Uber

I live in the US, and have used Uber in Canada and Portugal without doing anything additional.

Have used north America based Uber in dozen plus countries seamlessly without getting local SIM.

(Uber provides way for you and driver to contact each other through their platforms but does not work well many times)

also, Uber diagramm of showing card nearby is just marketing. It doesn't even poll drivers until you submit a request.

Similarly, booking Uber in advance is another phony trick. It ensures nothing. Uber platform just start looking for driver few minutes in advance and a find is not guaranteed.

Another problem is that even when uber sends you driver information, car may not come (the graphic showing car inching towards you can be misrepresented many times)

And finally, uber driver cancels a lot specially in suburbia and in foreign countries

So uber is a great convenience in dense urban area especially overseas. But cannot be counted on .

I use Uber and Bolt all the time in Portugal and when I go back to the U.S. to visit. There are occasional glitches, but overall, both work very well. Cancellations and glitches seem to occur more often during the high tourist season.

And, yes it is seamless. The first time you use it in Portugal, you will get a message something like - It looks like your address has changed. No worries.

We have used Uber previously on vacation in the US.

For our current trip in Spain, we used Uber to go from the Malaga airport to our hotel. In Estepona, my husband used it to go to the golf course out of town and also to return. And we used it to go from our Estepona apartment to the bus station. We really like it since most of our drivers don’t speak English.

I did make a reservation for an Uber a day ahead of time on a work trip in Houston, Texas to go from the business to take me to the airport to fly back home. 15 minutes ahead of time, I could see the Uber waiting in an empty parking lot next to the business, and he came over when it was the time I had designated.

Further to my question, for those who have been out of their country- does it make a difference between getting a local SIM card, or paying my provider a roaming fee in regards to having Uber work? Thanks so much.

We have T-Mobile, so we get free data which we can use for using Uber. We have never purchased a local sim card while traveling.

The local sim card question is dependent on your provider. What will they charge for the roaming and how long will you be in Portugal?
You will need some sort of cellular service (not just Wi-Fi) to use Uber easily.
Dennis

I used the Uber app without any problem in Lisbon. I have T-Mobile which includes international service and didn't need to deal with a SIM card. In my opinion, it's much easier (although not necessarily cheaper) to add an international plan to my phone rather than dealing with a different SIM card. When I had Verizon, I paid the $10 per day for international service.

You need phone when you need to call local restaurant or winery or doctor or hotel or airline or tour company or driver

Having an international plan, can help you make calls but they cant call you back on your US number.

Countries that use WhatsApp (like India) solves this problem beautifully.

Many Portugal based tour guides go out of their way to tell you that they are on WhatsApp

It's really boneheaded for a tourism oriented business not to be on WhatsApp. It is totally free for everyone.