Artsy Traveler

Visiting Portugal: My Best Tips for Artsy & Independent Travelers

Artsy Traveler contains affiliate links for products and services I personally use and can happily recommend. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Please read the Disclosure for more information. If you make a purchase through these links, at no additional cost to you, Artsy Traveler earns a small commission. Thank you!

Last updated on January 11th, 2026 at 01:33 am

Visiting Portugal is a deeply rewarding experience for artsy and independent travelers. Despite its relatively small size, Portugal offers an extraordinary concentration of history, music, landscape, and living tradition—often without the crowds found elsewhere in Europe.

From soulful fado performances and ancient megaliths to Roman ruins, vibrant cities, and a stunning Atlantic coastline, Portugal consistently surprises and delights.

Although often compared to Spain, Portugal feels entirely its own. It’s more introspective, less showy, and deeply rooted in its past. It’s a country that rewards slow travel, curiosity, and return visits.

In this guide, I share my favorite places, arts experiences, and practical tips to help you plan a memorable trip to Portugal, especially if you enjoy culture, history, and traveling independently.

---

---

Portugal Highlights at a Glance

These highlights showcase why artsy and independent travel in Portugal is so rewarding, especially for travelers who prefer culture over crowds.

• Attend a Fado performance in Lisbon, Coimbra, and Porto to experience different styles of one of the world’s most heart-tugging music
• Take a boat trip through stunning rock formations on the Algarve in the south of Portugal.
• Discover ancient megaliths near Evora in the Alentejo region of Portugal.
• Explore the magnificent collection at the Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon.
• Drive up the coast to Porto and sample a glass (or two) of port.

---

My Relationship to Portugal

I have visited Portugal several times since my first visit in 2010 during which I quickly realized that Portugal is not at all like Spain, which the Portuguese appreciate your remembering. Speaking Spanish in Portugal expecting to be understood will not make you any friends. Usually, they’d rather you speak English, or possibly French.

For me, the key to differentiating Portugal from its larger and brasher next-door neighbor is their two signature music styles.

Fado music with its soulful, heartbreaking, yearning harmonies captures the essence of Portugal, while the relentless, in-your-face rhythms of flamenco is Spanish to the core.

After visiting Portugal, I also realized what an outsized influence this small country has had on the planet. Over 260 million people worldwide speak Portuguese.

Although small compared to Spain, Portugal packs a solid artsy punch. I was thrilled to discover a unique culture; a fascinating history that includes ancient megaliths, Roman ruins, and world explorers; and a stunningly varied landscape.

Because of Portugal’s remoteness from the rest of Europe, I suggest you fly there directly, then rent a car. We’ve driven to Portugal from France a few times and it’s a long way!

---

Favorite Places in Portugal

Portugal is relatively compact, but with so much to see, you need a good two weeks to tour it. Here are some of my favorite places in Portugal.

The Algarve

Southern Portugal has been a mecca for sun worshippers for years, and in places it can be crowded. Headed for the western Algarve and home base in charming Luz.

Here you can explore the rugged coastline, check out charming little towns, and dip your toe into the freezing Atlantic. For more about touring the Algarve, check out my post: Best Tips for Exploring the Algarve & Alentejo in Portugal.

Alentejo

North of the Algarve is the beautiful Alentejo region where you’ll find megalithic ruins as awesome as any in Brittany and England, lovely white-washed and historical towns such as Evora and Estremoz, and a lot of cork trees.

Lisbon

This vibrant city is worth several days of your time. Unfortunately, it’s gotten a bit gentrified over the years. The funky Alfama I remembered from my first visit in 2010 is now over-run with tourists.

But it’s easy to get off the beaten path to explore Lisbon’s many delights. Don’t miss a Fado show!

For more information about enjoying Lisbon, check out How to Spend Three Amazing Days in Lisbon.

Coimbra

One of Portugal’s oldest cities, Coimbra is a definite must-see if you’re driving north of Lisbon. Its walkable old town and ancient university are worth at least a day or two of your touring time.

Nazaré and the Central Coast

Travel up the coast from Lisbon toward Porto and encounter several interesting towns, including Figueira da Foz, Nazaré, and Óbidos. Check out Best of North & Central Portugal for the Artsy Traveler.

Porto

Portugal’s second city is a delight. In fact, I loved it more than Lisbon. It’s still got the old world charm that Lisbon is losing, along with port, performances, and one of Europe’s coolest bookstores.

---

Artsy Favorites in Portugal

Fado

Fado is performed only by men in Coimbra and by either a male or a female singer in Lisbon and is accompanied by one or two guitarras (10- or 12-string guitars), one or two violas (6-string guitars), and sometimes also a viola baixo (a small 8-string bass viola).

Fado in Lisbon

Gregg and I adore fado and seek it out whenever we travel to Portugal. In Lisbon, you’ll find fado in restaurants in the Alfama and Bairro Alto districts.

You’ll hear the music spilling out as you walk by. Go in, order a meal, and prepare to be blown away.

Our favorite place that we returned to on every visit to Lisbon was Restaurante Canto do Camões on Travessa da Espera in the Bairro Alto, now permanently closed.

It was small and intimate with a friendly owner, good food, and wonderful fado. On our last visit there, we had a great chat with one of the guitarists who had lived in Toronto, and bought his CD.

Fado and food service alternate. You’re served your food while the performers are resting and then you’re expected to be quiet during the performance.

A table of diners started talking and were promptly shushed by the owner—and rightly so!

To learn more about fado, visit the Fado Museum in the Alfama district of Lisbon.

Here’s an option for a fado performance in Lisbon:

Fado in Coimbra

Here’s an option for seeing fado in Coimbra:

Fado in Porto

I also saw a wonderful performance in Porto where fado places are not as prevalent as in Lisbon and Coimbra.

The late afternoon performance at Casa da Guitarra featured a spectacular singer and included a glass of port. Highly recommended!

Here’s an option to get tickets:

Megalithic Sites

The Alentejo region of Portugal, notably around Évora where I suggest you stay for two nights, is a treasure trove of megalithic sites.

In fact, the area is considered the most important area for megaliths in the Iberian Peninsula.

Most of the megaliths are standing stones that date from the Early Neolithic period (5500-4500 BC). Megaliths abound in fields around Évora: more than 10 megalithic enclosures, 100 isolated menhirs, 800 dolmens and 450 megalithic settlements. Wow!

Head west out of Évora to the Almendres Cromlech (Cromeleque dos Almendres), a megalithic complex reputed to be one of the world’s oldest—over 2,000 years older than Stonehenge.

More than 100 standing stones bristle down a hillside. Wander among them at will, take pictures and commune with the ancestral forces. Whenever we’ve visited, the place has been virtually deserted.

Follow the road signs to the site from the small village of Nossa Senhora de Guadalupe.

Not far from the Almendres megaliths is the Almendres Menhir which was erected to mark the sunrise in the summer solstice.

If you don’t have a car and want to see the megaliths, check out this full-day tour from Lisbon:

Roman Sites

The Romans colonized Portugal like they did most of Western Europe and left behind a number of impressive ruins.

I visited two of the principal sites: the Roman temple in Évora and the ruins of Conímbriga near Coimbra and the largest of the Roman settlements excavated in Portugal.

Roman Temple in Évora

The evocative remains of the Roman Temple of Évora dominate the main square. Also referred to as the Temple of Diana (Templo de Diana), the temple is believed to have been constructed in the 1st century A.D.

Apparently, there’s scant proof that the temple was erected to honor the goddess of the hunt, and that referring to the temple as the Temple of Diana might be the result of a legend created in the 17th century by a Portuguese priest.

Who knows? You can’t miss the temple when you visit Évora. Hang around until sunset to get some nice shots of the columns against the blue sky of the Alentejo.

Conímbriga

Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

Artsy Travelers make a beeline for the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian in Lisbon, Portugal’s answer to the Louvre. What a great place with a marvelously eclectic range of artworks from the private collection of oil magnate Calouste Gulbenkian.

You’ll see treasures from the West and the East including Egyptian relics, Chinese porcelain, Western paintings, and room after room of jewelry, furniture, sculptures, and more. Artists include Rubens, Rembrandt, Turner, and Degas along with stunning works by jewelry designer René Lalique.

In addition to the founder’s collection, the Gulbenkian features what is considered the most complete collection of modern and contemporary Portuguese art.

After touring the museum, chill out for awhile in the beautifully landscaped gardens before catching a bus or the metro back to the center of Lisbon.

Here’s an option for purchasing tickets to the Gulbenkian that includes the Modern Art Museum:

---

Practical Tips for Artsy & Independent Travel in Portugal

Portugal extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the south to the Spanish border in the north and is bordered to the west by the Atlantic and to the east by Spain.

To drive from the Algarve in the south to Porto in the north takes about five hours—a distance of 554 kilometers over excellent and generally empty toll roads.

Check for Events and Exhibitions

Before you travel in Portugal, check online for exhibitions and performances. Also be on the lookout for local festivals.

In 2019, friends we were visiting in the beach town of Figueira da Foz in central Portugal told us about a fantastic exhibition of the work of M.C. Escher in Porto which was next on our itinerary. What luck!

In one of the rooms in the exhibition, you can see the effects of Escher’s trademark optical illusions.

Ask at your hotel about local exhibitions. The same day we saw the Escher exhibition in Porto, we were strolling through central Porto after attending a fado concert when we spied a poster for a Picasso exhibition.

Although past 7 pm, the exhibition was still open so in we went to enjoy a wonderful half hour followed by a glass of port that was included in the ticket price.

Communicating in Portugal

English is widely spoken in Portugal as is French. In Portugal, American and British TV shows are broadcast in English with Portuguese subtitles which may account for why more people in Portugal speak English (or so it seemed to us) than do people in Spain.

In Spain, you’ll be hard-pressed to find any TV channels in English except for some very repetitive news channels. Programs not originally broadcast in Spanish are dubbed in Spanish.

In Portugal, people don’t expect tourists to know Portuguese, but you’ll earn more smiles if you at least make an effort. And it’s probably not wise to speak Spanish as a substitute for Portuguese. In our experience, people would rather speak English or French. Although you’ll hear some similarities to Spanish, Portuguese is its own very distinct language.

Here are a few useful words and phrases.

• Sim – Yes
• Não – No
• Obrigado/Obrigada – Thank you. Men say obrigado. Women say obrigada. You’ll probably be okay sticking with obrigado if you prefer not to be gender specific.
• Por favor – Please: the magic word in any language
• Olá – Hello. Use this a lot!
• Não estou entendendo – I don’t understand.
• Você fala inglês? – Do you speak English?
• Bom Dia – Good morning.
• Como você está? – How are you?
• Boa Noite – Good evening.

Do you want to brush up on your Portuguese? I highly recommend Rocket Languages. They provide courses in just about every European language including Portuguese.

Rocket Language courses include real conversations and lots of listening to give you an aural feel for the language. I download lessons to my phone and listen to them while I’m driving. Click to get a free trial of their Portuguese course.

---

Getting Around Portugal

Even if you’ve been reluctant to drive in Europe because you’ve heard horror stories about traffic jams and impossibly tiny roads (and those stories are true!), consider driving in Portugal. The toll freeways are lightly travelled, making getting from point to point exceptionally fast and easy. Even off the freeways, the traffic isn’t bad, with the notable exception of Lisbon.

I don’t recommend driving in Lisbon. Narrow streets, steep hills, lots of annoying tuk tuks, and speedy drivers make Lisbon a nightmare for drivers. We drop our car at the airport and take a taxi into Lisbon.

Public Transit

Getting to Portugal by train is challenging, as we discovered when we tried to get from Seville in Spain to Tavira in the Algarve. We ended up taking a bus across the border, then caught a train from Tavira to Lisbon.

Check the Rail Europe website for rail schedules to see if traveling in Portugal by train makes sense for you.

Rental Car

I suggest you fly to Lisbon, pick up your rental car at the airport, head out to explore Portugal, and then drop your car off at the airport. Grab a taxi into Lisbon and tour the city for a few days before flying home or to another part of Europe.

On our most recent trip to Europe, we picked up our car in Amsterdam and dropped it off in Lisbon after driving over 6,000 kilometers. Open-jaw car rentals are the best!

TIP: Don’t arrange to pick up your rental car in the center of the Lisbon. Take a taxi to the airport and pick up the car there.

Driving Tips

Driving in Portugal is delightful—beautiful scenery, excellent roads, and as mentioned, very little traffic. There have been times when driving in Portugal that we wondered if the apocalypse had started without our knowing. There were that few cars on the road!

You’ll pay tolls to travel on the highways and these tolls do add up. Always make sure to get a ticket at one of the drive-through booths before you enter a toll freeway. We missed the toll booth on one stretch of our trip and were obliged to pay for the entire length of the freeway rather than just the small portion we traveled on. Ouch!

The distances in Portugal are short compared to Spain. String together several small towns for a day of exploring or pick an area to home-base. The Algarve, the Alentejo, and Porto are all good choices.

TIP: Be careful about driving into the center of a Portuguese town or city. You might find yourself lost in a maze of tiny back streets as we once did in Porto. Find a large, secure parking lot as close to your hotel or apartment as you can comfortably drive on main roads. Then walk to your place or hail a taxi.

Driving into Portugal

You cross the border into Portugal from Spain to the north and Spain to the east.

The drive from Seville to the southwest tip of the Algarve takes just a few hours. Other options are crossing the border about halfway down Portugal’s eastern border via Salamanca or driving south from Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain.

---

Where to Stay for an Arts-Focused Portugal Trip

We’ve had good luck with our accommodations in Portugal. Service is excellent, rooms are spacious and comfortable, and rates are reasonable, although Lisbon is expensive.

On average, we pay €100 a night for a comfortable three-star hotel, and about €150 for a similar hotel in Lisbon.  

For more information and recommendations about places to stay check out Where to Stay in Portugal: My Best Picks.

---

Eating Well in Portugal: Fish & Pork

Fish and pork are two staples in Portugal. The food is generally plain and filling. Accompany it with a few glasses of vinho verde and finish off with a glass (or three) of port wine.

I became quite attached to port on my most recent trip to Portugal in 2019 when we visited Porto and sampled port across the river in Gaia. Read more in Exploring North and Central Portugal.

We enjoyed the best food of our travels in the Alentejo region where gourmet restaurants are sprouting up to showcase the local cuisine.  

As in Spain, portions in Portugal can be generous. Be careful not to over-order! These days, Gregg and I often order one dish to share. We always have enough food and the servers don’t mind.

---

Why Portugal Belongs on Every Artsy Traveler’s Itinerary

Here are several posts to help you plan your trip to Portugal:

• Best Itinerary to Tour Favorite Regions in Portugal
• Exploring the Algarve & Alentejo
• Best of North & Central Portugal for the Artsy Traveler
• How to Spend Three Amazing Days in Lisbon