Here are all the resources that I use to to plan our family travel, manage our life in Porto, and keep this blog running.
From booking flights to booking hotels, to learning Portuguese, here are the best travel planning resources, resources for expats or those planning a move, as well as the best blogging tools.
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Travel Insurance
SafetyWing– You need travel insurance- most of the time you won’t use it, but when you do, you’ll be really glad to have it. SafetyWing offers the best rates I’ve found for covering our family of four for long-term travel.
You don’t need to list every country you are traveling to, so you don’t need to worry if your plans change. You can set your insurance to renew each month until you stop it. They also offer more comprehensive medical insurance for digital nomads.
Get a SafetyWing Nomad Insurance Quote
Booking Flights
Skyscanner– Skyscanner has an amazing feature where your destination can be “Everywhere” and it will show you flights from your home airport (or wherever you are looking to fly from) sorted by price. Click into any location and you can see a calendar of the best prices.
They also let you select an entire country as your destination, so you can see in one search which city is cheapest to fly into from your location. I love this feature! They also include a lot of smaller airlines that don’t appear on other search engines.
Once you’ve found your flight, Skyscanner forwards you to the airline to book directly- so it there’s any problems, you won’t need to deal with a middleman, or end up with funny flight credits that are hard to use.
For direct flights to Porto from the USA check TAP Airlines and United Airlines. Starting in May 2026, Delta will offer daily direct flights from JFK to Porto.
For indirect flights, you will often see transfers through Lisbon, Madrid, and Barcelona.
For flights to Porto within Europe make sure to check RyanAir , EasyJet, WizzAir, and Transavia.
Transportation
These are our favorite resources for transportation around Porto, from public trains to private transfer services.
Airport Pick Up
Welcome Pickups– When you arrive after a long overnight flight and want someone to meet you at the airport, help you with your bags, provide car seats, and take you to your hotel with no extra thinking or navigating required. We’ve found Welcome Pickups to be reliable and easy to use.
Car Rental
Discover Cars– This is a great place to check prices on rental cars all around Portugal. Especially in the off-season you can find rental cars for just a few euros a day.
They show you all the major companies and make it really easy to see what is included in your rental, and what is optional. No surprise fees! Bonus: they have Free Cancellation if your plans change.
Portugal is well connected by train, but if you want to explore beyond the larger towns and into the Douro Valley you’ll need to book a day tour, or rent a car.
Trains and Buses
Bookaway– This is a great service for finding buses, trains, flights, and even private transfers. The best part of this service is the free cancellation. We find that many times bus and train tickets are non-refundable through other booking sites, and we all know how fast plans can change!
Official Train App
C.P.– This stands for Comboios de Portugal, or trains of Portugal. Download this app to buy and use train tickets around Portugal. Keep in mind that you can only buy tickets for longer distance and more upscale trains online. The most inexpensive regional trains don’t assign seats and tickets can only be bought at the station. C.P. does show the full schedule including these regional trains, you just won’t see them offered for purchase.
Ride Hailing Apps
Portugal has both Uber and Bolt, some people swear one is less expensive than the other, and vice versa.
Uber- Uber is very easy to use and inexpensive in Portugal. We use it to go to and from the airport when we don’t want to drag bags on the metro (or it’s early in the morning). We also use it to go other places where public transport is either unavailable or inconvenient. An Uber from the Porto Airport to downtown Porto should be somewhere around 10 euros.
Hotels and Accommodation
There are several place to check for accommodation around Porto. The larger companies have the most inventory, but you can often find a better deal with one of the smaller sites.
Booking.com– I love that Booking allows you to build up status points (they call them “Genius Levels”) that don’t expire. I find that Booking often has the best prices on hotels, though I always double-check through the hotel’s direct site when possible.
I also like the Booking app– it’s easy to use, and will alert me if I have a conflicting reservation. When changing my hotel reservation it gives me the option of automatically canceling the older overlapping reservation.
AirBnb: The old standby, this is still currently a good way to find short-term apartments in Portugal, although Lisbon specifically has been discussing limiting or outright banning the platform.
GuestReady: This short-term rental company has apartments in many cities in Europe, including throughout Portugal. You may see the same property listed on AirBnB but can get a better deal booking directly.
Limehome: Another short-term rental option, most of their places are in the Porto downtown area. Their model is to have centrally located properies with an emphasis on being completely digital. All of their properties have digital check in and out, no meeting up with a contact or reception required. No Pets and no smoking.
Flatio: This company specializes in fully furnished rentals of a month or longer, most in the 1-3 month range. Great for families that are worldschooling, taking a family gap year, or slow traveling. Prices include all utilities and WiFi. No deposit on rentals less than six months. They have apartments in Porto and Lisbon as well as many smaller towns in Portugal.
City Tours and Group Tours
These are the top providers we use for tours in and around Porto.
Viator
This tour booking company is owned by TripAdvisor and has a massive catalog of available tours. They do a great job showing the exact itinerary of what you are booking, so you know how long you’ll stop at each location. Their customer service is great, I’ve had to modify trips and they are very easy to work with.
GetYourGuide–
For day trips or tours around specific cities I always check GetYourGuide. My favorite part of this service is that they list the actual tour operator. I can search for reviews, and just feel more comfortable knowing who I’ll be dealing with on the ground.
Tech and Apps
Here are some of our favorite resources for apps and tech to make your trip easier.
Airalo eSIM
Purchase and load a digital eSIMs into your mobile phone before your trip, so you can just activate it when you land. No guessing at pricing, no standing at line to get a SIM card in the airport. You’ll be ready to call an Uber, use Google Maps, or make a phone call.
For Portugal, Airalo SIMs range from 3 to 30 days, or choose a regional SIM that will work in up to 42 countries across Europe.
Use our referral code to save a few dollars on your plan: WAKER7901
Check Prices: Airalo eSIM
Porto Subway Map
Download this app onto your phone before your trip, so you can check the Porto Metro map at any time. Free on Apple or Android.
Expat Resources
Facebook groups are a great place to find expat resources, depending on your specific city. You’ll find everything from Baking in Portugal to Families Moving to Portugal, to neighborhood specific groups. There are also many WhatsApp groups that function in a similar manner.
Moving to Portugal
To discuss whether moving abroad is right for you, or chat with us about our advice or experience, book an Expat Chat with us.
While we’re happy to answer questions about the process of getting a visa which leads to a temporary residence permit, the process changes quickly, and what worked six months ago may be different now. We highly recommend joining the Facebook group “AmericansandFriendsPT“. They have amazing files that are kept up-to-date and you can get current info.
For more information, read our guide to moving to Portugal, and FAQ about moving. We also have what we wish we knew before moving and Interview with the Kids!
NIF and Bank Accounts
Part of the journey toward a residence permit includes getting a NIF (tax number) and a Portuguese bank account. If you have time in Portugal, both of these things can be done in person. However, they may take several attempts, or involve lots of standing in line.
While we opened our bank account in person (it took inquiring at several different banks, than at least three in person appointments once we found a bank willing to work with us), we didn’t tackle getting our NIFs on our own. We used the services of Algarve Know How and highly recommend them. They were personable, easy to work with, and we got our paperwork in a timely fashion.
Finances
Moving money from $ to € can be tricky. Many US expats keep most of their money in US accounts which are interest bearing, and move what just they need to their Portuguese account. Some people also schedule transfers automatically based on the exchange rate.
For general transfers (under 10K), we recommend Wise. They consistently transfer quickly and without hassle. A second option to check out is Remitly. They have a much lower transfer free than Wise, unfortunately they don’t connect directly with our particular Portuguese bank, so they haven’t been very useful for us in Portugal. We have used them to pay deposits for larger tours during out travels.
Shipping Personal Goods to Portugal
Whether you are shipping a few bins full of clothes and other personal items, or a whole house full of stuff, we highly recommend using Portugalia Sales. They import goods from Portugal to the US, so they have containers routinely moving between Newark, NJ and various ports in Portugal.
They made the process so easy we actually shipped things twice! Once before we moved so that the items would arrive shortly after us, and once when we had actually seen our apartment and had a better idea which items we wanted to bring over. Call Beatrix to discuss your specific situation: 973-589-1416.
Learning Portuguese
The first thing to understand is that Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese are not the same. They have a different stress structure, different accent, and use different words (sort of like the difference between British and American English, but more so).
You’ll want to only use apps that specify European Portuguese. These include Practice Portuguese, Memrise, and for younger kids, Dinolingo (not to be confused with Duolingo).
For live 1:1 lessons online, we recommend finding a teacher you vibe with on Preply. You subscribe to a certain number of lessons per month, and an add extra lessons as needed. You’ll get 50 minutes online with a teacher per lesson, which is great for comprehension and conversational skills.
Translating Portuguese
The best translator to put on your phone is DeepL. Its is more accurate for European Portuguese than Google Translate. For the casual week in Portugal either will be fine, but if you are starting to translate emails, etc. you’ll want to be accurate.
Portuguese News
Consider subscribing (free or paid versions) to Portugal Decoded. This is a once weekly round up of important news stories in English. It covers everything from politics and pending legislation to festivals around the country.
Helpful Online Shops
There are lots of ethnic grocery stores in Porto where you can find most things, but for those tricky items, try Iherb.com. It’s the only place I’ve found to get double acting baking powder. For snacks and other treats try glood.pt. We have an article on grocery shopping in Porto that includes online options.
Blogging Tools & Resources
These are the main blogging tools we recommend.
SiteGround– I host my blog through SiteGround and have been pleased with their service. They are a great entry-level host. I especially like that I can easily access database and theme files without using a separate FTP.
Kit– I manage my email subscriptions and opt-in offers through Kit (used to be ConvertKit). I find it very intuitive and easy to manage. I love the easy design features for opt-ins. You do need to use the paid version to set up Welcome Sequences and other automations.
Affilimate– this online software tracks where your affiliate sales are coming from and pulls all of your various affiliate programs (mostly) into one dashboard. One of its greatest features is a heatmap of each post. Highly recommend.