Scandanavian Flights - Sterling Bankruptcy

The Algarve again is being hit by the current global recession.

This morning, Sterling A/S, the Icelandic owned Scandanavian based Low Cost operator has declared bankruptcy.

This affects twice weekly flights from Faro to Copenhagen, Stockholm and a weekly flight to Oslo.

This leaves Faro without any direct link to Stockholm to Copenhagen. Oslo still has a flight link to Faro via Norwegian Air Shuttle.

This a serious blow to the Algarve as a winter destination for Scandanavian Passengers. One can only hope that Easyjet, Ryanair, Air Berlin or TuiFly step in to fill this gaping hole.

See:


http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/7948284

Serra da Estrela or Guarda to Salamanca

From Guarda your only routing to Salamanca will be as follows:

Train:

1 train per day - Sud Express.

Depart: Guarda 20.42
Arrive: Salamanca 0.05

Bus:

There are two buses per day operated by alsa.es:

Depart: Guarda 12.45
Arrive: Salamanca 16.45

Depart: Guarda 23.30
Arrive: Salamanca 03.30 (Next Day)

Note from whichever town you will be in, in the Serra da Estrela, you will have to get a local bus to Guarda.

Hotel between Lisbon and Guia

Although it is less that 100km from Lisbon, I frequently use the Ibis Setubal Hotel which is about 40km from Lisbon Aiport on the old Lisbon to Algarve road.

See: http://www.accorhotels.com/gb/hotel-1275-ibis-setubal/index.shtml

It is ideal for kids as there is a garden and a pool.

Access is via Setubal and you can rejoin the motorway at Marateca.

See: http://www.accorhotels.com/gb/hotel-1275-ibis-setubal/location.shtml

Further south there are not many hotels of quality as folk tend to make the Lisbon to Algarve run in one fell swoop.

In my opinion and experience this would be the best option.

You are then less than 2 hours by motorway from Guia in the morning.

Be aware that the motorway is a toll road.

Mobile Phone Providers in Portugal

There are three main mobile providers in Portugal - TMN, Vodafone and Optimus.

They all offer PAYG (Pay as you go!)

At present they do not require registration. you can just go in and pick one up.

If you are buying a sim you must make sure you have an unblocked mobile as even vodafone portugal sims will not work in vodafone mobiles from other countries.

Vodafone tariffs here: (in Portuguese)

https://loja.vodafone.pt/tarifarios/vitaminas/Vita+Light+Total.htm

for the others have a look at

www.tmn.pt
www.optimus.pt

Lagos - Cantinho Algarvio

Restaurante Cantinho Algarvio in Lagos is having a tapas evening on the night of 8th November 2008. € 15:00 per head.

Cantinho Algarvio
Rua Afonso de Almeida 17-21 - Lagos
8600-674 LAGOS

Bookings: 282 761289 or info@ocantinhoalgarvio.com

Buses between Portimão / Faro and Evora

The following are the current bus schedules between Portimão / Faro to Evora operated by Rede Expressos - http://www.rede-expressos.pt/:

PORTIMAO EVORA Only Sundays except Public Holidays when runs on Monday.
Depart Arrive
17:20 21:15
Price € 15.00

PORTIMAO EVORA Only Sundays except Public Holidays when runs on Monday.
Depart Arrive
14:30 18:15
Price € 15.00

Faro Evora - Daily
Depart Arrive
08:15 12:30
11:15 15:30
16:30 20:45

Evora Faro - Daily
Depart Arrive
09:00 13:05
14:30 18:25
17:15 21:05

Transport Option from Faro Airport to Lagos

The price for a taxi from Faro Airport to Faro station is currently in the order of between
€ 11.00 and € 13.00 plus possibly bag charge.

The price of train a train ticket from Faro to Lagos is currently €6,15 per person.

As you do not indicate where you are staying in Lagos it is difficult to price taxis but lets add € 20.00.

Total Cost: 5 x €6.15 + € 13.00 + € 20.00 = € 63.75

Lets say € 65.00

Currently, quoted prices for Faro Airport to Lagos for a six seater taxi is € 90 to € 110 & possibly bag charge.

So the costs of travelling by train are less.

Two provisos, however:

1) There are often no taxis waiting at Lagos station when trains arrive.
2) At present, the last train leaves Faro for Lagos at 20:11

You may find a transfer service more appropriate:

For example:

http://www.low-cost-transfers.com/faro-airport/index.php

are currently quoting € 77.50 for transfer of 5 people directly from Faro Airport to Lagos.

This avoids the hassle of 2 cabs and will take you to the door.

Santarem Hotels

Santarem is not far from Lisbon and other tourist centres such as Fatima which is why there are a few hotels there.

Have a look at the following:


http://www.hotelalfageme.com/
Hotel Alfageme*** - Santarém

Hotel do Prado*** - Santarém
hotel.prado@mail.eurest.pt


http://www.maisturismo.pt/hsantarem
SANTARÉM HOTEL

New Low Cost Hotel Chain in Portugal - Star InnHotels

Sergio Bastos of http://www.lowcostportugal.net this morning cites a report in the Portuguese Press of the opening of a new "low cost hotel" in Porto operated by the group Star Inn.

The companies website is here:

http://www.hotelstarinn.com/

The First hotel opened on the 22nd October 2008 according to the company website.

The company envisages another ten hotels throughout Portugal over the next 5 years.

http://www.lowcostportugal.net also reports that the Easy Group will be opening a hotel in Porto in the first three months of 2009.

Bus/Train travel from Praia da Rocha to Porto

As indicated by algarveholidayer the train from Portimão Station is a good option.

1) Train

From Praia da Rocha you would need to get a local Vai-Vem shuttle bus via Largo de Dique (Lines 5 & 6) from Praia da Rocha to Portimão Station.

If early in the morning you may need to take a cab the 15 minute drive to the station.

See Cubsur's excellent page on this here:

thomasallen.home.sapo.pt/travel/011.htm

From Portimão you would need to get a local train to Tunes Junction - about 35 minutes.

At Tunes you would connect with either one of the twice daily Alfa-Pendular Services that run through to Porto via Lisbon or get one of the Inter-City Services to Lisbon Gare Oriente Station where you would connect with a Lisbon to Porto Train.

As Algarveholidayer indicated timetable info is available on the www.cp.pt site.

You can find a direct link to the pdf version of the current CP timetable for this route on my blog:

http://barlaventostravelblog.blogspot.com

Scroll down on the right and you will find at panel entitled:

»» Algarve & Portugal - Travel Transport Links

In this panel look for:

>>>Portuguese Railways - 2008 - Lisbon - Algarve Faro/Lagos Timetable

>>>Porto - Lisbon - Porto Train Timetable

Click on each to download the timetables in pdf form.

You are looking at a minimum of 6,25 hours for the services using the fast Alpha Pendular from Tunes.

2) Bus

If you also look in the panel on my blog entitled

»» Algarve & Portugal - Travel Transport Links

You will also find two links entitled:

# RENEX Bus Service - Lisbon to Algarve timetable (pdf)

# RENEX Bus Service - Lisbon to Porto timetable (pdf)

Renex (www.renex.pt) operate seven daily bus services from Praia da Rocha to Lisbon Gare de Oriente Coach Station.

Renex also operate connecting buses to from Lisbon Gare de Oriente Coach Station to Porto.

The minimum transit time on this route is about 7.5 hours.