Faro to Granada Xmas 2007

There are no train services between the Algarve and Andaluzia.

Ryanair has been operating flights between Faro and Madrid where you could connect to Granada with Spanair but it looks like this service is going to be suspended over the winter.

There is therefore only one real option.

Get an alsa.es bus from Faro as follows:

FARO 02:00
TAVIRA 02:30
VILA REAL ST ANTONIO 02:45
AYAMONTE 04:00
HUELVA 04:30
SEVILLA 05:45 (change bus)
GRANADA 09:00

Buses leave from outside Faro Bus Station. Tickets should be purchased online at www.alsa.es or a day or two before from the travel agency on the left as one walks into faro Bus Station.

Taxi from Vale de Lobo, Algarve to Granada

Firstly, according to Michelin.com, Vale de Lobo - Granada is a distance of 466km with a transit time for approx 5hrs.

I can vouch for this as I did Lagos - Granada by car myself this time last year.

I therefore find it very unlikely that you will find a Portuguese taxi driver willing to do such a long trip.

As an example of fares, a taxi from Faro Airport to Lisbon, a distance of 280 kms, is officaily quoted in the Faro Airport Guide 2007 at up to € 317.00 for a 4 seater taxi. A taxi to Seville in the same guide is quoted at up to € 206.00. This is slightly cheaper pro-rata as there are no tolls on this route.

On this basis if you were able to find a taxi to take you, you would probably be looking at a fare of between € 430 and € 500 depending on whether week-end/weekday/day/night.

Where to live in lagos!???

....and some of us here in Lagos, are already considering decamping to the North...

with the recently authorised expansion of Meia Praia alone, to house from 5000 people to 10000 people with 3 new hotels and housing developments, the time is soon coming in Lagos when, to quote Max Bygraves...

"Fings Ain't Wot They Used to Be"!

Finally, be vewy vewy careful with local real estate agents....they are all out for one thing....make a sale!

Finally, in my opinion, with the volume of unsold housing stock here in Lagos, prices, except for really upmarket quality villas, are at least 10 to 15% overpriced.

Lisbon Sintra Trains Tunnel de Rossio

Dated Friday 26th October 2008, CP (Portuguese Railways) have announced that the Rossio rail Tunnel linking Restauradores Station to Sintra will reopen on 16 de Fevereiro de 2008.

See:

Rossio Reopening

Lisbon Nazaré

By Car Nazaré is only just over 1 hour from Lisbon.

The nearest railway station is Valado dos Frades, 4km from Nazaré . However, by train one has to take the Linha do Oeste from Lisbon Entrecampos via Cacem and Caldas da Rainha.

Transit time is between 3hours and 3 hours 30min. This is not really ideal for a day trip as you would then need to get a taxi or bus to Nazaré..

There are 4 or 5 long distance coaches operate between Lisbon Sete Rios Coach Station and Nazaré daily by Rede Expressos.

Unfortunately, I cannot supply detailed times for the service as the Rede Expressos website, despite requests, only works in Internet Explorer and I do not recommend, support nor work with web-sites that are not cross-browser compatible.

Postscript: I am grateful to Cubsur who has advised that the Rede Expressos website can now be viewed in browsers other than Internet Explorer - One just needs to ignore the "View only Messages."

Firefox 2.0 has no problem viewing the site at: http://www.rede-expressos.pt

WARNING -Swimming of the Western Algarve Coast

Much as we want visitors to come to our region, please be very careful when swimming of beaches where there are no lifeguards etc.

This morning there is tragica news of the death of 4 tourists - 3 British and 1 German citiszen who tried to effect a rescue.

The story can be read here on the BBC News website:

Britons drown off Portugal coast

Please, please, please be very careful especially on the West Coast beaches around Sagres.!

Algarve to Lisbon - Train Stations

The train from the Algarve stop at two Stations in Lisbon - Entrecampos and Gare Oriente.

For Restauradores, leave the train at Entrecampos.

Take the Metro - Linha Amarela in the direction of Rato and descend at Marques de Pombal Station. Change to the Linha Azul direction Baixa Chiado and descend at Restauradores.

Note that if your intention is to catch the train to Sintra from Restauradores Station, this station is closed as the tunnel is being repaired. All trains from Lisbon to Sintra now leave from Entrecampos Station.

Tarifa to Lagos

The only option for getting by public transport from Tarifa to Lagos is by Bus via Seville. Note that between October and April, the direct buses from Seville to Lagos only operate on wekk-days. (Not week-ends nor public holidays.)

Timetable for coaches between Tarifa and Seville can be found here:

http://www.tgcomes.es/horarios_33_english.htm

Timetables for the DAMAS/EVA service can be found here
at Cubsur's excellent site:

http://thomasallen.home.sapo.pt/travel/001.htm

Opera - Portimão - late October 2007

There is an Opera Festival in Portimão between 16th and 27th October 2007.

Details in portuguese here:

Opera Portimão

Following comment in English courtesy of algarveholidayer....

" If you are in Portimão or Praia da Rocha between Tuesday16th and Saturday 27th October you might take the opportunity to go to the Opera in Portimão.

The programme starts with a Gala evening on Tuesday 16th October with arias from various famous Operas.
This is followed by La Traviata on the 19th & 20th October followed by Fidelio on the 23rd and then Tosca on the 26th and 27th.

All Operas start at 9.30PM and tickets can be obtained from the venue the Municipal Auditorium (this is at Avenida Miguel Bombarda; near the main tourist office in Portimão Avenida Zéca Afonso).

Entry fee is only 15 euros per show and tickets are available from the Auditorium box office from 2PM to 8PM now; except on the days of the performance when they can be bought from 10AM.

Enjoy !"

Ryanair - Flights from Faro and Porto

It seems like that Ryanair are cancelling various services in Mid-November including:

Porto - Dublin
Faro - Madrid

I have checked these on the Ryanair site and there are no flights coming up on these routes through April 2008.!!!

Transportation from Lagos to Lisboa on Sunday?

You may find the EVA Bus service from Lagos Bus Station to Lisbon Sete Rios Coach Station a bit quicker than the train at 3:45min.

There are Sunday departures as follows:

Dep. arr.

LAGOS LISBOA 07:45 11:30
LAGOS LISBOA 10:15 14:00
LAGOS LISBOA 12:45 16:30
LAGOS LISBOA 15:30 19:15
LAGOS LISBOA 18:15 22:00

See:

http://www.eva-bus.com

Travel from Porto to Lisbon

The shortest road distance between Lisbon and Porto and vice versa is 318km / 03h22min by car according to Michelin.

There are four ways to travel this route

Air - Expensive and only one operator TAP
Rail - The Best
Road - Car Hire - More interesting as you can stop en route.
Bus - Cheapest

See this link on my blog for more info on rail and bus which I recommend.

http://barlaventostravelblog.blogspot.com/2007/07/lisbon-to-porto.html

Jewish Contacts Algarve

You may find the following contacts of interest:

Services:

JEWISH RELIGIOUS NOTICES
Erev Shabbat Services.
Algarve
Tel: 00 351 282416710

and

http://www.jewish-heritage-europe.org/country/portugal/portugal.htm

Sintra to Cabo da Roca

The following is the Winter 2006/2007 bus timetable from Scotturb for the bus service Sintra - Cabo da Roca - Cascais

Car Parking in Lisbon and Porto

Hi!

You best bet for parking in Lisbon coming from the North is to head towards Gare Oriente Rail/Bus Station/Vasco da Gama Centre. This is near the airport bordering the Tejo and has the advantage as being linked to the Metro (Linha Vermelha), and the suburban rail network.

From there you can get the Metro to Alameida Station and there change to the Linha Verde from where you can get easily to Rossio/Baixa Chiado for the centre of the old town.

Any way you come definitely avoid driving into Lisbon. Park and use the Metro/Suburban Rail Services.

You can find the metro site in English here:

http://www.metrolisboa.pt/Default.aspx?tabid=271

As regards Porto, I do not know the city as well as Lisbon and the South. However, there are plenty of reports that traffic there is bad as well.

If driving I would suggest that you head for the F.C. Porto (Estádio do Dragão ) football stadium and find parking near there. Thereafter you can use the the Light Metro System to travel around.

See the following reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porto_Metro

Another option as regards Porto is to take the train.

According to the current CP timetable, there is a morning departure as follows:

Leiria 7h10 Porto Campanha 9h44
(Change in Coimbra)
22 Euros one way 2nd Class

There is a return at:

Porto 17h45 Leiria 20h21

I think this would be an option to consider as it only takes 2hrs 36 mins, would avoid paying motorway tolls, take you the centre of Porto and avoid a lot of stress.

Hope this helps.

Check out my blog at

http://barlaventostravelblog.blogspot.com/

where you may find further info of interest.

Lisbon to Porto - Public Transport

Hi!

Train timetables:

Go to my blog

http://barlaventostravelblog.blogspot.com/

Scroll down on the right hand side till you come to the panel:

"Algarve & Portugal - Travel Transport Links"

Click on:

"Porto - Lisbon - Porto Train Timetable"

You will then be able to download the timetable for this route from the Portuguese Railways website.

2) Bus timetables:

Go to my blog

http://barlaventostravelblog.blogspot.com/

Scroll down on the right hand side till you come to the panel:

"Algarve & Portugal - Travel Transport Links"

Click on:

"RENEX Bus Service - Lisbon to Porto timetable"

You will then be able to download the timetable for this route from the Renex Coach company website.

There are also regular buses throughout the day from Lisboa Sete Rios Coach Station to Porto operated by Rede Expressos.

Unfortunately, the Rede Expressos site is horribly designed, only works in Internet Explorer and is in Portuguese. I do not normally handle requests for this company's timetables, because despite requests to them, they have not made it possible for users of computers without Internet Explorer installed to use their site

Please note that these timetables are the latest but may always change over the winter.