Postcard from Portugal

photoblogging 29 Comments

An SDA regular and his wife recently got back from Portugal.  Here’s an interesting summary from him:

We love Portugal – especially the northern part from Porto to the Spanish border.  We have been there (Portugal) four times during the past seven years and enjoyed every minute of our trips.   Lisbon and Porto are beautiful places; safe and clean. That said, things are changing … going in a direction that we really don’t like ….  but have no control over.  In no particular order, here are a few things that have made us decide that this trip we just completed will probably be our last one to Europe.
  1. Devaluation of Canadian dollar.  In September 2019 it took $1.43 Canadian dollars to purchase a Euro.  Today the figure is $1.64.   This constitutes a 15 percent loss of purchase power – and a significant additional travel cost – and this is very likely to get a lot worse before it gets better.
  2. European countries set their own Value Added Tax (VAT) rates.  In Portugal the categories are 6, 13, and 23 percent.  In 2019 local food produce was not taxed at all; now it is taxed at 6%.  Beer and wine in a restaurant was taxed at 23%, but taxed at a lower 13% if you picked it up in a store.  Now all beer and wine purchases are taxed at 23%, and many of the food items that were taxed at 6 % have risen to 13% and some that were 13% have migrated upwards.
  3. Many hotels, guest houses and resorts in Portuguese cities and tourist centers are now imposing a “green” head tax of 2 to 4 euros per person per night.  In some European cities it is higher.
  4. Starting October 2nd, the ETIAS documentation and identification system will be a mandatory pre-entry condition for those arriving in Europe through “regular” channels.  It obviously won’t apply to the hordes arriving illegally.   As this system evolves, it will require biometric identification: fingerprint and facial recognition and retinal scanning technology.   Call it paranoia or whatever, but I’m really not happy about this Big Brotherism.
  5. Although we book accommodations that have kitchens, we do like to get out for dinner every 2nd night.  But the cost of restaurant food is getting into the crazy zone (see point 1.).  A small (and very thin) pizza and a beer at a beachfront restaurant will set you back 30 euros.  The mark-up from shelf price fot food, beer, and wine is exorbitant … and consistent among all restaurants.   There is certainly a sort of price-fixing going on.  A lot of restaurants fell by the wayside during covid, and I think the survivors have decided to make up for lost time and revenue by gouging the rebounded tourist market.
We had tentatively planned to return to Portugal next spring, but we have just put our plans on hold – because of the above, plus a nagging feeling of general unease.  We will see.  Maybe things will return to a more stable orbit.

Here are some images he provided:


29 Replies to “Postcard from Portugal”

  1. My old man tells the story of how when he first came over here, he could get 4 Swiss francs for a Canadian dollar.

    Today, if he wants to go back over there, he gets 0.57 francs for the same dollar.

    Good work, Liberal Party of Canada.

  2. I won’t dispute anything the SDA regular says, but I want to mention that off the beaten track, sometimes just a block or two away, there often are neighborhood food joints that serve excellent food for a fraction of the cost.

    For example, the bar where I usually have my morning coffee is also a popular eatery. There I can get a large pizza and a beer for €10 (pizza €8, beer €2).

    And when traveling my wife and I usually ask at the hotel front desk or even folks we meet on the street if they can recommend a good place where the locals eat.

  3. We’re not traveling south this winter, even though it is our usual ‘every second year’ in the budget.
    – Grams distaste for the USA (TDS despite being shown otherwise) and unease about central american countries.
    – Exchange rate and inflation.

    Taking this years travel budget and installing a battery backup whole home system instead. Sort of a bunker attitude towards canada’s gov’t at all levels here in ottawa.

    Off to Costco today to rotate the stock in the pantry.

    Sad, I used to travel a lot for work and always enjoyed coming home. Not so much anymore. travel or joy in coming back to canada/ottawa.

  4. If they only want upper middle class and rich people to visit then they need only keep adding taxes.
    But a lot of governments, littered with climate doomers, want just that.
    Keeping Canadians in Canada – except all the wonderful, lovely, enriching immigrants who get to go Home once a year – is a goal the retarded Elbows Up crowd would vote for.

        1. Yep, saw the ottawa reference.

          You know when you get stuck behind some ignorant F### driving in the passing lane, you finally drive by it and it gives you the finger for passing it? Gym666 comments mean even less than that finger.

          But I will give it some truth, there are a lot of stupid lefties in ottawa.

        2. I don’t think NME666 is GYM. GYM’s posts, beyond containing multiple spelling mistakes, were phonetic, ebonic, laconic and always moronic.

          Just sayin’.

  5. I could add another item to that list: busloads upon busloads of cruise ship crowds infesting every small town and village within a 2 – 3 hour drive from cruise ship ports, turning sightseeing into a jostling, shuffling, and dodging experience. GMTHOOH!

    It’s no damned wonder the poor locals look so unhappy.

    1. A lot of poor and not-so-poor locals are happy to cater to the cruise ship masses and take their money.

  6. I liked Portugal, Southern Algarve region.
    January -March, could be days of rain, yet others sunny and warm for beach walks, trail hikes not many NAm tourists. Lots of EU folks in RV’s, etc.
    Not a bottle of wine with a screw top, yet excellent value in 4-5L bag boxes of local produce.
    The wife likes Spain and Morocco.

  7. Pics are just fantastic! The second one from the top featuring the truck collecting grapes caught my eye…I’ve always loved the red and yellow colour scheme on vehicles, particularly that shade of yellow.
    I know the truck isn’t a North American make (or is it?) but would you know the manufacturer?

    1. It intrigued me too. So I started looking on the net. I’m betting its a 1959 or “60 Bedford. Prior to that the windscreen was split. After that the fenders had a different shape.

  8. For someone who “enjoyed every minute of our trips”, seems like an unusual amount of bitching about all the stuff he wasn’t so fond of over there.

    1. Not uncommon on the Iberian Peninsula. Most beer however comes at the regular size of 0.33 liters.

  10. It’s multiple layers of taxation being added everywhere that is making Life difficult. Governments are growing like cancers and mettastizing, crowding out private activity and inflating prices of everything as they strangle businesses and impede individuals with taxes and regulation, then waste the people’s money on boondoggles and useless and counterproductive government departments.

    1. No go zones are basically non-existent in Portugal—at the moment.

      There is a lot of rich Islamic history in Spain too, other Med countries. What of it.

      1. “What of it?” … seriously? You have to pretend ignorance of the neo-Moorish invasion of Europe? You’re an utter fool.

        1. The fact that there is an Islamic history in some southern Euro countries has nothing to do with the neo-Moorish invasion taking place now.

          Please point out the Islamic history in Germany, Austria, Belgium and the UK.

          As happens with many of your brain farts that bust into a comment thread your above interjection is neither pertinent nor interesting.

          Even your use of the term “Moorish” shows your ignorance considering a large proportion of the invaders come from the Middle-East and non-Moorish Africa.

  12. We’re just talking pocketbook issues here. Wait until they lose all their North American tourist business because of migrants.

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