5 tips for traveling to Portugal by car this summer

Portugal has become, in its own right, one of the preferred destinations for Spaniards —although also throughout Europe— and among its attractions is how easy it is for us to reach the neighboring country by motorway.

Yes, you can also choose the plane or the train, but going by car offers a freedom to explore cities or visit charming villages that is difficult to match. For this reason, we want to give you 5 tips for traveling to Portugal by car this summer that will surely be very useful:

1. Highway tolls will no longer be a nuisance if we use an electronic toll device such as viat. This payment system is implemented in all of the peninsula and allows you to go through them without stopping the car, which saves time and headaches. You place it on your windshield and from that moment you only have to worry about driving to your destination and enjoy the scenery, since through a short-range communication technology the vehicle information will be read every time you cross the highway tolls. As viat will be associated with your card or bank account, payment is made quickly and securely, making it very easy to keep detailed control of payments.
2. Do your refueling before crossing the border. The price of gasoline is, in general, notably cheaper in Spain than in Portugal, so we will save a few euros if we are far-sighted and go with our tank full before crossing the border.
3. It is better to drive rested and wide awake. Portuguese roads tend to have little traffic, so they tend to be monotonous, which is the perfect breeding ground for tiredness and drowsiness to appear. Therefore, and as is recommended in any other journey by car, the ideal is to stop every two hours or 200 kilometers and hydrate properly.
4. Research well the route you are going to follow. Portugal is full of charming villages and corners that are worth a visit, but some of them are difficult to find. Set your goals and calculate times and distances to organize yourself properly. However, unless we want to travel the entire country from north to south or vice versa, almost everything is usually within an accessible and easy distance to travel in the same day. It will be easy for you to find one of these towns in summer at parties or celebrating one of the famous markets of velharias so typical, especially in the south of the country where you can get hold of some curious antique for a few euros. Don’t forget to haggle a bit on the price.
5. Stop to eat whenever you feel like it. So, no more. Portuguese gastronomy is exquisite and in every corner of the country you will find very tasty dishes at affordable prices. In Portugal they love their cuisine and they put love and attention into the preparation of the dishes that will surprise you. It doesn’t matter if it’s a big city or a town lost in some mountain range; a traditional and forceful dish or one that reinvents the typical cuisine; the classic cod that they cook like nobody else or some tasty meat at its perfect point of cooking. Whichever dish you choose, you will love Portuguese cuisine from the first moment.

Lisbon and Porto, the country’s big cities, are destinations with infinite possibilities, but there is nothing like getting lost among the Portuguese towns to discover the true and genuine character of our neighboring country. So go ahead and explore it on the motorway and use viat to worry only about the most important thing: enjoying yourself.