About Us Contact Us Site Map

Travel and transport

Travelling by air

Portugal is in the same time zone as the UK and Ireland and a flight from London takes around three hours, so for most Europeans flying there the journey will be straightforward. The number of entry points for international visitors into Portugal is still fairly limited. Although Portugal has 66 airports in total, only 43 are paved. Only a select few airports receive international flights - namely Lisbon, Porto, Faro and Funchal serving the islands of Madeira, and Ponto Delgado and Santa Maria in the Azores. There are few Portuguese airlines and the market is dominated by TAP and Portugalia.

Flights from the UK and Ireland

Passengers from the UK and Ireland have a number of regular carriers to choose from such as BMI Baby, easyJet, First Choice, Flybe, Flyglobespan, Flythomascook.com, Monarch, RyanAir, Thomsonfly and BA. Faro, due to its tourist-bias, has more links than Lisbon and attracts the bulk of the low-cost air carriers. Since 2005, many airlines have increased the number of flights to Portugal to cope with the demand generated by the second-homes market.

Travelling by rail

The train network is operated by state-owned Rede Ferroviaria Nacional and the passenger services are run by Caminhos de Ferro Portuguese (CP). With approximately 3,600km of track, 500km of which is electrified, you can reach all the major cities but it may not take you far into the countryside. Links with Spain are good and the country can be accessed from Vigo in the north, Salamanca from the north-east, and Badajoz in the south-east.

Rail services

There are three types of train service. The express Alfa Pendular line connects Faro, in the south, to Braga in the north. The whole journey takes seven hours and requires just two changes in Lisbon and Porto. The rest of the country has an Intercity service (Intercidades) and the Regional service to interconnect main towns. Intercidades is designed specifically for leisure, tourism and business trips. The Regional service connects the different regions of Portugal and is more extensive than the Intercidades service.

Visitor information

To enter Portugal, citizens of the European Union, Andorra, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland only need an identity card or a valid passport. Flights between Schengen states are considered internal flights so visitors do not require another visa. American and Canadian citizens require a passport valid for at least three months after the end of their stay and do not need a visa for stays of up to 90 days.

Related items

Documents and Reports

	Portugal property investment report (420Kb)
	Portugal country guide (1Mb)
	Portugal property buying guide (1Mb)
Documents and Reports

Other related pages

Bookmark with:	What are these?
DeliciousDiggredditFacebookStumbleUpon