Travel by Rideshare and/or Taxi

Posted by newmans5 on 02/21/24 08:32 PM

My husband and I will be in Portugal the last 2 weeks in May, traveling via public transportation, mostly. But some small towns have limited connections by bus (Alcobaca to Tomar, for example), and I note that Rome2Rio (which I consult for bus and train schedules) refers to "Rideshare". Does this mean Uber or something else? Is Uber reliable and safe in Portugal? Do the drivers speak English? A company referred to on Rome2Rio is BlaBla Car - does anyone have experience with this group?

Also, will taxi drivers speak English, or does that depend on whether we're in Lisbon or a small town? Rome2Rio provides phone numbers for taxi companies - should we use these, or get a reference from our hotel? Experience with Rideshare, Uber and taxis, welcome!

Posted by funpig

Vancouver, BC, Canada

02/21/24 08:36 PM

1318 posts

We used Bolt. You can get estimates for Bolt rides using Google Maps.

Posted by kathrynj

Cascais, Portugal

02/22/24 08:17 AM

1817 posts

I use Uber and Bolt regularly with only the occasional glitch - driver’s cancelling, etc. Safely isn’t an issue in Portugal - period! Bolt is an app just like Uber. It’s widely used and usually a bit cheaper. You can download the app for free.

Taxi driver’s are one of the professions that seem to speak the least English. But, not all Uber and bolt driver’s speak English, especially not that we have more Brazilian drivers, so don’t count on it. I took taxis when I first moved here and just had the address of where I wanted to go on a piece of paper or my phone.

Some of the smaller towns may have very limited Uber or Bolt. Sometimes the hotels will have the name of a driver in the area that you can use the entire time you are there. I’ve done that in the Douro - Pinhao - and it worked well.

Posted by SandyO

San Franciso Bay Area, USA

02/22/24 02:30 PM

1029 posts

I used Uber and Bolt last October in Porto, Coimbra, and Lisbon. It is relatively inexpensive. With Uber you can reserve rides and I did that when I needed to ensure I had transport.

A couple of notes:

Each of these ride services can take time if the weather is rainy, so give yourself enough time to get to your destination. In Porto, for example, it took 20 minutes for the Uber to arrive and we almost missed our train.
Most of our drivers did not speak English. It wasn't an issue. If we needed to communicate, we would just use Google Translate.