Transport - Portugal - page 1035

CONTINENTAL EUROPE TRAINS TO PORTUGAL

FROM TO FREQUENCY DURATION (HR) COST (€)

Vigo Porto twice daily 3¼ 15

Madrid Lisbon daily 10½ 61-84

Paris Lisbon daily 21 130

You will have few problems buying long-distance tickets as little as a day or two ahead, even in the summer. For
those intending to do a lot of European rail travel, the exhaustive Thomas Cook European Timetable is updated monthly
and is available from Thomas Cook Publishing ( www.thomascooktimetables.com ) .

TRAIN PASSES
Many of the passes listed here are available through Rail Europe ( www.raileurope.co.uk ) ; most travel agencies also
sell them, though you will save a little by buying directly from the issuing authority. Note that even with a pass you
must still pay for seat and couchette reservations and express-train supplements.
InterRail Pass ( www.interrail.eu ) allows a certain number of travel days within a set time frame. The network in-
cludes 30 countries. A pass for five days of travel over 10 days costs €276 for 2nd class, €434 for 1st class. A month of
unlimited travel runs €658/1034. The InterRail Pass is available to anyone residing in Europe for six months before
starting their travels. You cannot use it in your home country.
Eurail ( www.eurail.com ) sells passes to non-European residents. The Global pass is valid for unlimited travel in 21
European countries, including Portugal, and ranges from 10 days (adult/under 26 US$908/591) to three months
(US$2127/1384). The Select pass allows you to travel between three, four or five of your chosen Eurail countries
(though France is no longer part of the deal). You can choose from five to 10 travelling days (or up to 15 days for five
countries), which can be taken at any point within a two-month period.
The Portugal-Spain rail pass ( www.raileurope.com ) available only to non-European residents, is also valid for a
specified period of 1st-class travel in Spain and Portugal during a two-month period, from three days (US$340) to 10
days (US$661).

CONTINENTAL EUROPE
The train journey from Paris (Gare d'Austerlitz) to Lisbon takes 21 hours and stops in a number of Spanish cities along
the way. You can buy tickets direct from SNCF ( www.voyages-sncf.com ) .

UK
The fastest and most convenient route to Portugal is with Eurostar ( www.eurostar.com ) from London Waterloo to Paris,
and then onward by TGV.

River

Transporte Fluvial del Guadiana ( www.rioguadiana.net ) operates car ferries across the Rio Guadiana between Aya-
monte in Spain and Vila Real de Santo António in the Algarve every hour (half-hourly in the summer) from 8.30am to
7pm Monday to Saturday, and from 9.30am to 5.30pm on Sunday. Buy tickets from the waterfront office (€1.70/5/1.10
per person/car/bike).