Portugal Travel Costs 2024: Complete Budget Breakdown and Itinerary

First of all, Portugal was an absolutely amazing experience. Heather and I both knew it would be an amazing experience but we were blown away by the landscapes, food and the local culture. We booked this trip on a whim one day after deciding that we wanted to travel in the early fall this year. We landed on traveling to Portugal at the end of September into October. We were pleasantly surprised with how mild the temperature was! Though we had a few (2) days of clouds/rain – the rest of our trip was perfect weather!

We’ll be following up with an article showcasing a detailed itinerary of our trip to Portugal, all of the best places to travel, sites to see and food to eat.

Trip Overview

Porto, Portugal – 2 days
Douro Valley, Portugal – 1 day
Nazaré, Portugal – 1 day
Carviero, Portugal – 2 days
Sintra, Portugal – 1 day
Lisbon, Portugal – 1 day

Due to our limited time of just one week, we decided to pick the most efficient routes and base our trip off of the best reward flights as well. We flew into Porto and then flew out of Lisbon. We didn’t spend too much time in Lisbon but found both airports to be easy to navigate and the car rental process was super quick as well. One quick thing to note is that our expense totals are based on two people.

So now you’re probably wondering, how much does it actually cost to travel to Portugal and back? Let’s get into it.

Expenses

The purpose of this trip was to maximize our time while in the country and see as much as possible. We were able to save a little bit of cash on our flights through points redemption and transferring to a partner airline. But we were not solely focused on pinching as many pennies as possible and actually chose to stay in a few epic Airbnbs, that truly made this trip one to remember. While cost is always something we consider, we did not limit ourselves while traveling this trip.

Accommodation

The first half of our trip was booked directly through Airbnb, with the last half booked through booking.com and a direct hotel booking site. Price was not a driving factor for us for accommodation, we chose based on location, reviews and views. Although our final hotel was booked solely due to the fact that it was within walking distance to the main airport check-in terminal because we had to check-in on our flight out at 3:00 AM (early mornings are not our favorite). 4 nights booked through Airbnb, 3 nights through booking.com and 1 night booked directly.

Total Accommodation Expenses: $1,545.19

Transportation

A lot of places can be explored and visited using the public transportation systems set in place in Europe, with their trains, buses and public transit options. However, to truly see the entire country in 7 full days, we opted to rent a car. While not the most cost effective, it was an absolute must in order to cover Portugal top to bottom. We elected to rent a car through Budget car rentals. Gas and toll expenses are included in the total.

Total Transportation Expenses: $1,060.14 = $588.40 (Flight taxes/fees) + 834.42 (Rental car) + 112.86 (Gas/Ubers)

Food and Beverages

Food is always a unique item for us because we are both Gluten Intolerance AND dairy free. When traveling abroad, this can be a little tough but with the help of blogs and the amazing Find Me Gluten Free app – we’ve managed to find so many memorable eats while traveling. Additionally, we love a good coffee or specialty drink and when we can we make it a point to find the best a country or place has to offer we always indulge. We only cooked ourselves once on this entire trip due to where we chose to stay and the desire to try local food.

Total Food and Beverage Expenses: $712.82

Activities

While traveling in Portugal there are a number of churches, castles, and tours at your disposal. We chose 3 main activities when we were in Sintra – the last night of our stay. This included the admission to Pena Palace, De regular and the Moorish Castle – all of which are a must see if you visit. There were options for wine tours and boat tours in several of the locations that we stayed but we opted to explore by foot and create our own experience while in Portugal.

Total Activities Expenses: $112.78

Total Trip Expenses Summary

For two people and one week of non-stop adventure, $3430.93 is relatively normal. If you were to factor in full round trip flights during peak season, this would have easily added an additional $2,000 to our trip total. For two people, this came out to a total of $428.86 per day or $214.43 a person per day. This was by no means a frugal centered trip but more so – let’s see how much we can fit into one week in another country.Total Trip Expenses: $3,430.93