Private Airport Transfers in Portugal

Portugal is compact, but each of its three main airports serves a very different trip. Lisbon Airport sits inside the capital, about half an hour from the Estoril coast. Porto Airport is the gateway to the north and the wine estates of the Douro Valley. Faro Airport lands you on the Algarve, within half an hour of its golf resorts.

From Lisbon we drive into the city centre, west to Cascais and south over the Tagus to the beaches of Comporta. From Porto we drive to the old town, Ribeira and the Gaia wine lodges, and on to quintas near Pinhão. From Faro we run transfers to Quinta do Lago and Vale do Lobo, Vilamoura and Albufeira. Every ride is one fixed price for the whole vehicle, with tolls included.

Portugal drives on the right, and most of its motorways charge tolls. Some have traditional toll booths; others only have overhead electronic gantries with no booth at all, and drivers of foreign-registered cars must set up a payment method before using them. Every transfer we quote includes the tolls, so you never deal with either system.

The two bridges over the Tagus in Lisbon only charge traffic heading into the city. Around Lisbon and Porto, the ring roads are busiest in the weekday rush hours, and on summer Fridays traffic streams south towards the Alentejo and the Algarve. We allow for both when we suggest pickup times.

Portugal's old quarters were built long before cars. In Lisbon, parts of Alfama, the Castelo hill and Bairro Alto are controlled-access streets for residents, and the Baixa lanes around Rua Augusta are pedestrian. In Porto, Ribeira and the streets around the cathedral are steep, cobbled and partly closed to traffic.

Your driver takes you to the hotel door wherever access is allowed, and to the nearest legal stop where it isn't, usually a few minutes' walk away. For villas in Comporta or the Algarve, send us a map pin and any gate code.

Lisbon and Porto are busy from April to October and pleasant all year. June is festival month: Lisbon celebrates Santo António on the night of 12 June, with 13 June a city holiday, and Porto's São João runs through the night of 23 June. The Douro harvest usually falls in September and early October.

The Comporta coast is at its liveliest from June to September and very quiet in winter. The Algarve has the longest season, with beach holidays in summer and golf in the milder months.