Driving in Portugal

Although Portugal has a good railway network and extensive coach bus coverage, some travellers prefer to drive through the country. Drivers will encounter a variety of roads, from modern motorways to ramshackle countryside lanes. Many offer breathtaking mountain vistas, oceanside views, or glimpses of field and forests.

Understand

Portuguese traffic culture is very different from that of northern Europe. Driving is fast-paced and at high speeds - drivers should be careful.

Regulations

Speed limits

National speed limits in Portugal may be overridden by signs on certain stretches of road or on city streets. Speed limits are as follows, unless otherwise posted:

Cities and other "built-up areas": 50 km/h (31 mph)
Roads outside built-up areas: 90 km/h (56 mph)
Expressways (non-motorway fast roads): 100 km/h (62 mph)
Motorways: 120 km/h (75 mph)

Drunk driving

Tolls

Most motorways (autoestradas) and some bridges have tolls. You can pay at a tollbooth on most. Some have electronic tolls only.

For information about electronic-toll-only roads see Portugal Tolls. They have information on signing up for EASYtoll, which is accepted only on highways with electronic tolls only.

Via Verde is an electronic transponder you can use to pay tolls without stopping for tollbooth queues, using the green Via Verde lanes at toll plazas. The tolls are charged to your bank account (Portuguese users) or credit card (international visitors). Via Verde works on all Portuguese motorways, both those with old-school toll plazas and those with electronic tolls only, as well as on 210 km (130 mi) along 16 Spanish motorways.

Fuel

Parking

You can find parking (parque de estacionamento) by looking for white-on-blue "P" signs (🅿️). Some signs indicate Gratuito (free) or Pago (paid). A roof-like chevron shape over the 🅿️ indicates indoor or covered parking. Sometimes the 🅿️ will indicate Livre (available) in green or Completo (full) in red. Some 🅿️ signs mark reserved parking spaces, so be careful if there is an accompanying placard.

Car rental

Roads

Drivers will encounter several classes of roadways in Portugal.

Autoestradas

Marker for the A1 motorway.

Autoestradas are equivalent to "freeways", "motorways", or "expressways" in various English-speaking countries. These are controlled-access highways with speed limits of 120 km/h (75 mph). Their markers consist of white lettering on blue rectangles, with designations starting "A". Most autoestradas charge tolls, which can be conventional (tollbooths, with electronic transponder fast lanes) or electronic only.

The table below includes all 44 current and planned motorways. Most motorways form part or all various of itinerários principais (IP) or itinerários complementares (IC), but the autoestrada (A) designation takes precedence on road signs. Some portions are under planning or construction. Others are awaiting upgrade and carry only the IP or IC designation in the meantime.

Motorways of Portugal
No.	Name	End	End	Via	Length	Notes
A1	Autoestrada do Norte	Lisbon	Porto	Leiria, Coimbra, Aveiro	303 km	also designated E01 & E80
A2	Autoestrada do Sul	Lisbon	Albufeira	Almada, Grândola	240 km	also designated E01 & E90
A3	Autoestrada de Entre-Douro-e-Minho	Porto	Valença		112 km	also designated as E01, continues N of Tui as Spain's A-55
A4	Autoestrada Transmontana or Autoestrada de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro	Matosinhos (N of Porto)	Bragança	Vila Real	223 km	also designated E82, continues E as Spain's N-122
A5	Autoestrada da Costa do Estoril	Lisbon	Cascais	Oeiras	25 km
A6	Autoestrada do Alentejo Central	Marateca (Palmela)	Caia (Elvas)	Évora	158 km	also designated E90, continues E from Badajoz as Spain's A-5
A7	Autoestrada do Douro	Póvoa de Varzim	Vila Pouca de Aguiar	Vila Nova de Famalicão, Guimarães	104 km	also designated E805
A8	Autoestrada do Oeste	Lisbon	Leiria	Torres Vedras, Óbidos, Caldas da Rainha	138 km
A9	Circular Regional Exterior de Lisboa (CREL)	Oeiras	Alverca (Vila Franca de Xira)	Queluz, Odivelas, Loures	35 km
A10	Autoestrada do Ribatejo	Bucelas (Loures)	Benavente		39 km
A11	Autoestrada do Baixo Minho	Apúlia (Esposende)	Castelões (Penafiel)	Barcelos, Braga, Guimarães	80 km
A12	Autoestrada do Sul do Tejo	Setúbal	Sacavém (Loures, just outside Lisbon)	Vasco da Gama Bridge, Montijo, Palmela	41 km	also designated E01
A13	Autoestrada do Pinhal Interior	Marateca (Palmela)	Coimbra		149 km	gap between Almeirim and Entroncamento to be built in future
A14	Autoestrada do Baixo Mondego	Figueira da Foz	Coimbra	Montemor-o-Velho	40 km
A15	Autoestrada do Atlântico	Caldas da Rainha / Óbidos	Santarém	Rio Maior	40 km
A16	Circular Exterior da Área Metropolitana de Lisboa	Alcabideche (Cascais)	Pontinha (Odivelas)	Sintra	23 km
A17	Autoestrada do Litoral Centro	Marinha Grande	Aveiro	Figueira da Foz	117 km
A18	Radial da Grande Lisboa	Torres Vedras	Carregado (Alenquer)		25 km	under construction
A19	Variante da Batalha	Porto de Mós	Leiria	Batalha	16 km
A20	Circular Regional Interior do Porto (CRIP)	Porto	Vila Nova de Gaia		16 km
A21	Autoestrada de Mafra	Venda do Pinheiro (Mafra)	Ericeira (Mafra)		21 km
A22	Via do Infante de Sagres	Lagos	Castro Marim	Faro	133 km	also designated E01, continues E from Ayamonte as Spain's A-49
A23	Autoestrada da Beira Interior	Torres Novas	Guarda	Abrantes, Castelo Branco, Covilhã	217 km
A24	Autoestrada do Interior Norte	Viseu	Chaves	Lamego, Peso da Régua	162 km	also designated E801, continues N as Spain's A-75
A25	Autoestrada das Beiras Litoral e Alta	Ílhavo	Vilar Formoso (Almeida)	Aveiro, Viseu, Guarda	199 km	also designated E80 & E802, continues E from Fuentes de Oñoro as Spain's A-62
A26	Autoestrada do Baixo Alentejo	Sines	Beja	Santiago do Cacém, Ferreira do Alentejo	22 km (100 km)	multiple stretches under construction
A27	Autoestrada do Vale do Lima	Viana do Castelo	Ponte de Lima		24 km
A28	Autoestrada do Litoral Norte	Porto	Caminha	Matosinhos, Póvoa de Varzim, Viana do Castelo	93 km (123 km)	extension to Valença planned
A29	Autoestrada da Costa da Prata	Albergaria-a-Velha	Vila Nova de Gaia	Ovar, Espinho	53 km
A30	Autoestrada do Estuário do Tejo	Sacavém (Loures)	Santa Iria da Azóia (Loures)		10 km	designated IC2, A30 designation pending road upgrade
A31	Variante a Coimbra	Coimbra	Coimbra		11 km	designated IC2, A31 designation pending road upgrade
A32	Autoestrada de Entre-Douro-e-Vouga	Oliveira de Azeméis	Vila Nova de Gaia	São João da Madeira	34 km
A33	Circular Regional Interior da Península de Setúbal (CRIPS)	Monte da Caparica (Almada)	Montijo		37 km
A34	Autoestrada de Pombal	Pombal	Pombal		5 km	designated IC8, A34 designation pending road upgrade
A35	Autoestrada da Beira Alta	Mira	Mangualde	Santa Comba Dão, Nelas	21 km (94 km)	majority yet to be built, designated IC12 in meantime
A36	Circular Regional Interior de Lisboa (CRIL)	Algés (Oeiras)	Sacavém (Loures)		21 km	designated IC17, A36 designation pending road upgrade
A37	Radial de Sintra	Lisbon	Sintra	Amadora, Queluz	16 km	designated IC19, A37 designation pending road upgrade
A38	Via Rápida da Caparica	Cova da Piedade (Almada)	Costa da Caparica (Almada)		6 km	designated IC20, A38 designation pending road upgrade
A39	Via Rápida do Barreiro	Coina (Barreiro)	Lavradio (Barreiro)		9 km	designated IC21, A39 designation pending road upgrade
A40	Radial de Odivelas	Olival Basto (Odivelas)	Santo António dos Cavaleiros (Loures)		4 km	designated IC22, A40 designation pending road upgrade
A41	Circular Regional Exterior do Porto (CREP)	Perafita (Matosinhos)	Anta (Espinho)		62 km
A42	Autoestrada do Douro Litoral	Sobrado (Valongo)	Várzea (Felgueiras)		30 km
A43	Radial de Gondomar	Porto	Gondomar		16 km
A44	Autoestrada de Vila Nova de Gaia	Gulpilhares (Vila Nova de Gaia)	Oliveira do Douro (Vila Nova de Gaia)		9 km

Itinerários principais

Marker for the IP1 main route.

Itinerários principais are "principal" or "main" routes. Their markers consist of white lettering on red rectangles with designations starting "IP". IPs often overlap autoestradas, in which case the "A" designation is used on road signs.

Main routes of Portugal
No.	Route	Length	Notes
IP1	Valença - Braga - Porto - Vila Nova de Gaia - Lisbon - Vasco da Gama Bridge - Palmela - Tunes - Castro Marim	734 km	Concurrent with all or part of (N to S): A3, A20, A1, A12, A2, A22; continues N from Tui as Spain's A-55; continues E from Ayamonte as Spain's A-49
IP2	Bragança - Guarda - Castelo Branco - Portalegre - Évora - Beja - Faro	564 km	Concurrent with all or part of (N to S): A4, A25, A23, A6, A2, A22
IP3	Chaves - Viseu - Coimbra - Figueira da Foz	279 km	Concurrent with all or part of (N to S): E801, A24, A14; continues north as Spain's A-75
IP4	Matosinhos (N of Porto) - Vila Real - Bragança	42 km (222 km)	Concurrent with A4, E82; continues E as Spain's N-122
IP5	Aveiro - Viseu - Guarda - Vilar Formoso (Almeida)	199 km	Concurrent with A25, E80; continues E from Fuentes de Oñoro as Spain's A-62
IP6	Peniche - Óbidos - Santarém - Castelo Branco	219 km	Concurrent with all or part of (W to E): A8, A15, A1, A23
IP7	Loures - Lisbon - 25 de Abril Bridge - Setúbal - Évora - Elvas	225 km	Concurrent with all or part of (W to E): A2, A6 E90; continues E from Badajoz as Spain's A-5
IP8	Sines - Serpa	3 km (157 km)	Mostly under construction or planning
IP9	Viana do Castelo - Ponte de Lima - Braga - Vila Real	161 km	Concurrent with all or part of (W to E): A27, A3, A11, A4

Itinerários complementares

Marker for the IC1 secondary route.

Itinerários complementares are "complementary" or "secondary" routes. Their signs have black lettering on white rectangles with designations starting "IC". ICs often overlap autoestradas, in which case the "A" designation is used on road signs.

Estradas nacionais

Estradas nacionais are non-motorway national roads, some in better condition than others. They are identified with black on white markers starting with "N" or "EN" (depending on the sign's age). Many older stone or concrete markers still exist. Many former national roads are decommissioned. Some have been redesignated as regional or municipal roads. Others still have obsolete signage or are at least referenced by their former numbers by locals.

Estradas regionais

Estradas regionais are regional roads. Their markers are black on white starting with "R" or "ER".

Estradas municipais

Estradas municipais are municipal roads. Their numbers begin "M" or "EM", and they are often unmarked but may be found in online maps and in map apps.

Estradas Europeias

E01 route marker.

Estradas Europeias are international European highways, connecting with Spain and countries beyond. Their route markers have white lettering on green rectangles with designations beginning "E". Signage is sometimes absent when the routes are concurrent with Portuguese highways.

European routes through Portugal
No.	Itinerary	Length*
E01	Ireland - Spain (... Vigo) - Braga - Porto - Coimbra - Santarém - Lisbon - Setúbal - Faro - Spain (Huelva ...)	1,460 km
E80	Lisbon - Coimbra - Aveiro - Viseu - Guarda - Spain (Salamanca ...) - France - Italy - Croatia - Montenegro - Kosovo - Serbia - Bulgaria - Turkey	5,600 km
E82	Porto - Vila Real - Bragança - Spain (Zamora ...)	380 km
E90	Lisbon - Setúbal - Évora - Elvas - Spain (Badajoz ...) - Italy - Greece - Turkey	4,770 km
E801	Coimbra - Viseu - Vila Real - Chaves - Spain (Verín)	257 km
E802	Ourique - Beja - Évora - Portalegre - Guarda - Macedo de Cavaleiros	586 km
E805	Póvoa de Varzim - Vila Nova de Famalicão - Guimarães - Vila Pouca de Aguiar	102 km
E806	Torres Novas - Abrantes - Nisa	78 km

* Total length, including portions outside Portugal

Road signs

Road signs in Portugal adhere to the 1968 Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals, largely matching those in most other European countries and much of Asia, but differing from those elsewhere. Most signs consist of pictograms only, without words.

Danger: low visibility
Prohibition: no overtaking by motorcycles or mopeds
Mandatory: snow chains required
Information: hospital
Information: hospital with full-time emergency
Leaving named built-up area
Via Verde toll road