Grocery Stores in Portugal: What’s Different, What It Costs, and Where I Shop

Continente supermarket at Vasco da Gama shopping centre in Lisbon

People ask me what grocery stores in Portugal are like, and the short answer for anyone coming from the US is: smaller, cheaper, and there are a lot more of them. Smaller isn’t a high bar—American supermarkets are enormous. There’s no Walmart-style store here, and even the hypermarkets, the big out-of-town ones, would look modest parked next to a Supercenter. Your fridge and kitchen cabinets will be smaller too (unless you buy an American-size fridge), so your habits change. The …

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How to Open a Bank Account in Portugal Online (2026)

Photograph of the entrance to a Millennium bcp bank branch. The facade features a prominent red and white sign with the bank's logo above the doorway. The building exterior is made of stone, and there's a plaque next to the door. Cobbled stone pavement is in front.

If you’re applying for a D7 or the digital nomad visa, you’ll almost certainly need a Portuguese bank account. It usually has to hold your savings or show your means of support. It’s one of the questions I get asked most, mostly by visa applicants and occasionally by people buying property here. People are always surprised they can’t just go online and open an account with Millennium or Novo Banco themselves. But I couldn’t easily open an account in America …

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Portuguese Food: What I’d Eat & What I’d Skip (From Someone Who Has Eaten Everything Here)

caldo verde soup

I’ve eaten a lot of Portuguese food. Some of it I’d fly back for. Some of it I ate once, understood, and never ordered again. This is my honest list. Reality check first: Portuguese food is simple, fresh, and comforting. It is not spicy and it is not sauce-heavy. If you’re expecting Thai or Mexican “boom-pow” flavor at every meal, you’ll think it’s plain, and you won’t be entirely wrong. But if you lean into great ingredients, charcoal grills, stews, …

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What A1 European Portuguese Actually Looks Like (And Why It’s Worth Aiming For)

A person with curly hair and glasses is seated outdoors at a table, working on a laptop. They are writing in a notebook, with a smartphone and a coffee cup on the table. The background shows a blurry urban environment with people and buildings.

Most people learning European Portuguese aren’t really aiming for A1. They’re aiming for A2 — because that’s the level you need for citizenship and permanent residency, and it’s the one the exam (the CIPLE) actually tests for. That’s also why so many courses just bundle A1 and A2 together and march you straight through both. Which is fine. But it does mean A1 gets treated as a sort of half-finished thing you pass through on the way to somewhere more …

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From Cruise Ship Musician to Practice Portuguese Co-Founder – An Interview with Joel Rendall

Joel wearing a beige cap and green t-shirt is holding a baby dressed in white. The man is looking down and smiling at the baby, who is staring at the camera with a curious expression. They are indoors, with a shelf and a television in the background.

Practice Portuguese is one of the most comprehensive (and most popular) tools for learning European Portuguese. It’s something many people living in Portugal will be familiar with, but most people probably don’t know the story of how it came to be.  In this interview, I chat to Joel Rendall about how he came to live in Portugal, the difference between life here and life in Canada, and his personal tips for learning Portuguese.  Also worth mentioning: Practice Portuguese normally costs …

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Mia Esmeriz On Learning Portuguese in 6 Months

A woman in a brown jacket, gray scarf, and beige pants stands on a foggy beach smiling at the camera. The background features a calm, overcast ocean. In the bottom right corner, there's a small logo with text that reads "Learn European Portuguese Online.

If you’ve spent any time hunting for Portuguese-learning resources, you’ve probably run into the big frustration right away: most of what’s out there teaches Brazilian Portuguese, not European Portuguese. That’s the gap Mia Esmeriz has been filling since 2017. Through her website, her YouTube channel, and a full set of online courses running from A1 to C1, she’s helped thousands of people learn real, everyday European Portuguese — pronunciation, listening, grammar, and natural conversation. I’ve since gone through her courses …

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20+ Portuguese TV Shows (With Subtitles) That You Can Stream

A vintage LAVIS 812 television with a red frame, black screen, and control knobs on the right side. The TV has dials for UHF and VHF channels, volume, tone, and brightness. The set is placed on a wooden surface against a blurred background.

When I first wrote this article, there were very few European Portuguese TV shows with subtitles. There were a handful on RTP, but there was no easy way to find them — and there still isn’t. Which is strange, given how many people in Portugal presumably have hearing difficulties and would like to search for them. There were also no Portuguese TV shows with English subtitles, despite a growing expat population. Now, I’d like to say a lot has changed. …

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The A2 Portuguese Test (CIPLE): Courses and How to Pass

An open book displays verb conjugation charts in Portuguese. The left page shows conjugations for the verb "fazer," and the right page shows conjugations for the verb "ferir." Both pages include various tenses and grammatical moods. Green leaves are visible in the background.

If you’re applying for Portuguese citizenship or permanent residency, you almost certainly need to prove you speak Portuguese at A2 level. For most people, that means sitting an exam called the CIPLE. Thankfully, there are several courses that cover it in depth. Liz Sharma’s Portuguese Pro even includes a mock A2 exam, which her team corrects. If you’re feeling uncertain about where to start, her free training is a good first step. Practice Portuguese has more European Portuguese audio than …

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European Portuguese Resources for Kids

A smiling couple and their young son are looking at a laptop together. The woman is wearing a yellow top, and the man is in a blue denim shirt. The boy, who is seated, is focused on the screen. They appear to be enjoying their time together.

If you’re moving to Portugal with children, one of your biggest questions is probably: how do we help them learn Portuguese? It’s true that children often pick up languages faster than adults. But that does not mean you want to throw them straight into the deep end and hope for the best. Most parents would prefer to give their kids a gentler start, with time to hear the language, recognize common words, and build confidence before school or day-to-day life …

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Mia Esmeriz Academy Review: A Course To Take You From Beginner to Fluency

Mia Esmeriz A1 Course Screenshot

If you’re learning European Portuguese, you’ve probably already come across Mia Esmeriz’s YouTube channel—it’s packed with excellent videos on grammar, pronunciation, Portuguese culture, and her trips around the country. So it’s genuinely exciting that she has a full course that goes from A1 to C1. Most people will only want the A1 and A2 (the level needed for permanent residency and Portuguese citizenship), but those who are serious about integrating into Portugal will want to aim for at least B2, …

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