Faro Car Hire Questions & Answers

You can drive troughout Portugal by the Nacional Roads that are free. However, if you decide to take one of the many motorways that cross the country, it is likely it will be a toll road.
To pay for it, there are three possible systems:
- Toll booths – at the start of the route there will be a dispensing machine from which you should collect a ticket. As you are leaving the road, hand the ticket over at the toll booth and pay the fee, which varies from road to road and depends on distance travelled.
- Frequent user system – if you are a frequent user, which is probably not the case if you are just here for a quick visit, you can subscribe to the Via Verde system which allows drivers to avoid stopping at the toll booths and instead pay a monthly fee via ATM. For this, you will need to have an electronic device attached to your windshield, which then identifies your car.
- Electronic tolls – this is a relatively new system and, so far, has only been introduced on a few motorways and main roads – A28, A29, A44, A4, A41, A42, VRI – Via Regional Interior and parts of A25 and A17. On these roads, identified as “electronic toll only”, there is an overhead electronic system that reads information from a device located in the car’s windshield, much like the Via Verde system. To pay for the toll, you must either buy a permanent electronic device or get a temporary one, which can be leased from certain motorway service stations or post offices for use in foreign-registered vehicles. These may be used for stays of up to 90 days and will be either prepaid or charged to your credit card.
The major part of the rent a car companies in Portugal and Algarve have installed transponders for electronic payment on the electronic tolls.