Renting A Car In Portugal In 2025: Prices + 14 Tips

We’ve been to Portugal 4 times, but it was only on our most recent trip that we decided to hire our own vehicle. It ended up being the best trip we had, which is why we 100% recommend renting a car in Portugal if you’ve already ticked off popular holiday destinations like Lisbon and Porto.

Portugal was one of the most convenient places that we’ve been for renting a car in Europe. The prices were reasonable, the roads were good quality, and parking was simple outside the biggest cities – and why would you want to drive in the melee of downtown Lisbon anyway?

In this post, we’ll take you through our top 14 renting car in Portugal tips, including an idea of costs, the basic requirements, and some of the best places to hit up when you’re on the road.

#1 Is It Easy To Drive A Car In Portugal?

Driving in Portugal is a breeze. The roads are good quality, it’s easy to navigate with Google Maps, and the signs are (mostly) self-explanatory. Just bear in mind that city names and destinations are largely in Portuguese without English translation, which means knowing things like Lisboa is Lisbon.

We predominantly took the motorways to save time travelling around the country. They were surprisingly empty, which makes them very pleasant to drive along. 

The tolls were also very easy to manage since our vehicle – and this is pretty common in Portugal – came with a device that automatically takes care of the payments as you enter and exit the motorway. 

Generally speaking, parking is super accessible when you hire a car in Portugal. As with any big city in Europe, you can expect it to be slightly more challenging in places like Lisbon or Porto, but a lot of the smaller cities have readily available free parking.

#2 Do You Need A Car In Portugal?

Hiring a car in Portugal isn’t essential. It’s just our preferred mode of travel once you’ve ticked off the major cities. 

If it’s your first time in the country, though, and you only have a few days, then you can easily see places like Lisbon, Porto, and Faro just by sticking to trains and buses. Getting to smaller places like Nazare, Obidos, or Douro Valley villages, on the other hand, is a lot handier by car.

Having said that, Portugal does have a robust public transportation system if you don’t mind taking a little longer to get places. The country’s main rail company, Comboios de Portugal, runs routes between larger urban areas as well as smaller towns up and down the country.

Buses fill in most of the gaps that the trains don’t cover. Rede Expressos operates all the express services to a ton of places, but there are also a handful of regional providers for getting to more out-of-the-way locales. 

Plus, both the train and the bus are very good value, especially by Western European standards. 

#3 How To Rent A Car In Portugal?

Whenever we hire a car, we usually rely on DiscoverCars. It’s just a lot easier to find the best car rental in Portugal through this one site than going to each rental business’ website to check availability and prices. 

DiscoverCars have deals with all the major brands like SIXT and Europcar, as well as smaller outfits. Using the interface, you can filter for things like size, fuel policy, and manual/automatic. They even allow you to see which companies will accept a debit card for the deposit, which is helpful for anyone trying to rent a car in Portugal without credit card.

Ratings are displayed for each company, but we always crosscheck these against reviews with Trustpilot and Google, just to be safe.

To get the cheapest car rentals in Portugal, book online in advance. That will also give you the most options, particularly during busy holiday periods when all the good deals can get snapped up quickly.

Last thing to consider: book with full coverage, which allows you to claim back on any costs you incur related to damage or theft up to a prearranged amount. Third-party liability insurance is required by law and is included with most rentals, but we always get a little extra for those unforeseen incidents.

#4 Where To Rent A Car In Portugal

Where you decide to pick up your car will depend on where you fly into. Here are the most popular and convenient places to begin your Portugal road trip:

📍 Lisbon. The Portuguese capital is where most international flights arrive. You won’t need a car while exploring Lisbon itself, so it’s better to arrange to pick up a vehicle downtown once you’ve seen the city rather than straight off the plane.

📍 Porto. The second-largest city in Portugal also contains the county’s second-busiest airport. This is where we got our vehicle, organising a pickup from a Drivalia car hire place that was 20 minutes from our Airbnb. Porto is the place to get a car if you want to explore Portuguese wine country in the Douro Valley.

📍 Faro. The capital of the Algarve, Faro is the last of the three big cities in Portugal with regular international flights. It’s right at the southern end of the country, which makes it a good spot to start if you want to begin at the bottom and drive all the way up. Some of the country’s best beaches are also easily reachable from here. 

Don’t forget that you don’t have to return your car to the same place you hired it from. It’s normally a little more expensive to pick up and return from different locations, but the increase in cost is sometimes worth it. That’s what we decided anyway on our recent trip, getting the car in Porto and leaving it in Lisbon. 

#5 Is Renting A Car In Portugal Safe?

We’ve found the story is pretty much the same wherever you travel in the world. Renting a car is safe as long as you do your due diligence.

We’ve already mentioned a couple of ways you can cover yourself, such as crosschecking reviews for rental companies on Google Maps and Trustpilot, as well as purchasing full coverage insurance.

Before hiring a car in Portugal, you should also acquaint yourself with the general speed limits and any atypical road signs – all of which we’ll cover further down the page.

#6 What Do You Need To Rent A Car In Portugal?

The renting a car in Portugal requirements are standard compared to other countries in Europe. Here are the main things you will need:

✅ A valid driver’s licence. This one’s pretty obvious, but hey, sometimes it’s the obvious stuff that slips your mind! Portugal allows drivers from other EU nations, as well as the UK and the USA, to operate a vehicle in the country without an International Driving Permit.

✅ A second form of ID. For most people, this will be a passport, but an official ID card is also acceptable for some nationalities. Car rental companies sometimes ask for this just to double-check you are who you say you are.

✅ A credit card (usually). Most car hire outfits will want to take a security deposit by putting a hold for the amount on your credit card. If you don’t have a credit card, there are some options that will allow you to use a debit card, but we don’t recommend this as there are fewer financial protections, and you have to wait for a refund.

⚠️ Young drivers beware: even though you can drive at 18 in Portugal, you must be at least 21 to rent a car. There is also usually an additional fee for anybody under the age of 25.

#7 Cost Of Hiring A Car In Portugal?

Cost depends on several factors. The most impactful are what you rent (automatic or manual, mini or luxury), who you rent from (big international brand or smaller outfit), and the time of year (height of summer or off-season).

There are also other additional factors to consider when hiring a car in Portugal like deposits, petrol, and tolls.

To give you a general idea, we paid €31 for a Volkswagen Polo for 1 week in October – which is obviously super cheap! And it was last minute, just the day before we actually picked it up, so we could probably have hired it for even less with a bit more forward planning. 

The full coverage insurance was a bit pricier at €64 for 7 days, but no more expensive than we’ve paid elsewhere in Europe. 

The thing that was the priciest for us was the €160 fee we forked over for dropping off the car in Lisbon. Without that, we would have ended up paying less than €100 for the week.

Drivalia also took a €1,500 security deposit in case of damage, plus a €100 deposit for petrol, just to ensure we returned the car fully refuelled. 

We paid around €10 for tolls, but at the end of the day you pay for whatever you used. There was a device fitted in the car that took the payments automatically on the highways. 

Even though we managed to get a good deal, we recommend booking as soon as you know your travel plans for the cheapest choices. DiscoverCars offers a generous cancellation policy, so you can always back out if something comes up or your itinerary changes.

#8 What Kind Of Car Is Recommended?

That depends on how far you intend to drive. If you’re only spending time exploring the Algarve, a small car will be fine to get you between the numerous beaches, caves, and picturesque old towns. It’s also handy for squeezing into tight parking spaces! 

If your plan is to drive across the country, you may want to go with renting a car in Portugal that’s bigger and better, giving you more space for longer drives.

Another thing to consider is that automatic car rentals in Portugal are more expensive, so if you can manage with a manual, it’s an easy cost-saving measure.

#9 Road Signs In Portugal

Most of the signs are similar to those of the rest of Europe. Even if you aren’t overly familiar with the symbols on European roads, they’re largely self-explanatory, but you can check out this site if you want to do a little revision before renting a car in Portugal.

There was one sign that took us a while to figure out – or rather, a pair of signs. If you take the motorway, you’ll see 120 inside a red ring, but right below it, the number 50 inside a blue circle. So, do you drive 120 kilometres an hour or 50? Turns out that 120 is the maximum speed, while 50 is the minimum speed. In other words, it’s a crime to drop below 50. Now you know!

#10 Speed Limits In Portugal

Speaking of speed limits, there are essentially three main ones to observe. The standard is 90 kmh (about 55 mph), which is in effect when you’re not in a built-up area or on the motorway.

On the highways, you can go up to 120 kmh (75 mph) – and as we’ve mentioned, you can’t drop below 50 kmh (31 mph)! 

In urban areas, the speed limit is 50 kmh (31 mph), but as with anywhere in the world, there are places where it may be even less, like the centre of a city. These are usually clearly signposted, though, so no need to fret about accidentally exceeding the max.

#11 Gas Stations In Portugal 

We sometimes worry about the spacing of petrol stations when embarking on a road trip in a foreign country, but they were plentiful in Portugal. All of them come with toilets and snack options, which is convenient if you plan to make longer journeys.

The WCs were free to use everywhere we went, which was a nice bonus.

Petrol prices are like elsewhere in continental Europe. When we went, it was about €1.7 per litre, but given how much these things can fluctuate, you might want to use that as a very vague guide rather than something set in stone.

#12 Parking In Portugal

Parking in Portugal is very affordable almost everywhere in the country. Even in the bigger metropolises like Lisbon and Porto, it’s inexpensive – we paid just over or just under €1 in most places. 

While it’s cheap however, it’s also limited, and finding a space can be a real pain in the neck! That’s why we don’t recommend renting a car in Portugal until you’re ready to leave the city, because who needs that headache?

Outside of Lisbon and Porto, there’s quite a lot of free parking. We didn’t pay a penny in either Nazare or Evora, although only residents are allowed to park inside the medieval walls of Evora. 

#13 Is Renting A Car In Portugal And Driving To Spain Allowed?

Yes, car rental companies in Portugal will usually allow you to rent a car in Portugal and drive to Spain. In fact, most are pretty chill about letting you take a hire car to any EU country. There is, of course, an additional fee associated with doing this, and the amount varies depending on the company and the type of car.

So, should you rent a car in Portugal and drive to Spain? It’s certainly a nice way to get a bit more out of your holiday. From Porto, it’s a very doable day trip to Santiago de Compostela, a gorgeous old city in Galicia that’s one of the most famous Catholic pilgrimage sites in the world. 

At the other end of Portugal, Sevill,e with its gargantuan cathedral and splendid Alcazar is just a couple of hours from Faro.

#14 Awesome Places To Visit With A Hire Car In Portugal

The reason we settled on renting a car in Portugal was to go beyond the big cities we’d already visited. Both Lisbon and Porto are easily manageable by public transport, but exploring places like Nazare and Obidos is a bit more time-consuming and complex without a car. 

Here are our top 5 recommendations of places to see based on areas we visited on our most recent trip.

📍Nazare 

About an hour and a half north of Lisbon, Nazare is home to a long, sandy shoreline and massive waves that have made it into a prime surfing destination. It’s not without its traditional allure too, and we were charmed by the traditional fishing village vibe that still peeps through the more modern aspects of the town.

Forte de São Miguel Arcanjo is a super popular place to go for views over the sea, especially in autumn and winter when the waves are at their peak. 

There are also beautiful panoramas from Sitio, which is perched above the beach on a rocky headland. While here, don’t miss the 14th-century Sanctuary of Our Lady of Nazareth, which has a stunning mix of gilded altars and Dutch tiles.

📍Evora 

About the same distance from Lisbon but going inland rather than along the coast, Evora has a fascinating hodgepodge of historical sites. The oldest is the Roman Temple, but the most memorable in our minds is the cathedral, which looks a bit like something from a Harry Potter film production set – except it was constructed in the mid-1700s rather than the early 2000s.

We have to give a shout-out to the macabre Chapel of Bones, a grim religious haunt (see what we did there?) whose walls are lined with skulls, femurs, and other REAL pieces of skeleton. Apparently, it’s meant to remind visitors of the inevitability of death, and it’s hard not to think about the hereafter surrounded by so many ossified remains!

📍Obidos

Half an hour from Nazare, Obidos was one of our favourite places we were able to visit by renting a car in Portugal. It’s one of the most striking walled towns in the country, prominently situated atop a hill that commands views of the surrounding countryside. 

That’s probably why there’s been a castle here for hundreds of years, one that’s so well preserved that it was listed as one of the Seven Wonders of Portugal. You can also still walk the walls – though there are no guardrails, so watch your step!

The village itself is gorgeous, and we really enjoyed just getting lost in the side streets. Make sure to pop into a bar to try the local liqueur, sour-cherry-flavoured ginja.

📍Sintra

Home to an impressive collection of former royal retreats, Sintra is just a short drive from Lisbon. 

The oldest building here is the Moorish castle, whose walls undulate over the hills and looked particularly mystical on the foggy October afternoon when we visited. It’s an impressive ruin, though much less unique than the quirky palaces that were built by Catholic monarchs over the ensuing years.

First, you’ve got the National Palace of Sintra with its two conical chimneys that look so out of place it’s hard to believe they’re actually more than 500 years old. There’s also the colourful mishmash of the Pena Palace and the gorgeous gardens of the Quinta da Regaleira.

📍Algarve

Last up, the Algarve region lies along the southern coast of Portugal, where it gets the best sunny weather. Pair that up with the sandy beaches of resort towns like Albufeira and Lagos, and you can imagine why we’ve included the area on our list of places to visit!

There are also loads of lesser-visited coves and cute towns that you can check out with the aid of a car. 

Don’t miss the Bengali Caves, an admittedly popular attraction that can only be reached via standup paddleboard or kayak. It’s a gorgeous place where the earth, sky, and sea seem to blend in perfect harmony.

Renting A Car In Portugal: Final Word

Renting a car in Portugal isn’t necessary if you’re only going for a long weekend away, but it’s definitely worthwhile if you’re planning to explore the country over 7 days or longer. The driving is scenic, the roads are pleasant, and there’s plenty to see as you work your way from the sandy coastline to the scenic hilltop town.