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Choose a Portugal map by what you need it to show: the official CAOP maps for administrative boundaries, the free gov.pt map for a mainland overview, or a printed travel map for roads, distances and tourist information. These resources differ in coverage and scale; the mainland overview does not include the Azores and Madeira.
Official map of Portugal: CAOP boundaries
Portugal’s Direção-Geral do Território (DGT) maintains the Carta Administrativa Oficial de Portugal, or CAOP. It records the official boundaries of districts, municipalities (concelhos) and parishes (freguesias). Use it when you need administrative boundary information, not turn-by-turn road navigation.
DGT identifies CAOP2025 as the current version on its page. It was approved on 28 January 2026 and published in the Diário da República on 18 February 2026. Viewing services and downloads are available without charge for mainland Portugal, the Azores and Madeira.
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The CAOP map sheets are listed at 1:600,000 for continental Portugal and 1:800,000 for the autonomous regions. Those scales describe the CAOP products; they are not the scale of the separate gov.pt overview.
Free downloadable map of mainland Portugal
The gov.pt service lets you view or download a raster map of mainland Portugal free of charge. Its service version, dated 2024, gives the map scale as 1:1,500,000. The service covers the mainland only, so use DGT’s CAOP resources if you need map downloads for the Azores or Madeira.
Printed Portugal maps for travel planning
Printed maps can be useful for a broad paper reference, route planning or offline use. The publisher pages below establish product details, not current stock, prices or a particular retailer listing. Check the edition and island coverage of the exact map before buying.
| Map | Coverage and scale | Listed features |
|---|---|---|
| Michelin Portugal-Madeira National Map 733, 2024 edition | Portugal and Madeira; 1:400,000 | Locality index, distance and travel-time table, Lisbon and Porto plans, and tourist sites |
| National Geographic Spain and Portugal Adventure Map | Spain and Portugal; scale not stated on the cited publisher page | Road network and distances, place index, waterproof and tear-resistant paper |
| Rick Steves Portugal Planning Map | Portugal; scale not stated on the cited publisher page | Folded map with Lisbon and Porto city maps; publisher lists Amazon among its retailers |
These are different formats and coverage areas, not interchangeable versions of a single map. In particular, the National Geographic sheet covers Spain and Portugal, while Michelin’s cited edition specifies Portugal and Madeira. Confirm whether an individual map includes the Azores if you need them; the cited product descriptions do not establish that coverage.
How to choose the right map
- For official boundaries: choose CAOP and select the relevant mainland or autonomous-region resource.
- For a free national overview: use the gov.pt raster map if mainland coverage meets your needs.
- For driving and sightseeing: compare a printed map’s roads, distances, tourist sites and city plans against your route.
- Before downloading or buying: check coverage, scale, edition date, format and—where relevant—paper durability. A scale is meaningful only alongside the area covered and the map’s intended detail.
Administrative counts: date them carefully
Portugal’s Portal da Transparência page, citing Instituto Nacional de Estatística (INE), lists 18 districts, 308 municipalities and 3,092 parishes. The page was last updated on 8 September 2021, so these are figures reported by that page for 2021, not a freshly verified current count.
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Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
