When visiting Portugal, you might be surprised with the request to pay an additional fee for your stay, the “Taxa Turistica”, or in English, the city tax. The price ranges from 0,50 to 2 euros per night. But what is this fee for? Read it all here!
“Taxa Turistica” - what are the conditions?
The city tax, or “Taxa turística” is an extra fee that is charged to people that stay overnight in certain Portuguese municipalities, more specifically: Lisbon, Porto, Vila Nova de Gaia, Cascais, Faro, Braga, Sintra, Mafra, Óbidos, Santa Cruz (in Madeira) and Vila Real de Santo António. The amount of the fee depends on the municipality and the price ranges from 0,50 to 2 euros per night.
There are some exceptions to this fee, each of them adapted to the municipality in question!
Let’s have a look at the example of the Lisbon municipality:
- Guests under the age of 13 years old do not pay the fee;
- Guests (and their companions) who stay overnight because of health reasons, such as a doctors appointment (if a proof is shown), do not have to pay the fee;
Guests have to pay the fee for a maximum of 7 nights. This means that for the 8th, 9th, 10th, and any other night after the 7th, no charges of this fee will apply.
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What is it for?
These city taxes have one goal: to provide municipalities with extra funds to preserve and improve infrastructures related to tourism. Think of roads, sidewalks, parks, traditional commerce and more.
An example of improvements that were made with the funds of the “Taxa turistica” is the finalization of the Palácio Nacional da Ajuda in Lisbon, in 2021. Thanks to the collected funds the municipality of Lisbon was able to finish the palace 200 years after the construction started!
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Would you like to know more about this topic?
Find the specificities of some municipalities here: Lisbon, Porto and Algarve (Faro).
At Lisbeyond we do not make any profits on the collection of city taxes and the funds are directly paid to the proper authorities.
LisBeyond is always here to help, and also to answer all your questions, so if you have any ideas on a topic you would like to read, feel free to contact us only a click away.
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