How to Get Around Portugal

One rail spine, then a car

Portugal is long and narrow, and almost everything a visitor wants is either on the Lisbon-Coimbra-Porto corridor or reached from it. Trains along that line are frequent and comfortable and make a multi-city trip work without a car. Off it -- the Alentejo, the interior, the Douro villages, the wilder Algarve coast -- the network thins to a few services a day and a car becomes the difference between seeing a region and passing through it.

Getting in

Lisbon's Humberto Delgado and Porto's Francisco Sá Carneiro are the two main international gateways, with Faro handling a large share of seasonal charter and package traffic for the Algarve. Which one you fly into should follow the trip rather than the fare: Faro is an hour's flight and most of a day's drive from Lisbon.

Driving

The motorway network is good and mostly tolled, with some stretches using electronic-only tolling that a hire car needs to be set up for -- confirm this at the counter rather than discovering it at a gantry. Historic centres in Lisbon, Porto and the walled towns are steep, narrow and often restricted, so the sensible pattern is a car for the regions and no car for the cities.

Cities

Lisbon and Porto both have metros, and both have the trams and funiculars that exist because the cities are built on hills; the funiculars are public transport rather than attractions, and a transport card covers them. Portugal also expects you to be able to identify yourself: you must provide photo ID if asked by a police officer.

Two seasonal rules

There is an increased risk of wildfires from April to October, when the weather is hot and dry, and it affects the interior and the forested north far more than the coast -- check local warnings before a walking trip in those months. On the coast, supervised beaches use a flag system: a red flag means you must not enter the water, and yellow means it is only safe to paddle at the water's edge. The Atlantic here has serious currents, and the flags are not advisory decoration.

Decide the airport by the trip, not the fare

Faro serves the Algarve and is most of a day's drive from Lisbon; Porto serves the north and the Douro. A cheap flight into the wrong end of a long, narrow country is spent again on the transfer. Book the airport that matches where the trip actually is.

Electronic tolls catch hire cars out

Some Portuguese motorway stretches are electronic-only, with no cash lane and no barrier -- the charge is read from a transponder or a registered plate. A hire car should be set up for it, and that is a question to ask at the counter, because the alternative is a notice weeks later. Confirm which system the car uses before leaving the airport.

The flags mean what they say

On supervised beaches a red flag means you must not enter the water and a yellow flag means it is only safe to paddle at the water's edge. This is the Atlantic, not the Mediterranean: the water is colder, the surf is bigger and the rip currents are real, and the west-coast beaches in particular are not swimming beaches on a bad day regardless of the temperature.

Wildfire season overlaps the walking season

The increased wildfire risk runs from April to October, precisely the months a walker would choose for the Serra da Estrela, the Peneda-Gerês or the interior. That is not a reason to cancel; it is a reason to check local warnings on the day rather than the forecast from a week earlier, and to have an alternative route in mind.