The trains and public transport we took

Storyline: Portugal by trains

Portugal is an interesting country, packed with history, known for its maritime explorers like Vasco Da Gama, Pedro Álvares Cabral and Ferdinand Magellan. We didn’t go to the mountains (Torre Mountain at 1,993 m being the highest), but there is nothing flat here.

Even in the Algarve the topography looks more like rolling hills and some plains. A little-known fact is that the country has one of the highest percentages of forested land (36%) in Europe. And based on our experience the hills, where they exist, may not be high but they are really steep.

We didn’t manage to cover a fraction of what was on my list to visit and do. I’d like to say we’ll be back, who knows what’s in out lives’ chest of drawers.

This storyline won’t be complete without a few notes about Portugal’s train system. There are many train stations in Lisbon.

Upon arrival at Aeroporto Humberto Delgado we took the metro (subway) to Oriente train station. A fast train took us from there to Faro.

We were not impressed. We had crossed Europe by train, we had the experience of neighbouring Spain’s fast train system, we had boarded local trans in Romania and Greece, we’d crossed England, Scotland, New Zealand, Australia, Bolivia, Argentina, Peru and more on all kinds of trains.

So, our expectations were apparently a bit more than the Intercity (Intercidades) express train provided. Later, we’d experience the much faster and better high-speed Alpha-Pendular.

The platforms of the Oriente train station are really nice. However, the concrete maze that lead to them was strange, dirty and disorganised.

There was a kiosk for buying tickets that looked like many other scummy kiosks thrown up in the area. Finding a useable washroom was a challenge – no toilet seats, no toilet paper and no water in the women’s.

Alex says men’s were disgusting too, unless you weren’t put off standing in a urine pond, but there was some water. There were many closed kiosks for who knows what, but some of them had free phone charging stations on the walls, so at least Alex managed to put some juice in his phone.

We bought seniors’ tickets from the kiosk. Their online system works well and one can book up to 60 days in advance. However, we were not sure about our timing on the arrival day. After all, anything could happen with the flight. First class is not a lot more than the regular and with 50% senior’s discount it made sense to us. We used it in all express and high-speed trains.

Despite the being in first class, the Intercity carriages we were not quite clean and the washrooms were hard to use. Small even for a short person like me. But small was not the worst. They were dirty with urine puddles around the toilet bowl and tiny since squeezed next to it. It was hard to use not even because of size and hygiene but because the ride was so bouncy and shaky that one could not sit or aim without their head being thrown to the walls. We’ve never before experienced such a bumpy train ride. Even in Bolivia on their narrow-gauge system.

As mentioned above, the Alpha-Pendular train that we took from Lisbon to Porto and back was much better.

Although it didn’t live up to the Spanish or French high-speed trains, it did go up to 225km at one point.

Much smoother than the Intercity ones. First class was nice and comfortable.

Meals though were almost none existent. Don’t know these days, but in the past meals for the first class in Spain were included and they were better than an airplane meal.

Not that there were none in Portugal, but all they had were some mediocre sandwiches and snacks.

We took a few local trains. Faro to Tavira was about a 30min ride. For Lagos we had to take Intercity from Faro to Tunes and change to a local train onwards to Lagos.

We also took an hour-long return trip to Tomar from Lisbon. From Lisbon we also took local trains to Sinta and another day to Belem. All local trains were good.

One thing to mention is that the conductors always check your tickets and documents if you have a discount. They seemed very knowledgeable and spoke good English.

In Lisbon we used the Viva Viagem card for all local transport. It is valid for metro, trams, local trains, busses, ferries, etc.

The trams, especially tram #28, are a famous tourist attraction and were quite crowded so we didn’t try them.

We found the cork seats in the metro trains very comfortable.

We were surprised by the sheer number of tuk-tuks in Portugal. We thought this was an Asian thing. But they were in every Portugal city we visited. And as in Asia their drivers are noisy and annoying trying to get you in as a customer, but most tuk-tuk’s here are electrified and thus don’t belch blue 2-cycle fumes.

Note: Most of the photos in this post are taken from the windows of the trains, thus the reflections, spots and blurriness.

If you go… (Travel tips and suggestions)

The Portuguese train system is well organized and one can travel easily to most of the places deserving a visit by train. There are also many buses if you prefer that option.
You can easily book a train or check the schedule on the state website CP – Comboios de Portugal, but we didn’t have any difficulties buying a ticket at the last moment at the train stations. Perhaps because it was January, but there were not even lineups.
There are a variety of discounts. For seniors, for group traveling, for youth and more.
If you are going to stay a few days in Lisbon buy the Viva Viagem The card itself costs 0.5€ and you can load it for as many trips as you want. This card can be used for all suburban transportation: metro, bus, ferry, tram, funicular and local trains (such as to Sintra, Cascais, Belem, etc.). You can charge it at metro, ferry and suburban train stations at any automatic machine or ticket office.
Don’t rent a car and try to drive in Lisbon. There are many narrow steep streets turning into pedestrian alleys and stairwells.
Pack light, especially if you are going to stay in one of the Airbnb rentals in the old part of the city. You’ll be carrying your suitcases up narrow and steep stairs inside and most probably outside too. We only had 2 carry-on suitcases and Alex took them up and down one by one to the second floor (which we call the 3^rd in North America).
If you go in the winter months, dress warmly even if you are going to spend time inside. Electricity is expensive. Temperatures, although moderate for someone like us from Canada are the same inside a restaurant as outside. In restaurants we mostly wore our coats. We deliberately chose small studios from Airbnb for our stay since they all have a small heater that we feared wouldn’t be sufficient for us in a bigger place.