Portugal

Post

Stamps can be bought from Post Offices, which also often have machines outside them. They can also be bought from many tobacconists - look out for the horse logo outside the shop, or just ask at the counter. Letters for any destination can be put into any red post box, although "azul" priority post should be placed in the blue post boxes if possible. Letters to foreign destinations will generally go by airmail even if they are sent economy, but they may be left in a depot and kicked around a bit prior to dispatch. As at January 2006, costs for a standard letter up to 20g are:

• 30 cents for standard delivery (within about 3 days) within Portugal.
• 45 cents for "azul" delivery (generally next day on the mainland) within Portugal.
• 56 cents for letters to Europe by economy post.
• 57 cents for letters to Europe by normal post.
• 67 cents for letters to all other destinations by economy post.
• 74 cents for letters to all other destinations by normal post.

Up to date prices, and full details are available from Correos (The Portuguese Post Office)

Phone

The country code for Portugal is 351.

Phone boxes are usually white. You will find an assortment of actual booths and telephones on sticks, all of which are owned by PT. Calls are charged in units called clicks. Each click costs 7 cents (6 cents if you are using a phone card). As at January 2006 a click will get you

• 39 seconds to Portuguese numbers at cheap rate (evenings)
• 30 seconds to local numbers, and 19 seconds to national numbers at normal rate.
• 12 seconds to mobiles at cheap rate, and 8 seconds at normal rate.
• 11 seconds at weekends to European destinations, and 8 seconds at other times
• 5.75 seconds at weekends to the rest of the world, and 3.68 seconds at other times.
• Calls to foreign mobile phones are charged at even higher rates. Basically, there has to be a better way to make the call.

There is a minimum charge of 2 clicks for domestic calls, and 3 clicks for international

Cheap phone cards are available from various kiosks and news stands, which will allow you to make cheap international calls. Certainly this will work out a lot cheaper than using a phone box. Keep an eye out for the best deals for your country.

Portugal has three mobile phone networks: TMN, Vodafone, and Optimus. It probably makes very little difference which of these you choose if you are using your home mobile to roam in Portugal. You can also buy a pay-as-you go SIM card for any of the Portuguese mobile operators. They cost around 25 euros, and usually come with 10 euros credit. It is sometimes possible to pick them up from newstands for 5 or 10 euros, although as usual you are taking a risk that you are buying a dud. The Portuguese typically top up their mobiles at ATMs but this is not possible without a Portuguese bank card. The alternative is to go to one of the network of stores dedicated to your network, or to go to supermarkets and certain other stores with bill-payment terminals. Topup cards cannot be easily bought in the same way as other countries.

Internet

Internet Cafes.

There are very few internet cafes in Portugal. Certainly you could walk for some time in many town centres without ever seeing one. Where they are to be found the going rate for access is around 1 euro for half an hour, which is not expensive by European standards. If you just want to check mail or look something up you are probably better using one of the sources of free internet listed below.

Free Internet.

Most train stations in Portugal have at least one free internet terminal. This will be a kiosk affair, with an awkward to use keyboard and trackball. The main problem with them, apart from the range of banned pages, is that pop-up windows cannot be opened, which makes access to quite a few sites impossible. Time on these is limited, and you will be thrown back to the home page after a few minutes of use. Public libraries also have free internet, although you will need to book it at the counter, and the terminals are still limited in terms of messaging applications. Finally the Instituto Portugues da Juventude, which has offices in most cities, usually located in the same place as the Pousadas Juvenil hostels, offers free internet access in its Movijovem areas. Again these must be booked at the counter, and many of the machines are kiosks. These computers at least have MSN messenger installed.

Keyboard Oddities.

The letters on Portuguese keyboards follow the normal English QWERTY layout. Many symbols are in different places however. The most important of these is the "@" symbol, which is on the 2 button (you hold down the "Alt Gr" button to the right of the space bar and press 2 to get it). The other useful symbol is the apostrophe, which is on the same button as the "?", to the right of the numbers.