The journey
The route your things actually take
Two thousand-odd miles of road, a customs border, and for two destinations an ocean. Here is each leg, and what can affect it.
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01
UK collection to the Channel
The load is collected and runs to the Kent coast. Depending on the vehicle and the schedule it crosses by Eurotunnel from Folkestone or by ferry from Dover. The tunnel is quicker; the ferry often suits a larger lorry better.
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02
Across France
South from Calais. For most Portuguese destinations that means the A16 and A10 through Paris, Tours and Bordeaux, then down to the border at Irún. Driver rest periods are mandatory and built into the schedule rather than ignored.
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03
Across Spain
Two divergent paths. For northern Portugal — Braga and the Minho — the route crosses northern Spain and enters from Galicia, which is the shortest run into Portugal of any destination we serve. For the coast, Sintra, Coimbra and the Silver Coast it runs down through Castile and enters further south.
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04
Into Portugal
The final approach depends on where you are going. The A8 serves the Silver Coast; the A5 serves Cascais and Estoril without dragging a lorry through central Lisbon; the A1 and A3 run north towards Coimbra and Braga.
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05
And for the islands, the sea
Madeira and the Azores are reached from a mainland Portuguese port. Goods are consolidated into a container and shipped. For the smaller Azorean islands there is then an inter-island transfer — a second sea leg with its own, less frequent schedule.
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We only transit France and Spain
The vehicle drives through both, but we do not take work to either. Those corridors belong to firms who run them properly, and they will serve you better than we would.
What affects how long it takes
We do not publish a transit figure, and you should be wary of anyone who does. Four things move it, and none of them is the same for two households:
- Full load or part load. A full load leaves when it is loaded. A part load waits until the vehicle is filled with consignments heading the same way.
- Where in Portugal. Braga is entered from Galicia; the Algarve is the length of the country further on. The difference is substantial.
- Customs clearance. Usually straightforward when the paperwork is complete. Slow, occasionally very slow, when it is not.
- Sailings, for the islands. Ships run to their own timetable, and the Atlantic gets a vote in winter.
Your written quote carries an estimated window based on your actual move. That is a more useful number than an average dressed up as a promise.
Overnight, and security
On the road legs your goods stay in the vehicle, sealed and strapped as they were loaded, in secure overnight parking. They are not unloaded and reloaded at every stop — every handling event is a risk, so we minimise them.
On a full load the crew who packed your house are frequently the crew who deliver it, which is the ideal. On a part load or an island consignment the goods are consolidated and handled by the destination team. That is exactly why the inventory and the export packing standard matter as much as they do.
The bit nobody mentions
A removal lorry is a large vehicle in countries built before large vehicles. Portuguese historic centres — Braga, Guimarães, Óbidos, Sintra, the Alta in Coimbra — frequently cannot take one at all, and several have enforced access restrictions.
The answer is a shuttle: staging the main vehicle somewhere it can legally stand and running a smaller one to the door. It is a normal part of this work and it is quoted openly, not sprung on you at the kerbside.
Next step
Where in Portugal are you heading?
The destination changes the route, the vehicle and sometimes whether there is a sea leg at all. Tell us the address and we will tell you how it would run.