Snow in Portugal surprises most people who haven’t been to Covilhã. The country’s image runs so heavily toward beaches and terracotta rooftops that a working ski slope, an hour’s drive above a city built on wool and textiles, tends to catch first-time visitors completely off guard. Covilhã sits at the foot of the Serra da Estrela — mainland Portugal’s highest range, and the only place in the country where you can genuinely ski — and everything that makes the region worth visiting radiates outward from this one mid-sized city.
Reaching Covilhã
Porto Airport is the practical entry point, roughly 200km northwest, a drive that takes a bit under two and a half hours via the A25 and A23. Lisbon works too, at around 300km and closer to three hours south along the A1 and A23. Neither distance is short, which is exactly why most visitors treat Covilhã as a stop within a longer interior road trip — often paired with Viseu to the northwest — rather than a quick side trip from either coast. There’s a train line connecting Covilhã to the rest of the country, but it won’t get you anywhere near the mountain villages or the ski area itself; that’s where the rental car earns its keep.
What driving here actually feels like
The city’s older quarters climb the hillside in narrow, cobbled streets — a legacy of Covilhã’s centuries as a wool and textile hub, when the terrain shaped the town before cars were ever a consideration. Traffic in the modern parts of the city runs light outside school-run and commute hours, and parking is available near the railway station and around the city center without much hunting required. The historic core is better handled on foot once you’ve found somewhere to leave the car; the streets there weren’t built for anything wider than a cart.
There’s no low emission zone here, unlike Lisbon — one less thing to check before you drive in, regardless of what your rental’s registration year happens to be.
The mountain is the point
Serra da Estrela Natural Park stretches across roughly 88,000 hectares, the largest protected area in the country, and driving through it is where Covilhã stops being a stopover and starts being the reason for the trip. The N338 and N339 climb through genuinely dramatic mountain scenery on the way toward Torre, the highest point in mainland Portugal, reachable by car in about twenty minutes from the city — on a clear day the view stretches out toward the Atlantic. The glacial Zêzere Valley cuts through the range with the kind of scenery that looks more like the Pyrenees than anything most visitors expect from Portugal, and in winter this becomes ski country, the only real ski resort the mainland has.
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None of this is reachable by anything other than a car. The park’s roads connect scattered granite villages that have no bus service linking them to each other, only to the towns at either end — driving is simply how you see the Serra da Estrela, not one option among several.
Worth the detour: Belmonte and Manteigas
Belmonte sits about 30 minutes north of Covilhã, a small town with an outsized historical footprint — it’s the ancestral home of Pedro Álvares Cabral, the navigator credited with reaching Brazil, and it carries a documented Jewish heritage going back centuries, with a community that quietly preserved its traditions through generations of forced conversion. Manteigas, roughly 28km into the mountains, sits at the edge of the Zêzere Valley and works as a base for hikers wanting to get deeper into the park than a day trip from Covilhã allows. Both are the kind of stop that only makes sense with your own transport — there’s no realistic way to string together Covilhã, Belmonte, and Manteigas on public transit in a single day.
Picking a car for the terrain
A compact or economy car handles Covilhã’s own streets without trouble, but the mountain roads change the calculation. If Torre, the Zêzere Valley, or any of the smaller villages higher in the park are on your list, a mid-size car or small SUV with a bit more power makes the climbs and the winding sections considerably less stressful — this isn’t flat interior driving, and the elevation changes are real. Winter visitors specifically should check whether their rental comes with appropriate tires or chains if snow is forecast; conditions on the higher roads can shift quickly between November and March.
Renting locally vs. arriving with a car already booked
Europcar, Avis, and a handful of other operators maintain a presence in Covilhã itself, generally clustered near the railway station or in the Castelo Branco district on the city’s eastern side. Selection is narrower than what you’d find at Porto or Lisbon airport, and one-way drop-offs elsewhere in Portugal are available but worth confirming ahead of time rather than assuming. For most itineraries, picking up at Porto Airport and driving the roughly two and a half hours in makes more sense logistically, particularly if Covilhã is one stop on a wider loop that also takes in Viseu or the Douro. Our Porto Airport car rental guide covers that side of the trip, and if Viseu is also on your route, our Viseu car rental guide picks up where this one leaves off.
Comparison: getting into the mountains
| From Porto | From Lisbon | Within the park itself | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Distance/time to Covilhã | ~200km, ~2h30 | ~300km, ~3h | — |
| Reaches Torre/Zêzere Valley? | Yes, via Covilhã | Yes, via Covilhã | Only by car — no bus network between villages |
| Best vehicle | Compact for the city, more power for the mountain roads | Same | Mid-size or small SUV recommended |
| Best season | Spring/autumn for driving comfort, winter for skiing | Same | Check tire/chain requirements Nov–March |
Timing the trip
Summer keeps the city itself comfortable without the coastal crowds, and it’s the easiest season for the mountain roads — no ice, no snow closures, just genuinely good scenery. Winter flips the appeal entirely: this is when Covilhã’s ski resort actually operates, and the same roads that are relaxed in July demand more caution and, depending on conditions, the right tires. Spring and early autumn split the difference, with green valleys, mild temperatures, and roads clear of both summer heat and winter ice — arguably the most comfortable stretch for anyone whose main goal is the driving itself rather than the skiing.
Covilhã doesn’t announce itself the way the Algarve or the Douro does in Portugal’s tourism marketing, which is probably why it stays relatively quiet even in peak season. That’s less a warning than an invitation — the roads through the Serra da Estrela reward exactly the kind of traveler willing to drive somewhere the postcards haven’t caught up to yet.
