Getting Around Portugal: Trains, Buses, Island Flights and Driving

Comboios de Portugal (CP) runs almost all passenger trains. There are four service types, and the first two need a reserved seat:

• Alfa Pendular (AP): tilting high-speed trains on the Braga to Porto to Lisbon to Faro spine, up to 220 km/h. Two classes, Conforto (first) and Turística (second), with Wi-Fi, power sockets and a café car.
• Intercidades (IC): fast conventional trains on the same spine plus Lisbon to Évora, Beja, Guarda, Covilhã and Guimarães. A little slower and a few euros cheaper than AP.
• Regional and InterRegional: stopping trains with no reservations, used on the Douro line, the Linha do Algarve between Lagos and Vila Real de Santo António, the Oeste line and branch routes.
• Urbanos: suburban trains around Lisbon (Sintra, Cascais, Azambuja and Setúbal lines) and Porto (Braga, Guimarães, Aveiro lines), plus Coimbra.

Buy AP and IC tickets on cp.pt or the CP app. Tickets are released about two months ahead, and promotional fares for seats bought in advance can cut a Lisbon to Porto ticket to €20 or less; at the station on the day you pay full price, and AP trains in summer and on Friday and Sunday afternoons sell out. Your mobile ticket with its QR code is enough. Regional and Urbanos tickets are bought at machines or ticket offices and must be valid before you board; in Lisbon and Porto the suburban trains also accept the city cards.

Typical second-class fares for 2026; the lower figure is an advance promo fare where one exists.

The Douro line from Porto is the country’s great scenic ride: sit on the right going upstream for the river from Régua onwards, and in summer look for the historic train between Régua and Tua. For Coimbra, AP and IC trains stop at Coimbra-B, and a shuttle takes four minutes to the central Coimbra station. For Lagos, Tavira and the Algarve towns, change at Tunes or Faro to the Regional line. Many Algarve stations, and the station at Sintra, are a walk or short bus ride from the centre.

Cross-border rail is limited. The Celta train links Porto with Vigo in Spain twice a day in about two hours and 20 minutes, and regional trains run from Entroncamento to Badajoz, but there is no direct Lisbon to Madrid train, so most people take a coach or fly.

Do rail passes pay off? Point-to-point tickets are cheap enough that rail passes rarely save money. An Interrail Portugal Pass or a Eurail pass covers CP trains, but AP and IC need seat reservations on top, and a typical first-time route of Lisbon to Porto to Lisbon to Faro costs €65 to €100 in advance tickets, less than most passes. Passes make sense only if you are already on a multi-country Interrail trip.

The CP pass worth knowing is the national rail pass (Passe Ferroviário Verde) introduced in October 2024: €20 a month for unlimited second-class travel on Regional, InterRegional and Intercidades trains and some urban lines, excluding Alfa Pendular and the Lisbon and Porto suburban networks. It requires a personalised CP card issued at a ticket office. For anyone staying a few weeks and riding IC trains several times, it pays for itself on the first Lisbon to Porto trip; check conditions on cp.pt before relying on it. Seniors 65 and over get large discounts on most CP tickets with proof of age.

Coaches go everywhere trains do not and often undercut them. Rede Expressos is the national network, with Lisbon to Porto from about €13 to €20 in three and a half hours, Lisbon to Lagos €15 to €22 in about four hours, and direct links to Nazaré, Óbidos, Évora, Viseu, Braga and almost every district capital. FlixBus competes on the main routes with fares from €6 to €15 when booked early and runs international coaches to Madrid, Seville and the rest of Europe. Book on the operators’ websites or apps; seats are assigned and luggage in the hold is included.

Flying is the only practical way between the mainland and the islands, and between the two archipelagos. Lisbon to Funchal takes about 1h45 and Lisbon to Ponta Delgada about 2h20, with direct flights from Porto and, for Madeira, Faro too. TAP, easyJet and SATA Azores Airlines fly these routes; Ryanair has cut back its Azores flying, so check who flies your route in your season. One-way fares run €40 to €150 if booked early and well above that in July and August and around Christmas. Mainland to island flights are domestic, with no passport control.

Between the nine Azores islands, SATA Air Açores runs small turboprops: São Miguel to Terceira 40 minutes, to Pico or Faial around 50 minutes, with one-way fares typically €60 to €150. Atlânticoline ferries link Pico, Faial and São Jorge year-round (Madalena to Horta is 30 minutes), with longer inter-island routes mainly in summer. On Madeira, Porto Santo Line sails from Funchal to Porto Santo in about two and a quarter hours, and Binter flies the route in 15 minutes. Funchal’s airport is known for strong crosswinds that divert flights a few days each year, so avoid same-day international connections.

A rental car is the best way to see the Alentejo, the Douro’s quintas, the Costa Vicentina and the Azores, and the worst way to see central Lisbon and Porto, where traffic, steep narrow streets and scarce parking defeat most visitors. Pick up the car as you leave the city. Small manual cars cost €25 to €40 a day in winter and €50 to €90 in August; automatics need booking well ahead. Drive on the right; limits are 50 km/h in towns, 90 on rural roads and 120 on motorways, and the blood-alcohol limit is 0.5 g/l (0.2 for drivers with under three years’ experience), with frequent police checks. EU and UK licences are valid; US, Canadian and Australian licences are accepted for short visits, but an International Driving Permit is cheap insurance with rental desks and police.

Tolls are the complication. Most motorways (the A1 Lisbon to Porto, about €24; the A2 Lisbon to the Algarve, about €22) have booths where you pay by card or cash, but some have only electronic gantries with no way to pay on the spot. Tolls on the Algarve’s A22 and the A23, A24, A25 and A28 were abolished in January 2025, which removed most of the electronic-only problem, but some electronic-only stretches remain around Porto and in the north. The easy answer is the rental company’s Via Verde transponder at €1.50 to €2.50 a day: tolls are charged to your card, and you can use the green “V” lanes at booths. Without one, buy a prepaid Toll Card at a CTT post office, or pay at a post office or Payshop agent two to 15 working days after your trip; unpaid tolls return as fines through the rental company. Crossing the 25 de Abril bridge is free leaving Lisbon and tolled coming in.

Lisbon’s metro, Carris buses, trams, funiculars and the Santa Justa lift share one fare system on a reusable Navegante occasional card (€0.50), sold at metro machines. Load a single ticket (€1.90), zapping credit (€1.72 per metro or bus ride, also valid on the Sintra and Cascais trains and the ferries), or a 24-hour Carris/Metro ticket (€7.25), which pays off at five rides; you can also tap a contactless bank card at metro gates. The Red metro line runs from the airport to the centre in about 20 minutes. Metro hours are roughly 6.30am to 1am.

The vintage trams are part of the network, and tram 28 through the Baixa, Alfama and Graça is the famous one: board early or at the Martim Moniz terminus to get a seat, and watch for pickpockets; it costs €3.30 bought on board. Tram 15 runs modern trams to Belém. The Glória funicular was taken out of service after its fatal derailment in September 2025, and the Bica and Lavra funiculars were suspended for inspection; check Carris for which are running. Ferries cross the Tagus from Cais do Sodré to Cacilhas in 10 minutes, and Fertagus trains run over the 25 de Abril bridge to Setúbal. Taxis, Uber, Bolt and FreeNow are cheap by European standards, with most city rides €6 to €15. Our Lisbon costs guide has the full ticket maths.

Porto’s metro is a light-rail network on six lines, crossing the top deck of the Luís I bridge to Vila Nova de Gaia and running the violet Line E to the airport in about 30 minutes. It uses the Andante card (€0.60), loaded with zone-based single trips (around €1.40 for the two central zones, a little over €2 to the airport) or Andante Tour passes for 24 or 72 hours that cover metro, STCP buses and the city’s suburban trains. Validate every trip, including each time you change, or risk a fine.

AP and IC trains have wheelchair spaces and CP offers a free assistance service (SIM) at main stations when booked 24 to 48 hours ahead; Lisbon’s and Porto’s metros are mostly step-free, but trams, funiculars and old-town cobbles are not. Luggage is unlimited within reason on trains, and AP coaches have racks at each end; on coaches one hold bag is included. Bikes travel free on many Regional and Urbanos trains outside rush hour, folded or bagged on AP and IC. Cycling between towns is growing, with the Ecovia do Litoral across the Algarve and long-distance routes on the coast, but traffic on national roads is fast.

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