Portugal

Getting around by public transport

Travelling by train.

Portugal is not a large country, and train travel is fairly quick and reasonably cheap - the second class fare from Faro to Porto (the whole length of the country) is less than 36 Euros (as at January 2006). There doesn't appear to be any particular benefit to booking in advance, apart from the guarantee of getting on a train, which may be an issue in busy periods.

All the trains are run by CP, the national operator. Services are split into three different brands - Alfa Pendualar are the top speed services, Intercity is the basic long distance service, and Regional is the remainder. The Intercity network is based around Lisbon, with Alfa Pendualar services running along the coast to Porto and Braga in the north, and Faro in the south. Intercity lines run inland to Regua, Guarda, Covilha, and Beja. Finally, a comprehensive network of Regional services run throughout the country.

Travelling by coach.

Coach travel in Portugal is fairly badly organized, with a large number of operators, often runnning from more than one station in a town and competing over different routes. The overall effect is a service which is significantly cheaper than the train, runs more frequently, and often doesn't take much longer to get there, but which is so confusing that people choose to take the train anyway. The following are the major operators:

• Rede Expressos is the largest operator, with long-distance routes covering the length of the country
• EVA is the main operator in the Algarve, running virtually all the buses in the Algarve, both long-distance and local, and with long-distance routes stretching up to Lisbon and Evora
• Internorte run mostly international services from Porto in the north to various destinations in Spain as well as France and Germany.
• RodoNorte run intercity and local services in the north of the country.

Travelling by plane.

A few internal flights run in Portugal, but in most cases it would be quicker to catch the next train or even coach than to wait around for a flight.