing for the Santa Justa lift or in the Time Out MarketSkipgetting boxed in while distracted by the view or the stallsGothe free Carmo terrace next door for the same outlook, valuables zipped away
• A man murmurs “hashish, cocaine” in Bairro Alto at nightSkipengaging — the “drugs” are fake (oregano and worse)Gowalking on; it’s a pester, not a threat

Portugal is very safe, so the one real nuisance is pickpocketing on crowded tourist transit — Lisbon’s Tram 28 above all, plus trams 15/24/25, the Santa Justa lift, the Time Out Market and Cais do Sodré, and Porto’s São Bento station. Keep bags zipped and phones away in those specific crushes and you’ve handled the main risk; the tap water is safe to drink nationwide.