Portugal travel guide

Comboios de Portugal runs it all. Alfa Pendular (AP) is the fast tilting train: Lisbon–Porto 2 h 50 – 3 h 10 (about €35 full fare, €10–20 as a promo fare booked on cp.pt up to 60 days ahead), Lisbon–Coimbra 1 h 40, Lisbon–Faro about 3 h, Porto–Braga 1 h on the urban line. Intercidades (IC) is slower and cheaper — Lisbon–Évora 1 h 30, about €13. In Lisbon, northbound trains start at Santa Apolónia and call at Oriente ten minutes later; Algarve trains start at Oriente. Porto's long-distance station is Campanhã; São Bento is Porto's beautiful terminus for regional trains including the Douro line, which runs Porto–Régua–Pinhão–Pocinho along the river (Pinhão 2 h 30, about €14, no reservation). Intercity trains skip Coimbra's centre and stop at Coimbra-B, 2 km out.

Rule of thumb: Any pair of spine cities (Braga, Porto, Coimbra, Lisbon, Évora, Faro) → train, booked ahead on cp.pt for the promo fare. Porto to the Douro → train to Pinhão, car or boat beyond.

Right-hand drive, good motorways, electronic tolls (see practicalities), fuel about €1.75 a litre. Rental from €25–40 a day in shoulder season, €60–100 in August; book automatics early because the fleet is mostly manual. Lisbon–Porto 3 h on the A1, Lisbon–Évora 1 h 30, Lisbon–Lagos 3 h, Porto–Pinhão 1 h 45. Parking in Lisbon, Porto and Sintra is expensive, scarce or both — collect the car on the way out of the city, not on arrival. The interior N roads are quiet and lovely; the drivers on them are not.

Rule of thumb: Douro quintas, Alentejo, the Algarve coast, Gerês, the centre's villages, Madeira, the Azores → car, picked up on the day you leave the city. Lisbon, Porto and the spine between them → never.

Rede Expressos is the national coach network and reaches everywhere the train does not — Alentejo towns, the Algarve coast, Nazaré, the Minho villages. Lisbon–Porto 3 h 30 for €10–22, Lisbon–Faro 3 h for about €20, Lisbon–Évora 1 h 30. FlixBus competes on the main corridors and is often cheaper. Lisbon's coach station is Sete Rios (metro Jardim Zoológico) with some services from Oriente; Porto's is Campo 24 de Agosto. Local buses in the Algarve (Vamus) and the Alentejo exist but run to school timetables.

Rule of thumb: No train and no car → Rede Expressos. Nazaré, Óbidos, the Alentejo coast and Sagres are bus territory from Lisbon.

Pointless on the mainland — Lisbon–Porto by air is 55 minutes plus two hours of airports, against three on the train. Essential for the islands: Lisbon–Funchal 1 h 45 (TAP, easyJet, Ryanair, €60–150 return booked ahead), Lisbon–Ponta Delgada 2 h 30 (Azores Airlines, Ryanair, similar prices), both also from Porto. Inter-island in the Azores is SATA Air Açores on small props; book early in summer. Funchal's airport closes in strong crosswinds — build a buffer day into any Madeira trip with an onward connection. Faro is the third international airport and the right one for the Algarve.

Rule of thumb: Madeira and the Azores → fly; nothing else. Faro for an Algarve-only trip.

Lisbon's Tagus ferries (Cais do Sodré–Cacilhas, 10 min, about €1.60 on the Navegante card) are the cheapest cruise in Europe and the way to dinner at Ponto Final. Setúbal–Tróia (20 min) opens the Comporta coast. In the Algarve, small boats from Tavira, Olhão and Faro reach the Ria Formosa islands for €2–5. Porto Santo Line runs Madeira–Porto Santo daily in 2 h 15 (about €60 return); Atlânticoline does Faial–Pico in 30 minutes year-round and the rest of the central Azores group in summer. In Porto, the one-hour six-bridges cruise (about €18) is the only boat trip worth the time; the full-day Régua and Pinhão cruises are covered under the Douro.

Lisbon: buy a Navegante card (€0.50) at any metro machine and load it with zapping credit — under €2 a ride on metro, tram, bus, funicular and the Tagus ferries — or a 24-hour pass for about €7. The metro's red line runs from the airport to the centre in 25 minutes; Bolt is €10–15 and the honest alternative to airport taxis. Porto: the Andante card works the same way; metro line E connects the airport to Trindade in 30 minutes for under €3. Both cities are walked, with funiculars and elevators as shortcuts and Bolt or Uber for the hills at night at €5–8 a ride. The trams are transport, not tours — ride 28 before 8 am or take the 24 or 12 instead.