Portugal

Arriving by Plane.

The main airport for scheduled flights in Portugal is Lisbon. This airport has flights from all over the world, particularly from other Portuguese-speaking countries. There are also a few internal flights, particularly to the islands. The Poruguese national airline TAP is the largest operator of these services.

A few budget and charter flights fly to Lisbon, but in the main these fly to Faro on the south coast of the country, and Porto in the north. There are no Portuguese budget operators worth mentioning, but budget and charter airlines based in several other European countries run flights here. Easyjet and Ryanair in particular run flights from various European hubs. It is certainly worth checking out Charter airlines such as Monarch when flying to major tourist centres such as the Algarve. Finally, it may also be reasonably cheap to fly into Madrid and catch the train to Lisbon (see below).

Arriving By Train.

A night train runs from Irun (near San Sebastien) on the Spanish-French border to Lisbon. This connects with TGV services to Paris and from there to destinations all over northern Europe. For connections to Southern Europe and most of Spain, a Tren Hotel service runs from Lisbon to Madrid. Other locations, particularly in the South and West of Spain can be accessed by regional trains, which run across the border at three points in the north and centre of the country, or by using the cross border bus service which connects the Spanish and Portuguese Algarve regions. Details are available on the website of CP,the Portuguese national rail company.

Arriving By Coach.

Eurolines run some coaches into Lisbon from Madrid and France. In addition, Internorte run services to Porto from France and Western Germany. Various buses run services over the border from Spain, most notable of which is the EVA service from Seville to Lisbon via Faro. See local areas for details of these services. Finally, a number of tour operators run in the summer from various locations in Europe.

Arriving By Ferry.

The only noteworthy ferry for getting to Portugal is the Portsmouth to Bilbao service run by P&O. Coach or train services can be used to get from Bilbao on the north coast of Spain into Portugal itself.