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Getting in and visas for Portugal

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Portugal

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Getting in
Getting around

Getting in

By plane

Almost all major full price airlines fly to Portugal (British Airways, Air France, Lufthansa), besides the country's own TAP Portugal. However, there are some cheap fares to be had from the no-frills airlines, like Aer Lingus, Monarch, easyJet and Vueling who have recently started flying to Lisbon(LIS),Porto(OPO)and Faro(FAO) at good prices. There are three international airports in the mainland: Lisbon/Portela(in the north of the city, and not far from the centre),near Loures; Porto/Pedras Rubras/Sa Carneiro (also north of the city and relativelly close to it),in Maia; and Faro,in the Algarve. The Madeira and Azores Islands also have international airports,Madeira/Funchal(FNC);Ponta Delgada(PDL)(Sao Miguel island). From the United States, US Airways offers many flights to Portugal via Philadelphia ,SATA INT./AIR AZORES,from Boston,an Providence(seasonally),TAP/Air Portugal from Newark.

By train

Trains reach most larger cities from Lisbon to Porto,Braga,Aveiro,Coimbra,Evora,Faro. Lisbon is connected to Madrid, Spain; Porto to VigoSpain; Vilar Formoso to Spain ,France and the rest of Europe. In the South it is not possible to enter Portugal from Spain. There are no train connections from i.e. Sevilla to Faro. The only option is to use buses, there are many. For more information, contact:

CP, Portuguese Railways.

By car

Roads are generally good, and you can reach almost all major cities with ease, either by motorway or by good, modern roads. The biggest cities are well served by modern highways (most have tolls), and you can travel the full North-South length of the country without ever leaving the highway, if you choose to. However, some secondary roads are ill-treated and may be dangerous if proper care is not taken. Also, Portuguese driving can seem erratic and, frankly, scary to the uninitiated. The country shares with most southern european countries something that the successive Portuguese governments have been trying to fight: terrible road behaviour from some drivers. In order to fight this, road laws changed recently in order to punish with great severity speeding, driving without license, driving under the influence of alcohol or narcotics, etc. (From someone on a motor touring holiday in late 2006: The most obvious bit of selfish driving is overtaking. You can be on a 2-lane toll highway and be unable to see any other traffic except the car you're overtaking at 30 kph over the speed limit and the car about 6 feet from your back end flashing its headlights to get past you. "Letting on" manners when slip roads come on to fast roads are also pretty poor. On other roads, you'll get used to two classic Portuguese experiences: suicidal overtaking attempts and the resultant absurdly overdone signs indicating when you can and can't overtake - sometimes all of 5 yards apart, and the "penalty stop" traffic light as you enter the 50 kph zone in each small town, with camera to decide whether you're over the speed limit. Rather absurdly, once you're through this, you can go as fast as you like - we never saw a second penalty stop signal. Someone really should add up the cost of all the no-overtaking signs and tell Portuguese drivers how many they must be paying for each.) It is probably unwise for those unfamiliar with Portuguese driving to try to drive in Lisbon - be aware if you do that city drivers give no quarter and have limited respect for lane markings (where lane markings exists!). If you do want to try, choose a weekend or an hour outside the rush hour periods. These are early mornings (8 am - 9.30 am) and late afternoons (5 pm - 7.30 pm). Other Portugese cities are much better, but often have very narrow roads, and insane round-abouts which requires confident driving to get through safely.