--- title: "Top 10 Things To Do in Portugal (City Guides) Wimup" description: "Browse Wimup's Top 10 guides across Portugal, Lisbon, Porto, Sintra and more cities, mapped and filmed. When to go, how to get around, and where to start." url: https://wimup.com/country/portugal type: Country guide updated: 2026-10-06 publisher: Wimup (https://wimup.com) --- # Top 10s across Portugal **Atlantic light**, tiled facades and food that rewards ordering badly. Portugal packs an outsized amount of coastline, wine country and city into a country you can cross in a day. ## Quick answer A first trip is **Lisbon**, a day in **Sintra**, then the train north to **Porto** and a night in the **Douro**. Add the **Algarve** if you want the coast, the **Alentejo** if you want the quiet, and give **Madeira** or the **Azores** a week of their own. The best windows are **May to June** and **September**. ## Quick facts - **Best months:** May · Jun · Sep - **Ideal length:** 10–14 days - **Budget per day:** $85–150 - **Language:** Portuguese, English widely spoken - **Getting around:** CP rail & Alfa Pendular - **5** City guides - **11,424,031** People - **3** Video guides Portugal is small enough to see properly and varied enough to keep surprising you. Lisbon is the obvious opening, Porto is the three-day counterweight in the north, and the Douro, the Alentejo and the Algarve each make a case for a second week. ## 5 Portugal city guides 1. [Lisbon](https://wimup.com/city/lisbon.md): Europe · 10 picks 2. [Porto](https://wimup.com/city/porto.md): Europe · 10 picks 3. [Sintra](https://wimup.com/city/sintra.md): Europe · 10 picks 4. [Ponta Delgada](https://wimup.com/city/ponta-delgada.md): Europe · 10 picks 5. [Coimbra](https://wimup.com/city/coimbra.md): Europe · 10 picks ## Know before you go - **Population:** 11,424,031 - **Area:** 92,225 km² - **Density:** 123.9 / km² - **Capital:** Lisbon - **Major cities:** Lisbon, Porto, Braga - **Tourism board:** Official site - **Currency:** Euro (EUR) Cards work almost everywhere, including small cafés. Multibanco is the domestic network, and its ATMs beat the standalone machines aimed at tourists. - **Language:** Portuguese European Portuguese, which sounds markedly different from the Brazilian version most learners hear first. English is widespread in the cities and along the coast. - **Calling code:** +351 - **Power:** 230V · Type C/F - **Emergency:** 112 One free number for police, ambulance and fire, from any phone. SNS 24 on 808 24 24 24 handles non-urgent medical advice around the clock. - **Visa:** Schengen · 90/180 Portugal is in the Schengen area, so most Western passports enter for 90 days in any 180 without a visa. Confirm your own nationality on the official consular list before booking. - **Getting around:** CP rail Alfa Pendular links Braga, Porto, Coimbra, Lisbon and Faro on one spine. Coaches take over for the Alentejo and the interior, and the islands are reached by air. - **Tipping:** Round up Service is not added to the bill and nothing is expected. Rounding up in a café and leaving a little more after a long dinner is the local range. ## When to visit - **Jan**: Wet in the north, mild on the Algarve, and the quietest the cities get. - **Feb**: Almond blossom in the south and Carnival in the last week. - **Mar** (good): Spring arrives early below Lisbon. Long light, low crowds. - **Apr** (good): Green everywhere and warm enough for the coast. Easter fills Braga. - **May** (best): The best all-round month: warm, dry, and the sea turning swimmable. - **Jun** (best): The Santos Populares take over Lisbon and Porto in the middle of the month. - **Jul** (peak): Hot inland, busy on both coasts, and prices move with the crowds. - **Aug** (peak): The whole country is on holiday at once. Lisbon and the Algarve at their fullest. - **Sep** (best): The heat eases, the sea is at its warmest, and the Douro harvest starts. - **Oct** (good): Mild and clear with the vineyards turning. Rain returns to the north late in the month. - **Nov**: Grey and quiet in the north, still bright on the southern coast. - **Dec**: Cold nights and Christmas lights, with Madeira the warm exception. ## Fun fact Portugal and England have been formally allied since 1386, which makes it the oldest alliance still in force anywhere in the world. ## Stereotypes, sorted out - **Myth:** Portugal is a cheaper version of Spain **Reality:** Different language, different food, and nine centuries as a separate state with borders that have barely moved since 1297. The two countries share a peninsula and very little else on the plate or in the ear. - **Myth:** It rains all the time in Porto **Reality:** The north is greener than the south because it is wetter, but the rain concentrates between October and March. Summers in Porto are dry, and in July the city is cooler than Lisbon and no wetter. - **Myth:** Everyone drinks port after dinner **Reality:** In Portugal port is as often an aperitif, usually white port long with tonic. What is actually on the table at dinner is Douro red, Alentejo red or a cold vinho verde. - **Myth:** The Algarve is one long resort strip **Reality:** The building is concentrated in the central stretch either side of Albufeira. West of Lagos the coast runs into protected park land, and east of Faro the Ria Formosa lagoon is a nature reserve of islands and channels. - **Myth:** Fado is a tourist show **Reality:** The staged dinner version exists, but so do the fado vadio houses where anyone in the room can stand up and sing. The form is on the UNESCO intangible heritage list, and Lisbon and Coimbra sing two different kinds of it. - A coffee is a bica in Lisbon and a cimbalino in Porto. Ordering "um café" gets you a small strong espresso either way. - Lunch starts around one and dinner rarely before eight. Kitchens off the tourist streets keep those hours strictly. - The bread, olives and cheese that arrive unordered are the couvert, and they are charged for. Waving them away is completely normal. - Portuguese is not Spanish, and opening in Spanish lands worse than opening in English. Bom dia and obrigado go a long way. - Football allegiance is local and serious. Benfica, Porto and Sporting are a conversation, not small talk. - Queues are formalised: take a numbered ticket in pharmacies, post offices and anywhere with a counter. ## Famous Portuguese faces - **Fernando Pessoa**: Poet who wrote as dozens of invented authors and left the Book of Disquiet unfinished. - **José Saramago**: Won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1998, the only Portuguese writer to do so - **Amália Rodrigues**: The voice that carried fado out of Lisbon back rooms and onto the world stage - **Cristiano Ronaldo**: Born in Funchal, the all-time leading goalscorer in men’s international football - **Luís de Camões**: Wrote Os Lusíadas, published in 1572 and still the national poem - **Vasco da Gama**: Reached India by sea in 1498 and rerouted the spice trade away from the Mediterranean - **Álvaro Siza Vieira**: Portugal's first Pritzker architect, in 1992, and the reference point for all since. - **Egas Moniz**: Shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1949, Portugal’s first Nobel laureate - **Eusébio**: Top scorer at the 1966 World Cup and the striker who made Benfica a European name - **Rosa Mota**: Olympic marathon champion in 1988 and three times European champion - **José Mourinho**: Won the Champions League with Porto in 2004 before a career spent managing elsewhere - **Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen**: Poet of the sea and the light, and the first woman to win the Camões Prize, in 1999 - **António Lobo Antunes**: Novelist whose years as an army doctor in the Angolan war run under almost all he writes. - **Mariza**: Took fado into concert halls worldwide and made it a young singer’s form again - **Carlos do Carmo**: Fadista who sang Lisbon itself, and the first Portuguese Latin Grammy lifetime honoree. - **Salvador Sobral**: Won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2017 with Amar Pelos Dois, Portugal’s first victory - **Maria João Pires**: Pianist whose Mozart and Schubert recordings are a standard reference - **Paula Rego**: Painter of unsettling, story-driven pictures, with her own museum in Cascais - **Joana Vasconcelos**: Contemporary artist who builds monumental sculpture out of domestic objects - **Eduardo Souto de Moura**: Second Portuguese Pritzker laureate, in 2011, who cut Braga's stadium into a quarry. - **Ferdinand Magellan**: Led the first voyage around the world, and was killed in the Philippines in 1521. - **Henry the Navigator**: Bankrolled the Atlantic voyages out of the Algarve that opened the Portuguese sea empire - **Pedro Álvares Cabral**: Made landfall in Brazil in 1500 while sailing for India - **Pedro Nunes**: Sixteenth-century cosmographer whose work on navigation gave the nonius scale its name - **Maria de Sousa**: Immunologist who first described the T-cell areas of lymphoid organs. ## Must-try Portuguese food - **Bacalhau à Brás**: Salt cod shredded through eggs, onion and matchstick potatoes, finished with olives. - **Cozido à portuguesa**: The national boiled dinner: meats, smoked sausage and vegetables out of one pot. - **Arroz de pato**: Duck rice baked until the top crisps, with sausage laid across it. - **Bacalhau à Gomes de Sá**: Porto’s version: salt cod layered with potato and onion, then egg and olives on top. - **Arroz de marisco**: Soupy shellfish rice, ladled at the table from the pan it cooked in. - **Sardinhas assadas**: Charcoal-grilled sardines eaten off bread, the smell of every June street party. - **Polvo à lagareiro**: Octopus roasted with smashed potatoes under a great deal of olive oil. - **Amêijoas à Bulhão Pato**: Clams opened in garlic, coriander and white wine. The bread is not optional. - **Cataplana de marisco**: Algarve shellfish steamed in a hinged copper pan that arrives at the table still shut. - **Caldeirada**: The fishermen's stew, layered and never stirred, so nothing falls apart. - **Francesinha**: Porto’s layered meat sandwich under melted cheese and a beer and tomato sauce. - **Leitão da Bairrada**: Suckling pig roasted whole for the crackling, eaten between Coimbra and Aveiro. - **Bifana**: Thin pork steaks stewed in garlic and white wine, pushed into a soft roll. - **Alheira**: Bread-and-poultry sausage from Trás-os-Montes, invented in the Inquisition years. - **Tripas à moda do Porto**: Tripe and white beans, the dish that gave the city’s people their nickname. - **Caldo verde**: Kale shredded to threads through potato broth, with a coin of chouriço. - **Açorda alentejana**: Bread, garlic, coriander and a poached egg, assembled in the bowl with boiling water. - **Sopa da pedra**: Ribatejo’s stone soup, thick with beans and meat, and named after the story. - **Canja**: Chicken and rice broth, what the country makes for anyone who is unwell. - **Pastéis de bacalhau**: Salt cod and potato fritters, shaped between two spoons. - **Peixinhos da horta**: Green beans in a light batter, fried and eaten with a drink before the meal. - **Presunto**: Air-dried ham, at its best from Chaves in the north or Barrancos in the Alentejo. - **Queijo Serra da Estrela**: Sheep’s cheese set with thistle instead of rennet, spooned out of its own crust. - **Queijo de Azeitão**: A small, soft sheep’s cheese from south of Lisbon, eaten the same way. - **Broa de milho**: Dense corn bread with a thick crust, the loaf that soup and sardines are eaten with. - **Pastel de nata**: Custard tart with a scorched top and a shell that shatters. Cinnamon is contested. - **Travesseiros de Sintra**: Almond cream folded into long pillows of puff pastry. - **Ovos moles de Aveiro**: Sweet egg yolk paste sealed inside wafer shells shaped like fish and barrels. - **Pastel de Tentúgal**: Paper-thin pastry wound around egg cream, still made in the one town it is named after. - **Bolo de mel**: Madeira's dark molasses and spice cake, traditionally broken by hand, never cut. - **Espetada madeirense**: Beef threaded onto a bay laurel skewer and grilled over wood. - **Cozido das Furnas**: Azorean stew buried in volcanic ground at São Miguel and left to cook underground. - **Arroz de cabidela**: Chicken rice finished with the bird’s blood and sharpened with vinegar. - **Vinho verde**: Young, light white from the Minho, with a faint prickle and a low alcohol level. - **Port**: Fortified Douro wine, drunk here as an aperitif as often as after dinner. - **Madeira wine**: Deliberately heated in the cask, so an open bottle keeps for years. - **Ginjinha**: Sour cherry liqueur poured into a small glass, with the cherry left in the bottom. ## By theme - [Hidden gems](https://wimup.com/hidden-gems.md) ## Films - [Lisbon on Foot, Hills, Trams & Tarts](https://wimup.com/watch/lisbon.md), 4:42:38 - [Porto & Douro](https://wimup.com/watch/porto.md), 47:38 - [Best of Sintra](https://wimup.com/watch/sintra.md), 6:21 ## FAQs ### How many days do you need in Portugal? Ten days covers Lisbon, Sintra, Porto and a night in the Douro without a rushed morning. A week means choosing between the north and the south, and the trip is better for choosing. ### What is the best month to visit Portugal? May, June and September. Warm enough for the coast, quiet enough for the cities, and outside the August weeks when the whole country takes its holiday at the same time. ### Do you need a car in Portugal? Not for Lisbon, Porto, Coimbra or Sintra: the trains link them and the cities are walkable. The Alentejo, the Douro valley and the western Algarve are the parts that only open up with one. ### Do people speak English in Portugal? Widely, and more readily than in most of southern Europe. Portuguese television subtitles foreign films instead of dubbing them, which is the usual explanation. ### Is Portugal still cheap? Cheaper than most of Western Europe, and no longer the bargain it was a decade ago. Lisbon and the Algarve in August are the exceptions. Eating and drinking well is where the value has held. ## Related countries - [Italy](https://wimup.com/country/italy.md) - [France](https://wimup.com/country/france.md) - [All of Europe](https://wimup.com/europe) Part of [Europe](https://wimup.com/europe.md) ## Sources - [Tourism board](https://www.visitportugal.com/en?utm_source=wimup.com&utm_medium=referral) - Rankings are Wimup editorial picks. Prices, durations and budgets are editorial estimates, not live quotes; check the official site before you go.