Speaking Portuguese

Portuguese is the fifth most commonly spoken first language in the world, with 250 million speakers. (For the curious, #1 is Mandarin, with 990M, then Spanish at 484M, then English with 390M, and Hindi at 345M).

English is spoken widely in Portgual. Pretty much every young person, every professional, and everyone involved in the tourism or hospitality businesses will at least speak enough English to communicate with you, and may very well be completely fluent.

Everyone learns English in school. Portuguese TV is full of English-language programs with Portuguese subtitles. Portugal has been flooded with Brits seeking sun for decades.

That said, if you're traveling to small towns, or dealing with the older generation, English is more limited.

And in addition to all that, learning just a bit is a sign of respect, is actually pretty fun, and may get you a little better service or at least a smile, even as we all fumble through.

But first, please get it out of your head that the couple of Spanish classes you took in high school will help. The Portuguese are very proud of their language, and it is in fact very different than Spanish and sounds, is pronounced, completely differently, and they just hate it when you speak Spanish to them. 

Another warning: there is a good size difference between Brazilian Portuguese and European Portuguese, so if you're going to try to get up to speed, be sure to specify "European Portuguese".

Em Portugal, fale português! In Portugal, speak Portuguese!