Heading to Portugal within a week. Couple questions? Looking for best dealership to rent a motorcycle from for a few days? Also wondering about best apps or maps for hiking trails? Appreciate any info, thx!

You have my admiration for willing to drive a moto in Portugal and my prayers.

There is beautiful hiking along coast by town of Sagres. The girls did a 17km round trip.

get your international drivers license if you haven't yet, BCAA, 25$ last time I got it.

Mike my wife and I flew into Portugal and hired a car from Sixt. Brilliant car and customer service. Drove from southern Portugal into Spain, north and back to Lisbon for a flight to Italy. I had done my due diligence like you and purchased the international license from BCAA and no one ever looked at it!! I would do it again but I had to laugh!

Derick the biggest reason to have it is that it covers you when things go sideways. Not having it can mean lots of problems if you are in an accident and cannot prove you are a licensed driver. Insurance that you have bought and paid for including travel medical can be declined. All the license does is translate your Canadian license into a form that can be read by police etc in any of the signatory countries.
Where lots get into trouble is in Asian countries where scooters are available everywhere for rent. People with no motorcycle license rent them buy the insurance and get in a mishap. When they try to claim the insurance it is declined because they are not licensed to operate a scooter. It doesn’t matter if you have a Canadian licence in your pocket, the only thing they recognize is a local licence or a current International one.
In Chiang Mai Thailand the local police set up a licence check every weekday on the outer road of the old city. They stop all the scooters being driven by foreigners and check licenses. If you don’t have an international license they ticket you 500 baht. The ticket becomes a “get out of jail” pass for the next 3 days. If you are stopped ed again you show the ticket and let you go. On the fourth day they write another ticket. I was told that they stay setup each day with an 80,000 baht target and leave when that is achieved. This is enough to cover the wages of the people involved plus a cut for the station.
Possession of the ticket means nothing if you crash and don’t have the international license. Your insurance and health insurance are still invalid.

Mike couldn’t agree more better safe than sorry for a mere $25.

The last 6 times I've rented cars in Europe, over the last 20 years I was never once asked for an "International Drivers License." A plain ordinary BC drivers license is all that you need. This was for cars not motorbikes, but I cannot imagine why you would need the "International" one for a motorbike and not a car.

Barry Canadian driver's license does not apply in many countries, so you were probably just lucky... https://www.hertz.ca/.../where-do-canadians-need...

Lucia This is simply not true. I can testify from experience renting cars abroad that you absolutely do not need anything more than a valid BC drivers license in the following countries: Japan, France, Italy, UK, Portugal, Greece, and Israel. I've never had any problems in all those places where we've rented cars multiple times. I also don't buy the extra insurance and have never had an accident or any issues anywhere in the world. Maybe it's luck, but if you are willing to take a chance I'm just saying the odds are heavily in your favour that you won't need an international drivers license.

Barry did you even read it? There is literally a table of countries. Japan uk and israel are not europe.

I read the list lucia Lucia. For sure. I just think it's bogus. It's a way to extract an $25 from people without doing anything, similar to extended warranties, etc. In my personal experience actually renting cars in many countries on the list nobody ever asked for an international drivers license. That's a fact.

Barry JFC stop giving people advice based on your opinions! Just because you personally were not stopped, does not mean you don't need it. I want to see people arguing police with: this guy on the internet told me it is not necessary. Don't know what to tell you, you need it in most EU countries, it is a part of a treaty, it is a legal document. https://travel.gc.ca/.../doc.../international-driving-permit

We were advised by our rental company they don't require it, you would only need to provide your Int'l DL if stopped for a traffic violation, and then you better have one to produce. For $25, seems like a no brainer.

I've had my BC DL refused in the UK when trying to rent a car. BC Licences have an "issue date" and we renew every 5 years. I had just renewed mine and the issue date was only a few weeks before the car pickup date. The rental agency required proof of at least 1 year of qualified driving and refused to give me the car.