Portugal is part of Western Europe and uses the euro, so it’s never going to be dirt cheap, but compared to any country to the north of it, this destination is a real bargain for travelers. It makes a great value alternative to Spain, France, or Italy.

I just spent 11 gorgeous days in Portugal, first in Lisbon and then biking around the Alentejo region in the central south of the country. This is a rural farming region (think olive groves, vineyards, and cork trees) dotted with small cities often defined by glorious castles on a hill. It’s a fantastic area for cycling because there’s very little traffic and plenty of farm roads where you may go an hour or two without seeing a vehicle. The scenery is stupendous and the picture-perfect towns are inviting, nearly everything painted white with blue accents. Burial sites from a few thousand years ago lead to Roman ruins and castles built by a variety of invaders and reclaimers.

There’s not the huge gulf in prices though from Lisbon to the countryside as you find in some countries. Sure, it’s cheaper when you get out of the city, but for lodging anyway you have fewer choices so there’s not as much competition. It’s also harder to find cheap eats like street food in the countryside. Plan on doing a lot of self-catering if you’re on a budget because the locals don’t really seem to eat out that much. They may hang out at a cafe all day nursing an espresso or a tiny beer (25 CL), but restaurant choices get pretty slim outside of tourist towns like Evora.

Bring a phrase book or good language app! English is not widespread outside of the cities and resort areas on the coast. If you speak Spanish it helps when reading a menu and some people can speak Spanish. While many words are the same, however, the pronunciation of Portuguese is completely different. I was lost trying to comprehend much of anything.

Usually I do these prices in dollars, but this time I’m putting them in euros as that’s what all my notes are in. The exchange rate has long been in a range between $1.29 and $1.35 dollars to the euro. As in if something in here is €10, that’s around $13.50.

Food & Drink Prices in Portugal

I was thrilled when it was time to order a drink in Portugal. I found the proverbial $1 beer in one cafe, a 2-euro large carafe of house wine, and many places where your drink order with a set meal was “water, soda, or wine.” Nice, especially since what you get in Portugal is uniformly good.

One oddity here is that nothing placed on your table is complimentary. If you don’t want to be charged for bread, butter, soft cheese, or olives, you have to ask the waiter to take them back or push them over to the side so you won’t get charged. We rarely did that though as it was generally €0.50 to €1 for local olives or a big basket of freshly made bread.

Restaurant/cafe set meal prices: €5 – 10 with several courses and a drink
Typical main dishes, basic restaurant: €2.50 – 10
Typical main dishes, nice restaurant: €5 – 18
Pastry and an espresso: €1.50 – 3
Coffee: €0.50 – 1.50
House wine: €1 – 2.50 per glass
Better wine: €2 – 5 per glass, €5 – 15 per bottle in a restaurant
Wine in a store: €1 (really!) – 12 for most, “Reserve” brands €12 and up
Beer in a store/restaurant: o.50-0.75 each in store, .75 – €2 in restaurants (liter draft €3-4)
200 grams of cheese: 0.79 – €3
200 grams of dry sausage/pepperoni: €0.89 – 3.50
Baguettes: €0.30 – 0.60
Can of tuna or pate: €0.59 – 1.50
Seasonal fruit and vegetables: €1 – 2 per kilo for most, €3 berries
Oranges in season: €0.50 – 0.80 per kilo

Hotel and Hostel Prices in Portugal

Outside of the capital, in this country you’re often better off getting a hotel room than staying in a hostel if you’re traveling with someone else. Prices for hotels are a deal and the higher up you go, the better value they are compared to the rest of Western Europe. We stayed in two palaces—literally—that were included in our package but would be €108 and €145 respectively with breakfast if you booked direct. See the Pousadas of Portugal site to check out these interesting historic lodging options.

Hostel bed in small city: €14 – 25
Hostel bed Lisbon: €10 – 21
Pension (Pensão) in Lisbon: €20 – 50
3-star hotel: €22 – 60
4-star hotel: €59 – 99

Transportation Costs in Portugal

I saw all of three inter-city buses in a week’s time when I got into the countryside and two of those were parked, without a soul around. I only saw one person ever waiting at a bus stop. I get the impression that people without cars don’t move around very much except between major junctions.

Fuel is expensive and highways have heavy tolls, so transportation will be one of the biggest expenses. Don’t try to do it all!

Tram in Lisbon: €2.85 one ride, €6 all day unlimited
Subway in Lisbon: €1.40 one ride, €6 all day unlimited
1.5 hour bus ride (Lisbon-Evora): €12.50 one-way
2.5 hour bus ride (Lisbon-Western Algarve towns): €20 one-way
3-hour train (Porto-Lisbon): €35 – 42 1st class, €24 – 30 2nd class
Taxi in Lisbon, 2 people: €2.25 start, €1.60 per km
Taxi in Evora, 2 people: €3.25 start, €0.80 per km
Rental car booked from home: 210 to 350 dollars per week

Museum and Attraction Prices in Portugal

We didn’t actually spend very much on sightseeing. Many small museums are free, as are nearly all of the castles and churches dotted throughout the country. Popular Lisbon is a different story, however. We paid €7.50 to visit the castle there and €4 to go up into the dome and walk on the roof of the Basilica.

In general, you can figure on paying somewhere between one and eight euros for most attractions and museums. By European standards or even compared to Turkey, that’s quite reasonable.

Other Prices for Travelers

You can see the listing here for the Bike Tours direct tour I did (with Turaventur handling the local logistics). It’s 750 euros per person including nice hotels with breakfast and luggage transfers each day to the next hotel. That’s quite a deal no matter how you look at it, but especially if you compare it to similar tours they run in Burgundy, Bordeaux, or Tuscany.

Souvenirs to bring back home are affordable, the best being cork items, nice pottery (visit the town of São Pedro de Corval if you’re in Alentejo), jewelry, olive oil, and wine. At a local market in Estremoz we bought a wheel of cheese (enough for two) for €2 and a bottle of olive oil for €3 – both from local farmers.

When the 4th edition of The World’s Cheapest Destinations book came out in January, I posted some advance review comments from various other writers and bloggers. Now that a few months have gone by, here’s what people have said in the early reviews.

 

“Even as an experienced traveler, with some 60 countries under my belt (many of them cheapies), I still was able to find the book useful and interesting.

The World’s Cheapest Destinations will be helpful for travelers at different stages: newbies who would like to start traveling to other countries for the first time, individuals with some international travel experience who are looking to push their comfort zone a little bit, and folks just looking for a little more luxury without spending more money. This book tells you where and how to look.”

- Stephen Bugno of GoMad Nomad

“If you’re currently considering traveling to destinations where your ‘travel money is worth a fortune,’ I highly recommend you pick up the fourth edition of Tim Leffel’s well-researched, chock-full-of-details book The World’s Cheapest Destinations.”

- Kara Williams, The Vacation Gals

“If you’re up for a wry sense of humor and aren’t put off by the occasional unabashed assessment, The World’s Cheapest Destinations is not only an easy read and a money-saving Bible, but also a veteran traveler’s look at places that many travelers in the U.S. tend to leave off their dream lists.”

- Kristin Mock, freelance travel writer

“The 4th edition of Tim’s book has totally inspired us to travel even more by visiting cheaper places.”

- Ashley Steele, Wandering Educators

“Leffel wastes no time outlining some of the world’s cheapest destinations in a concise and honest fashion. Refreshingly pointed, this compact guide is an ideal handbook for those looking to stretch their money further.”

- Stuart McDonald, editor of Travelfish.org

“His advice ranges from the common sense (albeit often forgotten) to the wise been-there-done-that genre. The most intriguing reason to pick up this book is its nature to inure interest in destinations that may have been left by the wayside on your travel itinerary, but are an absolute must-see for any global traveler worth his weight in passport stamps.”

- Ramsey Qubein, Examiner.com

“With a little ingenuity, a bit of creativity and this book, you’ll be able to travel many places in the world you never thought possible. The World’s Cheapest Destinations is hands down the best guide to traveling the world on a budget.”

- Beth Whitman, editor of Wanderlust And Lipstick

“The very first step to saving money when on the road is to figure out where you can stretch your money the furthest. Due to the ebb and flow of international finance, wars, and natural disasters… the cheapest places are always changing. Tim offers a great way to hit this moving target.”

- Doug Lansky, author of more than 10 travel books including First Time Around the World

“Tim is correct: where you travel has more to do with saving money then how you travel. The cheapest hostel dorm bunk in Zurich will be more expensive than a large, quality hotel room in Bangkok. I’ve been to most of the countries outlined by Tim and can attest that they are great value destinations. This book is a must for affordable travel planning.”

- Gary Arndt, editor of Everything-Everywhere.com

 

Get Your Copy!

So where can you get this book? Pretty much everywhere online:

Direct from the publisher – paperback ($15,95 plus shipping) or PDF ($8.99, no shipping)

Kindle version from Amazon, Nook version from Barnes & Noble, Apple version from iBookstore – all around $8.99.

Paperback from Barnes & Noble, paperback from Amazon.

If you’re in Australia or New Zealand, you can order a copy from Fishpond.

Each time I put out a new edition of The World’s Cheapest Destinations, I always try to find a way to get another African country in there and always come up short when I start digging into the research. So I only have Morocco and Egypt and always get some swipes from reviewers or blog readers for devoting so little space to Africa.

The problem is, that flack usually comes from people who have never tried to travel overland on a budget. Every time I interview someone who has spent weeks or months backpacking in Africa, they inevitably say some version of these two sentences. “Unless you sleep and eat like a local, you’re going to spend far more than you expected” and “for such poor countries, prices for travelers are really high.”

These two similar statements derive from a whole litany of reasons related to economics, infrastructure, and history. It doesn’t help that three of the last four years the $5 million Mo Ibrahim prize for good governance in Africa has gone to…nobody.

The one Africa traveler who hasn’t given me this usual negative litany is ultra-savvy budget traveler Andy Graham, better known as the Hobo Traveler. He’s been on the road non-stop for 14 years and has spent a fair chunk of that in Africa.

I caught up with him via Skype while he was hanging out in Lome, Togo, a faded bohemian French Colonial town on the Atlantic coast. He describes it as “like 1920s Paris, the cultural whorehouse of West Africa.”

We talked about the need to avoid the big tourist draws and agreed that you probably need a Western Europe sized budget if you’re going to the safari destinations of Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana, or Namibia. Here’s my quote from him on the most popular destination though: “I have no desire to go to South Africa, partly because it’s got three times the cost of living of any other country on the continent and partly because it has the highest rate of crime and AIDS. Yet that’s where all the travelers go at some point.”

That still leaves 40-some countries out there though. Here are his opinionated tips for traveling the continent on a budget.

Know your mission and stick to the mission.
“The media has pummeled Africa with this perception that it is such a poor mess. So most of the white people here are missionaries, state-sponsored aid workers, or are working for non-governmental agencies. There aren’t a whole lot of real travelers. Most people seem to travel so they can have good memories they can explain to their friends. I tell people I’m going to Africa they say, Who are you trying to save?’

So the first question is, why are you coming? The average traveler hates Africa. He or she has a list of things to see and do. Most of Africa is not for that, it’s a place for a cultural trip, for learning about people, languages, customs. There are very few animals in Western Africa because they ate them all or poached them. The British saved them in Kenya and elsewhere for hunting preserves. Only a few spots have a lot of them. On most of the continent it’s about connecting with people—black people of course—-which is not why most people travel. ”

Don’t come for the same reasons you went to Peru or Egypt
“Don’t come to Africa to find things to brag about with your friends back home. If you’re looking to do that the whole time, your options are limited and you’ll spend a load of money no matter how frugally you try to do it.

Know what you’re here for and don’t come to be entertained—unless you’re a sex tourist. And don’t come to Africa just to hang out with other white people. Sitting around drinking with white people is quite expensive in Africa. A flashpacker coming to Africa is going to get killed money-wise. To sit around in a huddle drinking beer and going online to post photos on Facebook is going to cost you a fortune.

Negotiate Hard for Everything
“Africa has a reputation for trying to rip off foreigners, especially West Africa. I had a much harder time before I learned to speak French. In Ghana and parts of East Africa they speak English and don’t’ make everything such a hassle, so it’s easier.

Whether we admit it or not, we white travelers have these preconceived notion of black people. We expect people to act a certain way and look for ways to support that expectation. But they’re mostly Just normal people trying to make a living. On one hand it’s so safe here in Tome you practically have to leave money on the table overnight to get physically robbed. But they’ll try to rob you blind in every transaction all day long because they’re used to white people being idiots. All these NGO and project workers have practically unlimited budgets. Lots of them will stay in the best hotels, drink beer every night, and go out to the best restaurants. So business owners become accustomed to charging ever white person five times as much as a local because they truly think we’re all rich and stupid with our money.

You have to keep money in perspective and prove you’re not an idiot. A guy tried to charge me $8 today for wire ties at a store. I told him ‘You’re crazy. You’re probably living on $2 a day, right?’

‘No,” he tells me, ‘Just $1 a day.’

Much of Africa earning that $1 to $2 a day. Treat $20 like it’s nothing and people will keep charging you accordingly.

It’s hard for us to look at a black person and say, ‘You’re f%cking ripping me off!’ We’re so conditioned to think that’s racist. We think we’re supposed to treat them with extra respect because their life sucks. But their life doesn’t suck. You’re not “dissing” them to argue or criticize. You have to argue constantly. It’s normal. If you don’t they think you’re another rich idiot working for Oxfam just to fill out the resume.

There’s no political correctness here. In the market people will yell, ‘Hey white guy! Hey fatso! Sexy blondie!’ Learn to talk like they do to get things done.”

Spend the time to get a good hotel deal.
“Anyone charging you $30 a night for a basic hotel room in most of Africa is ripping you off. The tourism industry here is probably the worst on the planet: they try to gouge every white person, assuming they’re all idiots. Many of them are idiots. Outside of big cities and resort areas, paying more than $10 or $15 a night for a basic hotel is absolutely getting ripped off. In

Arrive before noon to have time to find a hotel. Walk in and tell them how much you want to pay. You say $5, they say $30, eventually to your real budget. But you have to have a real budget and stick to it. Be willing to walk out and keep looking.

When I walk into a hotel, they always take me to the best room in the hotel. They can’t believe I don’t want that room, they’re aghast. They slowly work their way down until I’m leaving and they finally show me the $5 room. You have to assume anyone who takes you anywhere is taking you to the most expensive option. Continually refuse and stay on budget, on mission. A basic room with a bulb and bath starts at $5, a table adds a dollar, hot water adds a dollar, and each other thing keeps adding up. But I can go to the best hotel in town and use the pool for a dollar, so why do I need the hotel with a pool? You can rent a room here for a whole month for $50 if you work on it.

You also have to get over the stigma of the ‘chamber de passage.’ Probably 90% of the hotels in Africa are love hotels. There are just not enough traveling salesmen or domestic tourists to support many cheap hotels. So hotel customers are mostly NGO workers at the high end and locals getting some privacy on the low end. Every hotel I go into I assume someone’s going to bring in a girl and go at it next door. But at least there’s always a maid around. They’re private, comfortable, and cheap.

Also understand that nothing is ever cleaned like an American would clean it. It’s cleaner than India maybe, but not to the standards of say, Thailand or Vietnam. I’ll get the $8 or $10 room and pay the maid a few bucks to truly clean the bathroom. She’s thrilled and I get a room that’s up to the cleanliness level of one you’d get in Southeast Asia. Otherwise that would be $40 here. But we’re so used to convenience. ‘Why should I have to clean the sink? Or fix the toilet myself?’ Because you’re in a $5 room, that’s why. If you want convenience, get a $50 room.

One important point: traveling with someone else is far cheaper. The room price is the room price-one person pays the same as two. ”

Your guidebook is probably useless.
You won’t find most love hotels listed in your guidebook because the majority of Africa guidebook writers are current or former aid workers. Most of the hotels they recommend have parking because the writers are driving everywhere in a car. The cheaper love hotels people walk to. The outside space is just a shady tree people can sit under and drink a beer. ‘No parking’ means it’s for Africans and will be cheap.

The LP and Rough Guides are both terrible. Many of the writers are completely clueless and have grilled me for hours to get the most basic information. They’re written for people driving a car and staying at hotels that can be reached by car.

Whatever you do don’t rely on TripAdvisor. That’s even worse.

Avoid the Clingons
“When you get off a plane or bus there will be a boy or young man following you around and speaking your language. Often you can spot them before you even get off because they’re the only people in Africa with dreadlocks. They’re aggressive touts pure and simple and I promise you none are ever there to do you a favor. If you’re a woman they’re probably looking for a sugar mama and if you’re a man they’re trying to soak you for whatever they can to be your ‘helper.’ ?

Planning is a waste of time in Africa.
“The more you plan, the more you’re going to screw up. Everything is going to go wrong. It’s much better to just wing it as you go. In any city under 150,000 people I take a taxi tour of the city and say ‘Show me the $10 hotels.’ He’ll take me to the most expensive places first of course no matter what I say. Finally he gets frustrated and takes me to the cheap ones. I’m going to have to invest an hour or two of work to save $10, but I’m going to stay there a week so that’s $70 for two hours of work.

Don’t travel more than 4 hours a day, do it in the morning so you arrive before noon. It’s tiresome and you can run into all sorts of problems. If things go wrong, you’ve got a cushion. An 8-hour trip can easily become 12. The torture of travel often comes from trying to do too much.

Start out in a cheap country like Ghana or Malawi to get your bearings and get over the culture shock. Then you’ll be ready to take on the tougher places.”

Don’t be a bum.
“Being a bum is accepting less than what you deserve in life. Stand your ground and be a king instead. Refuse to get in a vehicle that already has 25 people in it. Just wait for the next one. Someone will say, ‘There are no more cars today.’

‘Bullshit. You’re lying,’ I’ll reply.

Every single time a new empty car or bus shows up soon after.

If you’re not trying to race across vast distances in a hurry, you’ve got more leverage to wait, to negotiate. If you’re willing to walk out of the hotel because they won’t budge, you’ll get a room you like for the right price. Being in a hurry will cost you.

In Ethiopia you have to take a truck overland for more than a day to head out of this one spot. A guy wanted me to ride on the canvas roof of a cattle truck for 27 hours, with cattle horns below me. ‘I’d rather live in this city for the rest of my life than ride on top of that truck for 27 hours,’ I said. I waited around and got on a grain truck where we could sleep on top of the grain sacks. Backpackers go to Africa thinking they have to be a bum. I have back problems so I’ll pay someone a dollar to carry my bag. I require a nice room for $10. What I expect is what I get.”

Get out of the big cities.
“NGO and Peace Corp workers love big cities with their big offices, so there are lots of cafes and bars for white expatriates. That makes many people feel comfortable. But prices for everything are three times more than they’ll be once you get 50 miles out of town. So don’t come all this way just to hang out in Accra, Nairobi, or Dakar.

Budgets don’t get killed by one thing. They get killed by a lot of little things. And every little thing is more in the big cities.

If your mission is to hang around a city and socialize online with your friends back home, why leave home?”

Don’t eat every meal at restaurants.
“African food is generally kind of bland, meant to be filling and fattening. There are far more fat people here than you would expect. It’s hard to get vegetables when you eat out, so I always cook vegetables in the room from a market or store and buy fruit to eat. I used to use a hot plate. You can buy one for $5 a lot of times. But hotel owners don’t like you to use them. So now I use a cheap homemade alcohol cooker.

When looking for a restaurant, don’t eat where white people are. Then study the menu and figure out what you can eat on a budget. Or just tell them what you want and agree on a price. They’ll usually make it for you if they have the ingredients. ”

***

To see what Andy is up to right now, see the Hobo Traveler blog.

If I did include a country in the next edition, it would probably be Ghana or Malawi. This BootsnAll article on traveling in Malawi for $25 a day is encouraging, though it does say you need to sleep in dorm beds and eat what the locals eat. Fortunately eating what the local eat here does not mean bland gruel for three meals a day.

This time I stayed put and my blog went traveling.

After about a decade on the server (and domain) of my book publisher, I finally took the leap and moved this award-winning Cheapest Destinations Blog to its own host and a more logical domain: CheapestDestinationsBlog.com. Yeah, I know, not so creative. But I figure if you’re looking for the cheapest places to travel in the world or how to stretch your budget for a long-term international adventure, calling this thing something cutesy isn’t going to help you find it.

For now, nothing else is changing. Over time I might need or want to make some adjustments, but hopefully the old site will redirect like it’s supposed to and you should be able to see the RSS stream okay in your reader as is.

Now that I’ve got this on my own host, I should be able to make some tweaks that people have been requesting for a while, like getting buttons for Facebook and Pinterest on the posts. Meanwhile, if you’ve just landed here for the first time, a few popular and definitive posts you might want to check out:

The Cheapest Places to Live in the World

Out Now – the 4th Edition of The World’s Cheapest Destinations

The Best Backpacks for Long-term Travelers

Travel Prices in Vietnam

No More Excuses – Your Travel Resolution Starts Now

Bargains and Beauty in Bolivia

Meanwhile, if you’re wondering who the heck I am and why you should listen to my advice, see the About Me button at the top of this page. Or look me up on Wikipedia. Or go to the Tim Leffel portfolio site to see articles, awards, books I’ve published, and other websites I run.

 

I published this interview with a tout in Morocco a long time ago in a print-only publication. Recently a Twitter follower saw an old interview I did and asked if this piece could be accessed somewhere. It can’t, so I’m reprinting an abbreviated version of it here. 

We occasionally like dealing with touts, but most of the time view them about as favorably as mosquitoes buzzing around our head. Remember though, they’re real people just trying to make a living. 

The touts of Morocco enjoy a special brand of infamy with seasoned travelers. They speak more languages than you can say “hello” in, they have an answer to every objection, and they’re masters of scams that their brethren in other countries haven’t even thought of yet. Though most of the country is relatively hassle-free, the hustlers in Marrakesh and Tangier do their best to keep the bad reputation alive.

After fighting off touts for two days in Marrakesh, I gave in and turned over some money to one to guide us through the winding medina. On two conditions though: 1) no carpet shops and 2) that he allow me to ask him a bunch of personal questions about his life and job. Here’s what Mohommed had to say.

How long have you been a guide?
Many, many years; since I was a boy.

Why did you start doing this as your job?
It was a way to get money for the family. Many people in my family didn’t have a job, so I found a way to make some money.

What is your family like?
I have one brother and one sister. We all live together with my mother and father.

Are you married?
Yes, but in Morocco we stay together. My brother is married also but we all live in the same house. That is the normal way here.

What languages do you speak?
Arabic and French fluently. German, English, and Spanish enough to get by as a guide.

How much money do you make in a normal day?
On a good day, 150 or 200 dirham (US $18 to $25), but some days I only make 20 ($2.35)

How much of a commission do you get from a carpet shop if you bring in a buyer?
Usually 30 dirham, sometimes a little more. If they buy a very expensive carpet, maybe the man will give me 150. It’s not a percentage.

What do you think about American people?
They are nice people—very friendly.

How about the French?
No, no! (laughing) But there are good people and bad people everywhere.

Why do you think Morocco sometimes has a bad reputation with tourists?
There are way too many guides bothering people because there are not enough jobs. And in Tangier, it is dangerous: a lot of mafia and smugglers.

But the police are continually cracking down on touts and guides aren’t they?
Yes, and it is very bad for us. To be an official guide you must know someone or pay someone, plus you must speak other languages perfectly. But I cannot find another job, so I must try to stay away from the police.

Can you pay the police to leave you alone?
Once we could, but no, not anymore. Too many tourists have complained about the hassles in Marrakesh.

Do you want to be a guide your whole life?
No, but I must do it to support my family for now.

[Flickr Creative Commons photo by Active Steve.]