Transportation in Portugal
 

We will be visiting Portugal this summer and have some questions related to car rentals. Which rental companies have you had a positive experience with? Is the rental company located in Lisbon's terminal? I am a little bit confused about how the toll system works-- can someone enlighten me on this? Should we get a transponder ahead of time? Are gas stations readily available on the toll roads? What is the current price of petroleum in Portugal?

Is it easy to travel around Lisbon by public transportation?

Thanks so much.
Jeanne

I have only used public transport in Portugal, mostly train but also buses. Where do you want to go? There are some areas, parts of the Alentejo for instance, where a car would be useful, but if you are going to the main tourist destinations it is unnecessary.

All Portuguese car hires have to be fitted with a transponder for the electronic toll roads. It is the law. You will be charged after the hire. The small print will explain how the company will charge you.
I expect most cars will be diesel powered except the smaller cars.
This website will give you the correct details of fuel prices.
http://www.precoscombustiveis.dgeg.pt/
As I live just across the border in Spain I never have to hire a car in Portugal. But customers of mine have and experience has shown that if you want to take a car into Spain then use a international based company because if there is a problem, even something like a tyre repair, the car may well have to be taken back to Portugal for repairs. That is not good in the middle of your vacation.

public transport in Lisboa is explained here.
http://www.transporteslisboa.pt/
Click on the type of transport you want and then change the language to English if you cannot read Portuguese.

Thanks so much for your feedback. Thursdaysd, we are a family of five and want the flexibility of a car. Plus we are staying in a house in a small village where there isn't access to a train.

We rentEd a car thru Autoeurope for Portugal last year. the rental was picked up and returned to the airport and was thru Europcar. Autoeurope is a consolidator that I use frequently on trips to Europe. We had no trouble with the rental. As explained the transponder for toll roads was available thru the car rental. Driving was very easy in Portugal. We tended to stay off the toll roads and took more scenic back roads. We went on the toll roads occasionally. As someone posted above, the car rental company billed our credit card for the toll fees.

If you are from Canada or the States, then you will want to rent through Auto Europe. It's the best deal available, and the insurance is covered by your credit card.

As ribeirasacra says, rental cars come equipped with the transponder and the tolls are not that expensive. It's a lot easier now then it was a couple of years ago.

I have to disagree with the comment that tolls are not that expensive. Maybe not in relation to the thousands you'll spend on your vacation, but for the average driver in Portugal the cost is extreme. The good news is that if you can afford the tolls, you'll have the road practically to yourself!

And fortunately, as stated above, there are alternatives if you hit "avoid toll roads" on your GPS.

As for Lisboa, no car is necessary. Public transportation is great, but for a family of five I'd opt for taxis.

I'm with luz on the tolls. I thought they were relatively expensive and the few we drove on were pretty empty. Side roads were much more interesting although they could get slow as you hit towns.

How expensive are the tolls? For example how much does it cost to go from Lisbon to Faro? And approximately how long would it take to go from Lisbon to Faro via a toll road versus via the backroads? We were counting on using the toll roads for some of our side trips but I am now wondering if it would be cost prohibitive.

Thank you for the info provided.

Try viamichelin.com for answers.

What's cost prohibitive to you? Also sometimes time is more important than the money, so take the toll roads where there is no traffic and you go from A to B very quickly.

I use viamichelin.com a lot for routing and for some reason their "cost of trip" always seems high, but agree its a very useful tool.

jeanned, to give you an idea of tolls: in April, we picked up a rental from Avis at the Lisbon airport, drove to Monchique in the Algarve for three weeks, and then returned the car to the Lisbon airport.

In addition to the trip south and north on the A2, we drove east-west on the A22 almost every day we were in the Algarve.

Our tolls were €99.25, which I did not find all that shocking, considering how much we drove. Diesel fuel, on the other hand, was around €180, and that was in a compact-size car. Unfortunately, I don't have a record of how many kilometres we put on the vehicle.

As others have pointed out, you can easily avoid the toll highways. The N125, which is the main east-west non-toll road on the Algarve, is perfectly serviceable, but be prepared for more traffic, frequent speed restrictions, and roundabouts.

April? Why did I write April? It was March.

Thank you AnselmAdorne! The tolls sound fairly reasonable. Many years (late 80s I think) we went on a toll road in Spain and it was incredibly expensive. Just don't want a repeat of that!

How much is the fuel per a liter?

Prices of fuel in Portugal:
http://www.precoscombustiveis.dgeg.pt/
Spain
http://geoportalgasolineras.es/
it is not going to be the same in every filling station or every location.
There are phone apps to help you find the nearest and cheapest.