Portugal Travel Costs: Daily Budgets, Prices, Tolls and Tourist Taxes

These per-person figures assume two people sharing a double room; solo travellers in private rooms should add 25 to 35 percent.

The country splits into three price zones. Lisbon and the Algarve in July and August are the most expensive, Porto, Madeira and the coastal towns sit 10 to 20 percent below Lisbon, and the Alentejo, the Beiras, Trás-os-Montes and inland towns such as Évora, Coimbra and Viseu are the cheapest, with doubles from €50 and lunch menus at €9 to €11.

Beds take the biggest share of any Portugal budget, and the gap between August and February is wider than the gap between regions. A hostel dorm in Lisbon’s Baixa or Bairro Alto costs €30 to €45 in summer and €18 to €30 in winter; Porto’s dorms run a few euros less, and the Algarve’s surf hostels in Lagos are €25 to €45 in peak season. Portuguese hostels are some of Europe’s best, and most have kitchens, which cuts food costs further.

Guesthouses (pensão, residencial or alojamento local) offer doubles at €50 to €90 in Porto, Coimbra and Évora and €80 to €150 in central Lisbon. A good three or four-star hotel costs €90 to €160 in Porto and the inland cities and €130 to €250 in Lisbon. On the Algarve, a two-bedroom apartment in Tavira or Portimão costs €70 to €100 a night in May or October and €150 to €250 in August, so families get much better value from a week’s apartment than from a hotel.

At the top end, the state-run pousadas in castles and convents (Óbidos, Évora, Guimarães, Estremoz) cost €120 to €300, and wine quintas in the Douro Valley run €150 to €400 with breakfast. Book three to six months ahead for June (Santo António in Lisbon, São João in Porto), August, and any Algarve stay in July. For neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood prices in the capital, see Lisbon travel costs.

Portugal has no national tourist tax, but a growing number of municipalities charge a per-night fee, normally collected at the hotel or by your apartment host rather than included in the online price.

A couple spending four nights in Lisbon and three in Porto pays €32 plus €18, so €50 on top of the room rate. Porto’s council began reviewing its rate in 2026 and may raise it to €4, and several Algarve and Madeira municipalities have added or raised fees since 2024, so check your booking confirmation. Children under 13 are exempt almost everywhere, and stays for medical treatment are usually exempt with paperwork.

Eating well and cheaply is the great Portuguese bargain. A pastel de nata costs €1.20 to €1.60 (around €1.40 at Pastéis de Belém in Lisbon, closer to €1.10 in a Coimbra or Évora pastelaria), a bica (espresso) at the counter €0.80 to €1.30, and a galão (milky coffee) €1.20 to €2. Breakfast of coffee and a pastry rarely passes €3. Sitting at a terrace table on a tourist square can add a euro or two to each item.

Lunch is the meal to make your main one. The prato do dia (dish of the day) or menu do dia, with soup, a main of grilled fish or meat, a drink and coffee, costs €9 to €14 in neighbourhood tascas across the country and €12 to €16 in central Lisbon. A bifana (pork sandwich) is €3 to €5, a francesinha in Porto €12 to €16, and a dinner of grilled sardines or octopus with house wine €20 to €40 per person. Seafood priced per kilo is where bills jump: ask the price of the portion before the fish goes on the grill.

Public transport is inexpensive and covers almost every place a first-time visitor goes. Comboios de Portugal (CP) trains are the backbone; buy on cp.pt or the CP app, where Alfa Pendular and Intercidades seats bought several days ahead are sold at promotional discounts.

Rede Expressos and FlixBus coaches are often cheaper than full-fare trains, with Lisbon to Porto from €8 to €20 and Lisbon to Lagos €15 to €22. In Lisbon, a single metro, bus or tram ride costs €1.90 and a 24-hour Carris/Metro ticket €7.25 on a €0.50 Navegante card; tram 28 bought on board is €3.30. Porto’s metro starts around €1.40 per two-zone trip on a €0.60 Andante card. Domestic flights to Madeira and the Azores cost €40 to €150 one way if booked early and much more in August. Full details are in our Portugal getting-around guide.

A car is worth its cost for the Alentejo, the Douro wine estates, the west Algarve and the Azores. Small manual cars cost €25 to €40 a day from November to April and €50 to €90 in July and August; automatics cost more and sell out. Fuel is expensive by US standards at roughly €1.70 to €1.85 a litre for petrol and €1.55 to €1.70 for diesel, and city parking runs €1.50 to €3 an hour in Lisbon and Porto.

Tolls add up. The A1 from Lisbon to Porto costs about €24 for a car and the A2 from Lisbon to the Algarve about €22. Most motorways have conventional booths where you take a ticket and pay by card or cash, but some have only electronic gantries with no booth at all. From January 2025 the government abolished tolls on several former SCUT motorways, including the Algarve’s A22 and the A23, A24, A25 and A28 in the centre and north, which cut the cost of an Algarve road trip considerably.

Paying electronic tolls is the part visitors get wrong. Your options are:

• Via Verde transponder from the rental company: usually €1.50 to €2.50 a day, often capped per rental, plus the tolls charged to your card. The simplest choice; take it.
• Via Verde Visitors: buy or rent a transponder online in advance for your own or a foreign car.
• Toll Card: prepaid card (€5 to €40) sold at CTT post offices and some service stations, activated by text message.
• Pay afterwards: look up your plate at a CTT post office or Payshop agent between two and 15 working days after the trip. Unpaid tolls come back as fines far higher than the toll itself, often via the rental company with an admin fee.

Never drive through a lane marked with a green “V” at a booth without a transponder.

Portugal’s best sights are often free: viewpoints (miradouros), the riverside in Lisbon and Porto, church interiors, the beaches and most town centres. The big paid entries in 2026:

Sintra palace prices come from Parques de Sintra, and Pena tickets are sold for a timed entry slot, so book online. Prices at state monuments such as Jerónimos change with little notice, so check the ticket office before you go; most close on Mondays. The Lisboa Card (€31, €51 or €62 for 24, 48 or 72 hours) covers Lisbon transport and many museums but not the Sintra parks; the Porto Card is similar for Porto. Activities: a surf lesson in Ericeira or Lagos €30 to €50, a Benagil cave boat trip €20 to €35, a Douro day tour from Porto €80 to €130 with lunch, a whale-watching trip in the Azores €55 to €75, and a fado dinner €40 to €80.

Visa and Mastercard work almost everywhere, including contactless and phone payments, but carry €20 to €40 in cash for village cafés, markets, tram 28 and festival stalls. Use ATMs marked Multibanco, which belong to Portuguese banks and normally charge no fee of their own; the standalone Euronet machines in tourist streets add fees and push poor exchange rates. Whenever a terminal or ATM offers to charge you in your home currency, choose euros.

Tipping is light: round up or leave 5 to 10 percent for good table service, nothing for coffee at the counter. A tourist eSIM costs €10 to €20 for 10 to 30 GB, and MEO, Vodafone and NOS sell prepaid SIMs at Lisbon and Porto airports and in their shops; EU roaming rules mean European SIMs work at no extra charge.

Per person, sharing a room, excluding international flights:

The mid-range week breaks down roughly as: hotels €480 (€140 a night shared over seven nights), tourist taxes €25, food and drink €250, transport €70 (Lisbon to Porto train, a Sintra return, city day tickets and the airport metro), sights €110 (Pena, the Moorish Castle, Jerónimos, a port tasting) and one fado dinner €50. The two-week version adds a car for four or five days in the Algarve or the Douro at €200 to €350 including fuel and tolls. For routes that match these budgets, see our Portugal itineraries, and for the cheapest months, the best time to visit Portugal.

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