Portugal Travel Guide

Weather & when to visit

For most people, the best time of year for a visit to Portugal is either the spring or the fall. Both periods offer the benefits of good weather, fewer crowds, and better prices.

While a summer visit is always lovely, temperatures in some parts of the country become oppressively hot and both crowds and prices are at their peaks. If your main goal is to hit the beach, a summer visit makes sense, but everyone else should stick to fall or spring.

Visiting in Spring and Fall

Between April and May, and in September and October, the weather throughout Portugal is pleasant with warm (but not overly hot) days with lots of sunshine and long daylight hours. It's the ideal time of year for sightseeing and outdoors activities. Early fall is almost always warm enough to go to the beach everywhere in the country and even spring, especially by mid-May, has plenty of beach day opportunities.

Adding to their appeal, both seasons also represent shoulder season, meaning you'll find fewer crowds in the cities and sights and you'll get better prices for hotels and car rentals. However, to be clear, both spring and fall are busy times of year for tourism, so you should not expect to come here and be the only tourist around.

Visiting in summer

June, July, and August are peak season in Portugal and it will be busy and crowded almost everywhere you go. This is when all of Europe and North America are on summer vacation, so you'll be competing with Portuguese locals on holiday, visiting Europeans, and people from everywhere else. The country's main cities and the beaches of the Algarve become absolutely packed over the summer, hotels have limited availability, and prices skyrocket.

Temperatures in the center and south of the country will regularly be in the 90s (and rising into the 100s - Fahrenheit) over the summer, so it's not a time of year that we recommend for sightseeing or outdoors activities.

If you're coming for a beach trip and are prepared to put up with the crowds or if you want to explore the wonderful parks and mountainous villages of (cooler) Northern Portugal, it can be a wonderful time to be here. For sightseeing and road tripping, other times of year are typically better.

Visiting in winter

Winter can actually be a nice time to visit Portugal, depending on where you go and what you're hoping to do.

While the north of the country is cold, rainy, and foggy throughout the winter, the Alentejo, Algarve, and island of Madeira usually have mild temperatures and mostly sunny days. With temperatures often hovering from 60-70 Fahrenheit (around 20ºC) it can actually be a really nice time to be in those areas.

The Algarve's golf courses - and the appeal of hotel prices discounted by as much as 70% - are a major winter draw.

City guides

Portugal is small and its only truly large city is Lisbon. Beyond this, you'll find a few historic medium-sized cities in the north of the country (like Porto and Braga), and then mostly a smattering of lovely, little cities and large towns throughout the rest of the country.

We can't cover them all, but we've written about one or two!

Braga - Coimbra - Évora - Faro - Funchal - Guimarães - Lagos - Lisbon - Loulé - Portimão - Porto - Tavira

Where to stay: hotels & accommodation

When it comes to accommodation, you'll be spoiled for choice in Portugal. All over the country you'll find an excellent selection of hotels, B&Bs, short-term apartments, and hostels. Rates are still good when compared to other countries in Western Europe, but prices have risen quite steeply in the last decade. Portugal is no longer the budget destination that it once was.

One important thing to keep in mind is that space for new construction in cities is limited and renovating historic buildings is very expensive. This means that if you like modern hotels, you'll need to stay in slightly removed neighborhoods of the larger cities or prepare to shell out a decent chunk of change for an updated hotel in the historic centers.

Where to stay in Porto - Where to stay in Lisbon

More Portugal travel ideas

How to plan a trip to Portugal - Guide to Peneda-Gerês Park - Hidden gem towns in the Algarve - Best day trips from Lisbon - 40 beautiful places to visit