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Uber vs. Bolt

Posted by (Franklin, Tennessee) on

We will be in Portugal this month staying in Sintra, Porto, Coimbra and Lisbon and plan to use Uber frequently while there including for day trips within Guimaraes and Braga as well as from and to Lisbon Airport. I will have an Airalo data only esim on my phone while there and will shut off my American primary cell service. My wife will have an Orange e-sim card which will allow for phone calls in country.

Is it worth the trouble to get Bolt? It does not look like I can activate a Bolt account in USA, but must wait until we get to Portugal to do so. Also, will Bolt work for me using data service only and will my American phone number be the identifier for my account? I am just a little confused as to how it works and have never had an issue with Uber in the several countries we have visited in Europe.
Any suggestions or help would be appreciated.

Posted by
4832 posts

We used Uber in Portugal in the Fall. Every driver we had was a driver for Uber and Bolt. On average Bolt was slightly cheaper when we compared but I was used to Uber and used it. An example of cost comparison, when I was comparing prices the night before I needed a ride to the Porto airport Bolt came it at about €13.50 and Uber was €14.

Posted by
606 posts

Just returned from 12 days in Portugal. I had both Bolt and Uber on my phone which worked fine with data only and my American phone number. We used Bolt in Lisbon and Coimbra with no issues. Use Uber once in Sintra when Bolt could not find a driver to accept our ride request.
The Uber driver spoke no English, drove in a very unsafe way from Monserrat to Pena Palace, and the ride took twice as long and cost twice as much as the original "quote" from Uber. I realize this was luck of the draw with that driver but we chose not to use Uber again after that. All the Bolt drivers were very helpful and drove safely. FWIW.

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