We're thinking of renting a car to drive from Porto to Lisbon, possibly visiting oceanside towns on the way, and wondered if anyone had recommendations on how stressful it's likely to be. We do not want to drive a car in either city, partly because I understand it's hard to find parking and partly because we're told public transportation is excellent.
What is it like driving on main roads outside of major cities?
Generally, easy and same as anywhere else in Europe or other places in the "developed" world.
In big cities, it can be more stressful (same as at home only with smaller spaces/margin for error). Yeah, parking.
Driving in another country always requires some initial adjustment and preparation, Portugal is no different.
hey hey rick.simon
of course it can be stressful driving in another country in big cities and finding parking, like it is here in our own big cities in the states.
read up on the laws, signage, rules of the road and documents you need. carry small coins if needed for toll booths, if booth "meter" not working for cards
changes have happened with renting a car in many places in the past couple years. look up: aaa.com/IDP
an international driving permit used along with you state driver's license together. get one at AAA office same day for $25/2 photos taken there, good for a year. some rental companies may ask some may not best to have one, some may deny your reservation. worth the $25 for less stress. if stopped on a random stop you will be asked and don't have, $$$$$ fine. get it before you leave on trip. to me not worth thinking twice about for the other expense you are spending to have a great vacation. enjoy
aloha
We rented a car there last October. We picked it up in Porto, stayed in Tomar for 4 nights driving to Fatima, Obidos, and Alcobaca. We dropped it off in Lisbon as soon as we arrived. Actually first my husband dropped off me, my cousin, and our suitcases at the hotel, then the car.
It was an easy drive on the roadways. Tomar had some narrow streets but nothing too bad. We parked in a garage off the main square so it was easy to get into and out of town.
Obidos has a large parking lot at the base of the town, Fatima has huge lots, and since we visited Alcobaca on a Sunday, we found parking in the street.
We used the suggestions in Rick’s guidebook for all of the parking in these 3 places. The Hotel Republica in Tomar told us where to park - it was included in the rate.
In Porto, we stayed on the Gaia side. We picked up the car in the parking lot of a department store up the hill far from the waterfront. It was an easy ride out of the city.
We found it more stressful than other people it seems. We had previously only driven in Greece and Sicily. The reason we found it stressful is there was a lot of traffic and decisions about which exit to get off on (there always seemed to be many) had to be made at fairly high speeds. We actually did not get lost often or even make wrong turns, it just seemed like we were in constant danger of doing so.
We did not find parking to be any more difficult than anywhere else.
The only place we enjoyed driving was the Algarve coast. It was October and not very crowded. We wandered around a lot and enjoyed that.
My husband made me promise we would not rent a car on our next trip. We are going to northern Italy in June and relying only on public transportation.
Not bad. We drove roads big and small, but planned our itinerary to not drive in Lisbon and Porto. Other than that, we drove from Lisbon, to Evora, to a small nowhere town East of there, to the Algarve and all around there then up to Obidos, Navare, Tomar, Coimbra, the Douro Valley, to Porto. Made some great stops along the way, did not stay the night in all those towns, but did well.
Do accept the toll-pass option they have if you will be covering a lot of ground. When we went, traffic was weirdly light. The only other caution I have is that any place that has parking garages, those can be treacherous, especially with a stick-shift. Steep narrow ramps, popping out into street traffic, and parking spaces are miniscule.
I didn’t find it stressful at all. Most of the highways are toll roads. Since we had plenty of time, we drove mostly back roads when possible. When driving those, speed limits change frequently. When entering any town, slow down to 30kph/18mph. Using back roads will take you longer to get to where you’re going.
To cut down on stress, I looked up free parking lots in all the places we were visiting (sites, lodging, towns) and bookmarked them to Google maps. It took me straight to them.
The main roads are easy. The back roads can be "challenging". Few road signs, rural traffic issues, narrow and steep. The smaller your car the better.
rick.simon
Where do you live and drive and perhaps we could give comparison.
I live in British Columbia and commute regularly in and out of Vancouver. I drove out of Lisbon to Evora and throughout the Algarve. I did not find it difficult.
Here are my tips:
If you are from the US or Canada, you do not need an international driver's permit. Your valid home driver's license is good enough. Save gour money.
Look up Portugal road signs and familiarize yourself before you drive: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_signs_in_Portugal
Use Google Maps on your phone; get a mobile data esim. We found that the directions were almost infallible when driving within and in between cities. It was also good for finding available parking, gas stations, traffic conditions, etc.
When you approach a roundabout, only put on your right turn signal if you intend to turn on the first right. If you intend to turn on the second or subsequent right, you should actually put on your left turn signal as you enter the roundabout (to let others know that you tend to continue circling) and only signal right as you approach the intended right turn exit.
Check out ZestCarRental.com. Go ahead and compare autoeurope.com or other big rental companies. I'm pretty confident when you compare the bookings side by side, zest will be better.
Get the toll transponder. (It may mandatory with most rental companies). The major roadways all have have toll booths. It is better to pay automatically than to find out later that you have a toll booth violation. You will save more time and gas using the modern highways then trying to navigate around back country roads.
A slight correction to funpig’s tolls comment. NOT all toll roads have toll booths. Most are exclusively electronic although some do have booths. You can familiarize yourself with Portugal’s toll system using the below link.
I should have been more clear. The toll "booths" I was referring to are actually automatic and electronic receivers on the highway. We basically drove through at full speed and we heard a little ping from the transponder in our car. Everything got automatically billed/paid without any fuss.
I am not sure what is the alternative to not having the transponder, whether stopping to pay or going to some government office at the end of your trip to pay the accumulated tolls. All I know is that there were lots of complaints in TripAdvisor by travelers who did not have the transponder and received violation tickets for failing to pay the tolls, plus penalties and extra charges. Ergo, make sure you have the transponder and avoid the problems.
