A list of public
holidays in Portugal checked and updated 25th November 2014
Holidays are always observed on the day they fall and are not moved to a convenient Monday as in the UK.
Buses and trains usually run to Sunday/Holiday
timetables on public holidays. At Christmas and New Year
timetables may be changed completely.
On Christmas Eve December 24th and New Year's Eve December 31st Businesses and shops close early, around 6 or 7pm. On Christmas Eve virtually everything closes early including bars and restaurants. Some late-evening buses and trains (especially long-distance services) will not run. This information is announced about a month beforehand.
Major malls and supermarkets are usually open all day on
public and religious holidays, except on Christmas Day and New Year's Day.
Some also close on
Good Friday, Easter Sunday and May 1st. You will
need to check locally and/or nearer the time.
In tourist areas, smaller shops usually stay open
all day except on Good Friday, Easter Sunday, Christmas Day and
New Year's Day when almost all shops are closed.
Small shops in the villages and of course all post offices and
banks observe the holidays strictly.
School holiday breaks 2015 - apart from the obvious dates below, schools will be on holiday for two weeks over Easter and three days at Carnaval.
School holiday dates for 2015 subject to minor variations according to region:
Carnaval break 16th to 18th February. Easter break from Monday 30th March to Friday 10th April, lessons resume 13th April 2015.
School year ends on Friday 28th June 2015 for secondary (high) schools, a couple of weeks earlier (varies) for junior and primary schools.
School year starts in the Algarve usually on the second Monday of September.
Christmas and New Year break from the Friday before Christmas ie in 2014 from 19th December to 5th January
In 2013 some public holidays were ´temporarily abolished' until at least 2019.
Thursday 1st January 2015 - New Year's Day
Friday 3rd April - Good Friday
Sunday 5th April - Easter Monday
Saturday 25th April - Liberation Day
Friday 1st May - Labour Day
Wednesday 10th June - Portugal Day
Saturday 13th June - Feast of St Anthony - Lisbon only
Wednesday 24th June - São João - this unofficial holiday is observed
in the north of the country, but not
everywhere in the south. National railways may run to Sunday times.
Saturday 15th August - Assumption
Tuesday 18th August - ALBUFEIRA Municipal holiday. Some shops and
businesses will close for the day at lunchtime.**
Tuesday 8th December - Immaculate Conception
Friday 25th December - Christmas Day (nb December 26th is not a
holiday here)
** other cities and towns have municipal holidays. In some cities and towns away from the Algarve, local buses do not run.on municipal holidays
For a list of all the timetables on the site,
click here
For an alphabetical list of places in the Algarve, click here
For some important general notes about buses in the Algarve, click
here
Back to the site home page here