Portugal

Understand

Portugal sits on the western edge of the Iberian peninsula, with two archipelagos in the Atlantic Ocean. Despite its small land area, it has many landforms and climates between the Atlantic coast and the mountains.

Get in

In addition, citizens of Andorra may enter and reside in Portugal indefinitely without a visa.

See

thumb|Pena National Palace, in [[Sintra: it's one of the major expressions of 19th-century Romanticism in the world.]] thumb|The luxurious [[Cascais village in the Portuguese Riviera (Estoril Coast).]] thumb|[[Fátima|Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima: this is one of the largest pilgrimage sites (Marian shrine) in the world.]]

Eat

Portuguese cuisine evolved from hearty peasant food drawn from the land and abundant seafood found in the country's lengthy coast with the cows, pigs and goats raised on the limited grazing land of its interior. From these humble origins, spices and condiments brought back to the country during the exploration and colonisation of South America, Africa, the East Indies and the Far East, contributed to the development of what become regarded as 'typical' Portuguese cuisine which inherently, also helped shape the cuisine in the regions under Portuguese influence, from Brazil and Cape Verde to Thailand and Japan. Today, traditional Portuguese cuisine is served alongside the latest trendy and fusion cuisine styles. Several establishments have been awarded Michelin stars.

thumb|Caldo verde: the green broth is a very popular soup in Portuguese cuisine. Soup is an essential first course of a Portuguese meal. The most popular is the Minho speciality, caldo verde, made from kale, potatoes and spiced smoked sausage.

thumb|Bacalhau à Brás: salt cod with onions, scrambled eggs and fried potatoes. You will see another Portuguese staple bacalhau (salt cod) everywhere. Locals will tell you that there are as many ways to cook this revered dish as there are days in the year, or even more.

thumb|Sardinhas assadas: grilled sardines with potatoes and salad. The most common of Portugal's delicious fish (peixe) dishes revolve around sole (linguado) and sardines (sardinha) although salmon (salmão…

Drink

thumb|Portuguese drinks: Brandy from [[Douro, and Porto and Madeira wines.]] When travelling in Portugal, the drink of choice is wine. Red wine is the favourite amongst the locals, but white wine is also popular. Northern Portugal has a white wine cultivar variation with a greenish tint known as vinho verde. This wine has a very crisp acidic-sweet flavour and is better served cold, it goes best with seafood or fish dishes and Alvarinho is one of the more famous brands. Drinking wine during a meal or socially is very common in Portugal, after a meal is finished, people will tend to talk and sip wine while the food digests. Port wine (vinho do Porto) can be an apéritif or a dessert. Alentejo wine may not be yet known worldwide like Port, but within Portugal just as famous, Esporão is one of the best brands from the Alentejo region. Portugal has other official demarcated wine regions (regiões vinhateiras) which produce some of the best wines such as, Madeira, Dão, Sado and Douro. The Bairrada region produces some delightful sparkling wines, Raposeira being a well known brand.

Beer (cerveja) is also an option and the production of beer in Portugal can be traced back to Lusitanian times. Apart from some imports, the best known national brands are the lager type Super Bock, Sagres and Coral. On a smaller scale, Tagus is sold in the Greater Lisbon area and Cristal, a Pilsner type beer is available mostly in the Porto region. The only drawbacks are the small bottles and caneca(jug) …

Sleep

thumb|Night in Lisbon The youth hostel network has a great number of hostels around the country. There are also many camping places. 'Wild camping' (camping outside camping parks) is not allowed, unless you have the land owner's agreement. Holiday Villas and apartments are another option to investigate.

There's a wide and abundant hotel offering all through Portugal.

If budget is a concern and you want a 'typically Portuguese' experience, don't be shy and try a residencial or pensão, the home-like inn's ubiquitous in cities and most towns. In many places you can get a double or triple room with private bathroom for €25-35 off season or €35-40 in season (2017). Be sure, however, of the quality of the rooms. In smaller cities, "pensões" tend to be near transportation hubs like railway stations and bus terminals. If travelling with friends, haggling in a nice way can yield discounts even during high season.

On the luxury side, you may want to try the Pousadas de Portugal, a network of hotels remarkable for using very beautiful ancient buildings like palaces and castles and also for having consistent excellent service all over the country. Formerly run by the Portuguese State, they are now run by the Pestana Group. You will do well eating out, as the cuisine of Pousadas can be both expensive and boring, although it appears the trend is changing for the better (mid-2008).

The "Casas de Campo" (Turismo de Habitação, Turismo Rural, Agro-Turismo), when travelling through the coun…

Stay safe

The emergency telephone number for police, fire, and medical assistance is 112. This is the national call centre dial in number for any emergency or to report an accident, fire etc etc. Ensure you have this number registered in your means of communication or noted down somewhere in case it becomes necessary to notify authorities or emergency response entities.

Portugal is a relatively safe country to visit, but some basic common sense will go a long way. There are no internal conflicts, no terrorism-related danger and violent crime is not a serious problem, as it is generally confined to particular neighbourhoods and is rarely a random crime.

There are three main police branches. In major urban areas the PSP or Policía de Segurança Pública (Public Security Police) are in charge of law enforcement. Outside major urban centres and in rural areas, the GNR or Guarda Nacional Republicana (National Republican Guards) take over the law enforcement.

Both the PSP and GNR are also responsible for road policing within their territorial jurisdictions. The third branch is the PJ or Policía Judiciária (Judicial Police). These are a crime investigation branch composed of plain clothes detectives. In general, the Portuguese police officers are well trained, educated and polite. Many that are posted in tourist popular areas, have basic communication skills in foreign languages and some are fluent speakers of French, German, English and Spanish, therefore, easy to approach if the need arise…

Stay healthy

Portugal adheres to all international protocols and guidelines concerning consumer products and health care.

Major cities are well served with medical and emergency facilities and public hospitals are at European standards. The national emergency number is 112. The Serviço Nacional de Saúde (National Health Service) 24-hour hotline is 808 24 24 24.

Many municipalities have pharmacies that take turns being open late or even 24 hours. These can be found online.

Portugal's water sources are perfectly safe, but some people may prefer bottled/spring water (água mineral). In so far as restaurants and other food and drink establishments or outlets are concerned, Portugal has a vigorously enforced system of national high standards to ensure a healthy chain of supply from producers to consumers, therefore the risk of food or drink poisoning is negligible. Star ratings are ascribed for levels of establishment luxury (5* to 1*) and not the quality of food or beverage, since those are strictly governed anyway.

Citizens of the European Union are covered by Portugal's National Healthcare System as long as they carry the free European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), obtainable from their own national health care authority. Non European Union travellers are advised to purchase traveller's basic medical insurance to cover serious physical injury treatment costs, in case of an accident.

Connect

To call Portugal from abroad, dial country code 351 before the city code. To call abroad from Portugal, dial 00 before the country code. The city dialling code for Lisbon is 21 and for Porto is 22. All other city codes are three digits starting with 2. Telephone numbers are nine digits long, including the city code. Mobile numbers begin with 9.

The Portuguese postal service is CTT (CTT Correios de Portugal, S.A., formerly Correios, Telégrafos e Telefones). Mailboxes are red. They can be pillar boxes on a street corner or small boxes attached to buildings.