Plan to visit Portugal, but you have absolutely no idea what to expect? Where to park, how to tip and what to expect from Portuguese cuisine? Check out these easy-to-remember, but very useful tips regarding traveling in Portugal!
Driving
Driving in Portugal basically doesn’t differ from driving in other Western European countries. Stay on the right-hand side of the road and get behind the wheels only if you are 18 or older. Also you should have the following documentation at all times: driving license, of course, vehicle roadworthiness certificate (if your car is older than 4 years), road tax and insurance. Must-haves in your car are reflective safety vest and reflective warning triangle. You should definitely wear seat belts both in the front and back seats. If you are driving with children younger than 12, they can’t sit in the front seat, unless their height is more than 1.5 m. Also they should sit in special child car seats. Of course, you can’t drive with your headphones on and mobile phone can be used only with hands-free system.
Speed limit in residential areas are 50km/h, 90 km/h in open roads and 120 km/h – in freeways (motorways). Most Portuguese roads are in good condition. You must park your car facing roads’ direction. Portuguese drivers might be impatient at times and maybe little aggressive on the roads, so drive really safely. Also, some of them park at the most random places, for example, roundabouts, but don’t be fooled – it’s illegal.
Tip! Autoestrada in Portuguese means freeway.
Tipping
Tipping isn’t crucial in Portugal. Additional charge about service (serviço) mostly isn’t added to your bill, but if the hotel or restaurant service was satisfying to you, you can tip 10% of the service amount. Of course, if you are very pleased, you can easily leave a larger tip. In the North, e.g., Braga, 10 percent tip is considered more than generous.
Anyway, this is your choice and a tip of 2-3 euros, even in expensive restaurants, is considered enough. The same thing applies to taxi drivers, but nobody will consider you rude, if you didn’t tip a taxi driver or hotel staff daily. To bellboys, who carry your luggage, it is customary to tip 1-2 euros.
Communication
Portuguese are very pleasant, honest and polite people, however they are proud of their country and language as well, so don’t insult them in any way. In tourist areas most of the people, especially young ones, speak English.
You will be treated with respect, if you try to speak Portuguese, but at the beginning don’t try too hard and stick to the easy phrases:
- Do you speak English? – Fala inglês?
- please – por favor;
- you are welcome – de nada;
- thank you – obrigado (for a man) and obrigada (for a woman);
- good morning – bom dia;
- good afternoon – boa tarde;
- good night – boa noite.
BBC has some great video tutorials which you can watch online and learn some of the basic and very useful words and phrases in Portuguese. You can check them out here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/portuguese/talk/greetings/
Food and drinks
Food
Variety of Portuguese food is just amazing! As Portugal has such a long coastline, it’s quite obvious seafood is one of the main ingredients in many dishes. Especially popular is bacalhau – salt cod, but that is just one of many others. Soup also has significant role in Portuguese dishes and it is served as first course of the meal. One of the most popular soups is caldo verde, which is made from kale, potatoes, and spicy smoked sausage. They also have learned to prepare one of most delicious garlic chickens in the world.
Remain calm, if you are vegetarian. Portuguese doesn’t have lots of vegetarian food and you maybe won’t have such Portuguese cuisine experience as others, but you won’t starve. Vegetables usually are served as garnish to main meal, but feel free to ask waiter for vegetables as the main meal. Also they have great pick-5-item salad bars, where you can choose your own ingredients. We also suggest asking waiter what are ingredients in your desired vegetarian meal or salad, because, for example, tuna to many Portuguese people doesn’t count as meat.
You should definitely prepare yourself for mouth-watering experience in Portugal, because food there not only tastes amazing, but it’s also appealing and smells so good!
Drinks
Portugal has become world famous for their variety of Port wines, however there are many other beverages you can pick as Vinho Verde(green wine) and beer is quite popular, too. Legal drinking age is 16 for beer and wine and 18 for spirts.
What else?
- Currency is euro, and one euro is divided to 100 cents. ATMs accepting international cards are easy to find.
- What differs from other European countries – when paying a bill, you must not only type your PIN code, but also confirm amount of the bill.
- Most of the places take credit or debit cards, however smaller and more local restaurants or shops might accept only cash.
- In restaurants most of the time waiter will bring you some appetizers like olives, bread, some meat and cheese. Thing is, you might actually be charged for this, even if you didn’t ask for it. If you don’t want to pay extra money, check with the waiter if the appetizers are for free or just send them back.
- You can also get some great deals in restaurants at the lunchtime, ordering menu do dia (menu of 2-3 courses) or prato do dia (meal of the day).
- Before leaving for holidays check with your bank, if you won’t be extra charged for each transition.
- Hottest and busiest months are July and August, so to avoid unbearable weather, when you can’t even leave your hotel room, visit Portugal in May, June and September. Weather at that time is great and there won’t be such large tourist crowds.
- Most of the public toilets (sanitariums), especially in Porto cost 20 cents. The problem is, they take only 5, 10 and 20 cent pieces. So, if you really have to go, you might end up paying 10, 20 or 30 times the price.
- If you plan visiting some museums, consider going on Sundays – in many of them entrance on Sundays is absolutely free!