Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): Eu quero viajar para Natal um dia.

In European Portuguese you can sometimes see viajar a, but it is much less common and can sound a bit formal or old‑fashioned. For everyday speech, viajar para is the standard way to express travel to (place).

With ir, the situation is different: ir a is very common:

Ir a Natal, ir a Lisboa, ir a Paris.

So:

viajar para Natal (most natural)
ir a Natal (also natural)

Why doesn’t Natal take an article, like para o Natal?

Most city names in Portuguese do not take a definite article:

Lisboa, Paris, Londres, Natal

So you say:

viajar para Lisboa
viajar para Natal

Some place names do take an article, e.g.:

o Porto, o Rio de Janeiro, a Figueira da Foz

Then you would say:

viajar para o Porto
viajar para o Rio de Janeiro

If you said para o Natal, that would normally refer to the Christmas period, not the city:

Viajar para o Natal = to travel for Christmas / for the Christmas holidays (time, not place).

In this sentence, does Natal mean the city or Christmas?

In viajar para Natal, with para and no article, Natal is understood as the city in Brazil.

To talk about the holiday Christmas, European Portuguese normally uses:

o Natal (with article):
- no Natal = at Christmas
- para o Natal = for Christmas (e.g. I’ll go there for Christmas)

So:

viajar para Natal → city (place)
viajar no Natal → at Christmas (time)
viajar para o Natal → to travel for Christmas (time / season)

Could I say Eu quero ir para Natal um dia instead of viajar?

Yes, Eu quero ir para Natal um dia is grammatically correct and understandable.

Nuance:

viajar focuses on the idea of travelling (the journey itself, distance, trip).
ir is more basic: simply to go somewhere.

So:

Quero viajar para Natal um dia
Emphasises the idea of taking a trip there.
Quero ir a/para Natal um dia
Emphasises ending up there more than the travel aspect.

Both are fine in normal speech; viajar just sounds a bit more like “take a trip” in English.

Why is quero in the present tense if I’m talking about the future?

In Portuguese (especially in everyday speech), the present tense is often used for future plans or intentions, just like in English:

Amanhã vou ao cinema. = Tomorrow I’m going to the cinema.
Para o ano estudo em Lisboa. = Next year I (will) study in Lisbon.

Here:

Eu quero viajar para Natal um dia.
Literally: I want to travel to Natal one day.
Functionally: I’d like to / I want to travel there (sometime in the future).

You could use other future‑oriented forms, but they sound different:

Hei de viajar para Natal um dia. (EP) – more formal / literary, “I shall/will one day travel…”
Um dia vou viajar para Natal. – “One day I’m going to travel to Natal.”

Using quero is a very natural way to express a wish or intention about the future.

Can I drop the eu and just say Quero viajar para Natal um dia?

Yes. In Portuguese, subject pronouns (eu, tu, ele, etc.) are often omitted because the verb ending already shows the person:

Quero viajar para Natal um dia.
Eu quero viajar para Natal um dia.

Both are correct. The version with eu can sound:

a bit more emphatic: Eu (personally) want to travel…
or just slightly more explicit, depending on context.

In neutral speech, many native speakers would simply say Quero viajar para Natal um dia.

Why is it quero and not querer or queres?

Quero is the 1st person singular, present tense of querer:

eu quero – I want
tu queres – you (singular, informal) want
ele / ela quer – he / she wants

Querer by itself is the infinitive (to want). In a full sentence you need the finite form that matches the subject:

Eu quero viajar. – I want to travel.
Tu queres viajar. – You want to travel.

So quero is correct because the subject is eu.

Is the position of um dia fixed, or can I move it?

You can move um dia around. All of these are possible, with small nuances in emphasis:

Eu quero viajar para Natal um dia.
Eu quero um dia viajar para Natal.
Um dia quero viajar para Natal.

Very roughly:

Um dia quero viajar para Natal.
Emphasises one day (in the future) a little more.
Quero um dia viajar para Natal.
Places um dia inside the verb phrase, still natural.
Quero viajar para Natal um dia.
Feels very close to English I want to travel to Natal one day.

All are acceptable in European Portuguese; word order is quite flexible for adverbials like this.

Does um dia here mean a specific day or just “someday”?

Here, um dia means “one day / someday” in a vague, non‑specific way — an undefined point in the future.

If you wanted to be more explicitly vague, you could also hear:

algum dia – someday (also very natural)
um dia destes – one of these days (slightly more “it might actually happen soon”)

But um dia on its own is already a very standard way to say someday.

Could I say algum dia instead of um dia?

Yes:

Eu quero viajar para Natal algum dia.

This is also correct and means almost the same as um dia in this context: someday.

Subtle feel:

um dia – very common, neutral: one day / someday
algum dia – maybe a touch more “at some (unspecified) time in the future”, sometimes with a slight nuance of uncertainty.

In everyday speech, um dia is often preferred simply because it’s shorter and very common.

Can I say viajar Natal without a preposition?

No. In Portuguese you generally need a preposition before a place name when you express a destination.

You must say, for example:

viajar para Natal
ir a Lisboa
voar para Paris

So viajar Natal is incorrect; the preposition para (or sometimes a, depending on the verb) is obligatory.

Is there any politeness issue with Eu quero? Would something else sound more polite in Portugal?

In Portugal, Eu quero… can sometimes sound a bit direct, depending on context and tone, especially when making requests to other people.

For talking about your own wishes or plans (as in your sentence), it’s perfectly fine:

Eu quero viajar para Natal um dia.

If you were asking for something (e.g. in a shop or with a favour), you’d often soften it:

Gostava de viajar para Natal um dia. – I’d like to travel to Natal one day.
Queria viajar para Natal um dia. – I wanted / would like to travel to Natal one day.

Both gostava de and queria are common polite/softened ways of expressing wishes in European Portuguese.

How would a European Portuguese speaker typically pronounce quero viajar para Natal?

Very approximately in IPA for European Portuguese:

quero → /ˈkɛ.ɾu/
viajar → /vi.aˈʒaɾ/
para → often reduced to something like /ˈpa.ɾɐ/ or even close to /prɐ/ in fast speech
Natal → /nɐˈtaɫ/

So the whole chunk might sound like:

[ˈkɛ.ɾu vi.aˈʒaɾ ˈpa.ɾɐ nɐˈtaɫ]

In casual European speech, para is often quite reduced, but you still write para.