Planning a month's visit to Portugal

What area(s) of Portugal do you come from? Do you have living relatives in these areas? I can help out with genealogy questions if you need assistance, especially regarding the Azores. Have you had your DNA tested? Do you have any interaction with a Portuguese community or your immediate family where you now live?

I assume that you do not speak/write Portuguese.
I have found 2 good sites for learning the language.

1. https://www.memrise.com/courses/english/portuguese-portugal-2/
   I have been learning Portugal Portuguese here since November 2016. Am now halfway thru Lesson 6. Prepping for September 2017 3-week visit.
   I like this site because:
   a. it has oral and written
   b. set your own pace
   c. free or Pro (still inexpensive)
   d. lots of nudges to keep you going (points, badges, learning events, charts)

2. https://www.practiceportuguese.com
   Created by 2 guys living in Portugal. "We want European Portuguese"
   Some free and some parts subscription.
   Too advanced, at this time, for me.

Another great site is https://juliedawnfox.com

Katherine's advice below is good.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1465440526 DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Portugal

Be careful when trying to looking online for Portuguese language courses etc as many seem to be American and therefore use Brazillian Portuguese, which is quite different.

There are many dialects and in some areas, such as the Algarve, they tend to chop the ends off words saying for example "obrigad" not "obrigado" and sometimes they also chop the start of some words too, making life difficult!

Which parts of the country do you want to visit and when?

The first thing i always do when visiting a new place is buy a couple of good guide books. RS is good but he skips entire parts of the country that are lovely, so you might also want a Lonely Planet or similar. As other posters mentioned, if you want to visit areas where ancestors lived, that gives you a head start on where to go.
The bigger areas of Lisbon, Porto and the Algarve have lots of English speakers, but once you get to smaller areas that don't attract a lot of tourists, English is scarce. That could present a fairly big problem. I've been taking português lessons for over a year and still struggle to understand the very rapid speech of most Portuguese people.
You will obviously need to decide which areas you want to visit. I recommend at least a week in each location and renting an apartment will give you more of the flavor of what the country is really all about.

Brush up on your knowledge of Cristiano Ronaldo and the Portugal 2016 Euro Cup victory... Seriously. I find that living among the people means knowing a little about things they love, and in Europe, "futbol" is cultural king. Obviously not everyone watches the game, and this is NOT meant to stereotype, but I love learning topics like that so when I'm on the bus or at a restaurant, I can easily bond with a local. When you show an interest in things that people are passionate about, it seems to transcend language barriers. So in addition to the language, the museums, the cities to visit, hotels, airport transfers and other logistics, try to plan to learn about some general topics that interest the people there.

Hi! Do you by any chance happen to know the region of origin of your ancestors? North? South? Maybe I can point you in the right direction. It's always fantastic to see someone looking for their roots back in Portugal. Good for you!

As to the language, and the different accents, there's, in fact, a big difference from region to region, especially considering we're such a small country. The most extreme case is "Mirandês" a very particular dialect that is, in fact, Portugal's official second language, Yes, not many people know this. Look for "Mirandese" on Wikipedia for example. The truth, however, is that everybody understands what everybody else is saying. :D People from Minho have accent, people from Porto speak with a very distinct intonation, people from Braga, Alentejo (a very know accent), Algarve (as already stated above) and even in Aveiro, my hometown, older people use B's instead of V's. What we really don't use is Brazilian Portuguese! And that's also a fact.

As in any other country, "obrigado" and "olá" goes a long way and normally puts a smile on our faces. If you manage to add a "bom-dia", "boa-tarde", "boa-noite" and if you try to say "adeus" when you leave, we'll make you honorary citizens :) and we'll feel "saudade" once you leave.

Hope you find some of your past! Once again, please let me know if you need any help.