Why You MUST Slow Travel Portugal!

Why You MUST Slow Travel Portugal!

Ah, Portugal. For slow travelers, Portugal is somewhere on their list. For the retirees, it’s usually near the top of the list, especially if they dream of Europe. After spending a year and a half in Portugal, we wanted to share some of the things we know about this great country. This video is part of our series on slow travel destinations. We cover the places we’ve been and whether they deserve a month or more of your time, because time is the one thing we know we’re guaranteed to run out of. So when people think of going to Europe on vacation, they generally think of London, Rome, Paris, the major cities, the major sites that we’ve all dreamt about our whole lives. But when you start moving into retirement or the slow travel life, one country really migrates to the top of the list, and that is Portugal. And it certainly was on our list. We spent quite a bit of time there. Yeah, we actually decide to start over there instead of going to another parts of Europe because everybody was telling us that it’s a gorgeous place to live and it they’re right. But for a slow travel, yeah, we explored there for actually six months and experienced a lot of the area. really found, you know, an amazing place that we love so much. We actually ended up getting residency and staying a whole year, living the life, trying to become, you know, expat retirees. Turned out that wasn’t the right choice for us, not Portugal being the problem. Us being we really like slow travel, so we wanted to get back on the road. We gave up our residency and left last year. So, when we talk about Portugal, some people aren’t even really exactly sure where it is. Well, it is the westernmost country of Europe. on the edge of the Spanish, you know, the Iberian Peninsula where Spain is. Um, so it faces the ocean. You have 500 plus miles of coastline just on the mainland. And then they have some islands that they control as well. They Madera and the Azors. And so you have this variety of climates and weather and everything else that we’ll talk about. So one of the things about being in Portugal in your slow travels is you are already in Europe which means you can travel fairly freely to the rest of Europe. Yes. But have in consideration the o Europe have this changing zone which is 90 days out of 180. Yeah. Which means there’s 29 countries in Europe that are part of the Shenzhen zone. And that’s pretty much all of Eastern and Western Europe now other than the UK and Albania. So all those places we used to be able to jump out of the Shenzhen zone, Romania, Croatia, all disappear. So it does limit your travels. You got to be aware of it. They’re tracking it. If you overstay your visa, your 90 days, you can be fined and possibly banned from traveling to Europe for a couple years. So don’t overstay. I also want to add that you can go to uh Turkey. Yes. One of our favorite countries. So at the time that we were there, we extend our visa because at that time they give you a 90day a 90day extension. Sorry. Yeah. It was a simple fee and proving that you had the the insurance and the money so you wouldn’t try to use the their system. But that does lock you into spending more than the 90 days which means you have to fly directly from Portugal out of the Shenzhen zone. No stopovers, not even a plane landing in another country. It was nice when we were there at the time with the changes to their immigration uh system and and organization. It might be a little iffy right now. So, one of the greatest thing about Portugal is you can find various environments which is climate, cities, beaches, even islands. Yeah. Yeah. It’s great because you have the northern area which is kind of like where I’m from in the Pacific Northwest. you know, cool, you know, mornings and nice uh afternoons throughout the spring and fall. Summer is warm and pleasant. Winter is pretty cold and miserable. So, that would not be the time I recommend, which is the time I first visited Porto. So, I have experienced that one. It’s pretty much like Seattle or Portland. But, you know, you can go throughout the country as you move south. Obviously, the weather gets warmer. Um, but they have, you know, 500 miles of beaches as I said before. I mean, you can find just stunning places to go all year round. And then of course with the islands you you know Madera is a subtropical island. It is almost perfect weather all year. It never really gets that hot and it never gets cold. Yes. It’s a perfect place to enjoy. Uh we actually spent 90 days on the island. It was phenomenal. So when to go? We obviously recommend the shoulder season. Spring and fall are the best times. But if you do have to go in summer, you can get away with it. Just understand that Portugal is very popular with the Europeans for their vacations. So if you’re there in high season, it’s very crowded. And then Madera, you can get away with going there in the winter. Um Azor is out in the Atlantic. So weatherwise, it’s nice, but it’s not quite as nice of Madera. Another thing about Portugal that probably makes it one of the great slow travel places why it’s on everybody’s list, it is lower cost than most of Europe. It is still a fairly lowcost place to go though it has gone up with everybody else over the last several years with inflation. Um they do have some housing crisis but as a slow traveler you’re really not competing with that. So food and wine people and culture and history is one of the things that you will really really enjoy in Portugal. Oh yeah. I mean the food was astounding. Obviously it’s a coastal you know it was a naval power. It’s a coastal you know country. The seafood is just phenomenal. Yeah, exactly. If you enjoy seafood, that’s the place. They also have a great wine growing history. Been going on for a couple thousand years. Um, great wines, very inexpensive because they’re just not that popular around the world, but the quality is exceptional and the value is tremendous. You know, it is a, you know, as I said, been around a couple thousand years. The Romans were there, the Moors were there. You have all of this history, some great things to go see. And then the people are sweet. They’re generally kind and helpful. And the great thing is a most of them, if you’re in the main tourist areas, they speak English. Exactly. Which allows me not to be able to butcher Portuguese, which everybody usually appreciates. Yeah. Now, let’s talk about transportation. Transportation is in in Portugal itself is not that difficult. They have trains that, you know, you can rent the car. Um, you can fly very easily from anywhere in the world straight to Portugal. Yes, absolutely. Even into Madera you there are some flights out of the US directly there. Do we recommend relying 100% on transport public transportation in Porto and Lisbon? Sure you can do that. And especially if you throw in some Ubers and things like that, you don’t need a car in those cities. In fact, you don’t want to drive in those cities generally. You can rent a car for a day or two when you want to go out and see some of the sites outside. Agarve. Honestly, you can do the bus system down there, but you’re going to spend so much time waiting on buses and stuff and walking from your from where the bus stop is. Just rent a car when you need it. You can road trip Portugal very easily if you’re a camper van person or you just want to rent a car and drive around. It’s a great thing. Parking is not that expensive. They do have toll roads, so you’re going to spend quite a bit of money in tolls. If you’re prepared for it, it’s a great place. We’ve driven all over the country. Yeah, but I think it’s worth it. Yeah, the the roads are amazing. No, amazingly. You will not be able to drive to the islands. You will have to fly there and the flights are very limited. Madera only flies currently to Porto and Lisbon. And so you have to actually go to there from wherever you are to take those flights. We highly recommend you do it. It’s not all that expensive, but it’s not as cheap. Now, they are supposed to be adding a flight from Farro, which is the main city in the Algar out to Madera in 2026. So, speaking of driving, it’s actually very easy. Rental cars other than in the high season are pretty cheap and actually in the offseason can be very inexpensive. But you need to know Portuguese driving is aggressive. Not super bad, but they they’re very aggressive but not dangerous. They do have roundabouts everywhere. So do a little bit of research about how to handle the roundabouts. Basically, if people in the roundabout have right away, it’s a little confusing. Once you get the rhythm of it, watch other people. You’ll be fine. One thing that I would like to add uh to that is um make sure that you’re comfortable driving in a very small roads and the island because it’s crazy in Madera you can get in trouble very easily. The roads are very very small. They’re very small and they are cliffside because it is a very steep volcanic island. So yes, they have great tunnel system there. driving between the main city and out, it it’s really easy to get to the other side of the island and all that and very very quick, but if you’re trying to get through some neighborhoods, it’s a little bit scary. Um, good point. Next big thing is budget. Yes. Yeah. As I said, it’s a fairly inexpensive country. Housing is not super cheap anymore. Prices have gone up with the number of short-term rentals and things like that. So, especially in peak season, you’re going to pay peak season prices. You can find places if you go off the beach, um, get away from the main city a little bit, then you’re dealing with more travel time, but you can save a little bit of money, but it is no longer the five and $600 a month kind of place you’re going to go. We usually spend to get something with air conditioning and, you know, a little more space that we like. 15 to,700 is kind of where it is in most of the touristy areas. Lisbon and Porto can be more than that. So, it is not cheap. Now, overall, food is so cheap still. I keep I say keep saying is cheap. I should not. It is not as expensive as most of the rest of Europe. You can eat very easily for less than, you know, 20- $25 a couple for a nice meal in a local restaurant. You can spend as much as you want in the high-end restaurants, etc. You know, you want lobster and all that, but you can you can eat very well for a good good budget. Yeah. Or if you prefer to cook at home, the u veggies and everything that you want to buy in the stores are very very affordable. Yes. So, that one will save you a lot of money. And they do have farmers markets and each, you know, a lot of the towns still have their market center, you know, the marketplace. Um, so you can pick up fresh fruits and vegetables that really they were picked yesterday, if not that morning. So, you can get some great fresh product. Meats are great. There’s no issues with health and safety. You can drink the water. All that makes life very easy for cooking if you do get an apartment, which if you’re going to stay n, you know, 30 or 60 or 90 days, it’s probably better. Yeah. So, Portugal is one of those places that that you easily can spend all the 90 days, especially if you add to your list of visiting Mada and uh what’s the other desour? Yes. So, it’s going to be the time is going to apply. Yeah. So, it’s up to you if you really have or want to spend all those 90 days over there. Yeah. If you’re slow traveling and that’s what this is about, you know, and you want to hit other parts of Europe, we can totally understand. and use Portugal, do a, you know, 30 to 45 days, you can see most of Portugal in that amount of time. You won’t get a lot of time on the islands because, you know, it’s just going to eat up. But if you’re willing to invest the the extra time, you could spend a month in Madera easily. You can spend a month in in the Azors easily. So, because we spend there almost a year and a half, we will recommend for you to go in spring or fall. Yeah. Unless you just only have the ability to go in the summer, you know, or you really want to experience what winter is like, which you should if you’re considering retiring someplace. Um, spring or fall are the best times. You get the best weather. You’ll be able to enjoy the place with less crowds. It’s kind of a win-winwin. Anyway, what we recommend as an itinerary would we spend, you know, fly into Porto or Lisbon, whichever flight you can get, whichever is better for you. It’s easier obviously if you fly into Porto and make your way south, but if you fly into Lisbon, that’s fine, too. Depending on what time of year it is and exactly what month, it may be beneficial to fly to one of those. But you need minimum three days in each of those cities. Really, if you can spend closer to five to seven days, you’ll have more time to really enjoy and see the sites, get out to some of the the towns that are outside the main city. Really enjoy yourself. If you want to throw in the Duro Valley, that’s a day or day trip at least when you’re up in Porto. Um, but if you’re going to spend an extended period of time in the country like that month, two months or more, a week in each of those is going to give you a nice chance to explore them. When we talk about the Algarve, that’s a great place that you can do that whole month, get the slow travel monthly discount on your apartment via Airbnb or whatever. Um, really enjoy it. If you only have, you know, a couple weeks, that’s fine, too. Gives you a variety. You can bounce around between the different areas because from east to west, you have, you know, the corner over in Sages up by the ocean, all the way to the Spanish border. And there are a multitude of places to stay in between and or you can go from one point to another and two and a half hours, something like that. Yeah. Less. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And then obviously we do recommend if you’re going to take the time to be in in Portugal, get out to Madera. So like we said, you probably have to go back to Lisbon, but that’s only a couple hours back up to Lisbon to grab a flight unless the new flights have started. It is definitely worth at least a week. You can spend as many as two months or three months there because we did and we I would recommend two weeks at least. Yes, exactly. So that would be a great trip. You can just kind of stretch those times out depending on how long you want to stay. And again, you’re at that point in Europe, as long as you haven’t used up your 90 days, you can drive into Spain or jump on a train or take a really short inexpensive flight to almost everywhere. You can get all the way up to Scandinavia for like $39 flights per person. Mhm. Plus luggage, that’s a whole another topic. We hope you enjoy the video. Like we said, Portugal is a wonderful place. It is a great place to kind of get used to Europe, get your feet wet, spend some time. It’s a great place for downtime. You don’t have to be running around like you’re on vacation because you’re slow traveling. Yes. And if you visit in spring or fall, it’s going to be more quiet and you really can have the more sense of how Portugal is normally. Yeah. Portugal is wonderful for a lot of reasons. You can go, you know, if you then travel on to outside the Shenzhen zone to a place like Turkey that we recommend or Albania, um, or even somewhere else the world, come back again, do another part of the country. That’s a great thing about slow travel. We spent six months there slow traveling. We’re ready to go back and see other parts that we really haven’t spent much time in. Yes. So great. Again, I’m Peter and I’m Elena. Channel is Retire Everywhere. And if you really enjoyed this video, please like and subscribe. Yeah, that really does help us out. So, thank you again for watching. Thank you. Happy travels. Bye.

In this video, we break down what retirees really need to know before exploring Portugal—its climate, regions, food, transportation, and much more. From the sunny Algarve to historic Porto and Lisbon, we share how each area feels for long-term travelers and whether it’s a good fit for budget-minded retirees who still want comfort and culture.
If you’re planning a future trip or designing a retirement travel lifestyle, this guide will help you decide whether Portugal deserves a spot on your list.

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This video is a travel vlog, as part of our series on Slow Travel Destinations in Europe. (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOSc1DOQrL_Nd2YZkUhCK9oZ6Y5fKmxcC)

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