European Railroad Discussion > Portugal train trip notes

(Pics to follow)
Thought I'd give a short summary of my experiences riding Portugal's trains over the past two weeks. My wife and I flew into Lisbon and spent a few days there before taking the train from Lisbon's Oriente (East) station down to Lagos on the Algarve coast. We had a Regional from Lisbon to Tunes, then changed to an Intercity (IC) the last stretch from Tunes to Lagos. We traveled 1st Class on the first train, very pleasant trip down of about three hours, and very much on time.

After a few days in Lagos (incredible beaches!), we took the same trains back to Lisbon (again, right on time) and transferred there to what must have been a very new Alfa Pendular trainset for the trip to Porto. Very 1st Class! comfortable seats that didn't recline back, but had the seat bottom move forward instead. Hot food service at our seats with good quality meals. We arrived at Porto's Campanha station, which is at the south part of the city, then transferred to the next train (no add'l charge w/the tickets we had from the Lisbon train) to the Sao Bento station more centrally located in town.

Interestingly, it was the high-speed Alfa train that was late into Porto by about 10 minutes. I believe the top speed we hit was roughly 135-140 MPH from my quick KPH conversion.

I'd read that it was a bit cheaper and somewhat faster to take buses around Portugal, but to see the country close-up (all those cork trees shorn of their bark from the ground up to about head high) there's no comparison to being on the bus.