Travel Information

Citizens of the European Union only require a valid ID in order to enter to Portugal.

Please note that kids under 15 need a personal passport or ID. We advice to go to the central police station or to your local council for more detailed information.

Tips

• We advice to scan your documents, credit card, airplane tickets, and hotel confirmation and send these documents to your email address; this way you can always access to those documents. It could be helpful in case of loss or theft.
• We remind you that the European Union has established a consular protection for European citizens in case of severe problems during the trip.

In Portugal there is a lighter version of the Spanish siesta break; shops usually open from 9am to 12pm and from 3/4 pm to 7pm.

Shops are closed during the weekend starting from Saturday at 1pm, except for big supermarkets and some shops in the main tourist cities which close in the evening and stay open on holidays, too.

Museums

Most of the museums stay closed on Monday morning, on holidays, and often of Tuesday morning.

The rest of the week museums stay open from 10am to 5pm. Some museums offer free admission on Sunday morning.

Restaurants and bars

Like other Mediterranean countries, also in Portugal people have late lunch and dinner – even if not as late as it happens in Spain.

Lunch time ranges between 1 to 3pm, while dinner happens between 8 to 10pm. In the big cities restaurants stay open even until 2am.

Banks stay open from 08.30am to 3pm from Monday to Friday, even if in some cases office hours run from 08.30am to 12pm and from 1pm to 2.30pm.

Some private banks may stay open until 6pm.

Almost all Portuguese credit institutions are equipped with 24h ATMs.

Tips

• We remind you that banks apply very high commissions on traveller’s cheques and that sometimes hotels do not accept them
• There are ATMs in all cities.
• There are no withdrawing commissions as it is a Euro zone

Although hotel and restaurant owners display credit cards logos in front of their facility, it may not always be easy to manage to pay electronically.

It especially happens in small towns, in budget hotels, and in family-run restaurants.

Always carry some cash in your pocket.