Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Driving in Portugal???

You won't need or want a car while in Lisbon.

I found the roads to be pretty decent almost everywhere in Portugal. The main toll roads are fast, modern and pretty much the equivalent of US interstates, and secondary roads tended to be in pretty good shape and not too unlike many of the roads where I live. The only roads that I had any trouble driving were some of the 'back roads' in Serra de Estrela - those roads tended to be narrow and twisty, but you cannot beat the views. Just be cautious and slow. The biggest problem there was not being able to find a place to pull over for the fantastic photo ops. By the way, just as in the States, the toll roads are built for speed, not scenery. If you want to see Portugal and have the time to do it, take secondary roads.

One thing that was a little unnerving to me at first was being passed. In the US (at least where I live), we tend to take our time about it - a long lazy return to our own lane after passing the slowpoke in front of us. In Portugal, decide to pass, get around quickly and get back over into your own lane quickly. You won't have the luxury of space. Some drivers seem to cut it really close on the return; I swear some cars cleared by only inches. If you don't like being tailgated, pull over and help them pass.

We found a GPS unit to be *kind of* helpful. In some small towns, it wasn't always the most useful, and it couldn't always distinguish between a street and an alley (so we got to see some things that we would probably never have seen otherwise :) ) I did have a road atlas to go with it (the wirebound Michelin map for Spain and Portugal). (I also got the GPS because I was driving, and DH isn't that good a navigator. Don't tell him I said that.)

Before I got there, I was a little concerned about the power of the car I was renting. I reserved one of the smallest, manual transmission cars I could find, since that was all I really needed for two people and not a lot of luggage. It worked very well on the secondary roads, worked pretty well in the mountains, was nice to have in towns where the streets were narrow, but it was almost too underpowered for the toll roads.

I don't know if a International Drivers Permit is required, but I had one. Nice souvenir. No one ever looked at it. The rental agency only wanted to see my state driver's license.

I can't answer for public transportation but a search on this board will turn up several other posts on the topi.

Finally one more thing about not speaking English. We ran into some very nice people in Portugal. We had very little problem with the language - we don't speak Portugal except to say "hello", "thank you" and "I don't speak Portuguese". At some point during the trip, the back hubcap came loose on the car, which made it look like the wheel was wobbly. A gentleman following us came along side and motioned to us that there was a problem with the back tire. He spoke very little English, but enough that we could understand that he was concerned about the wheel. He directed us to a mechanic, who spoke no English, but was still able to communicate that the wheel was ok, but the hubcap was loose. He banged it back into place, smiled and waved us on.