Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
out bikes (€15 per day) as well as scooters and four-wheelers; it also organises guided
walking tours (€25 per person).
BUS
Transdev
( 253 516 229)
has buses leaving at least every hour for Braga (€3.15, 50 minutes)
Monday to Saturday, and runs eight buses on Sunday. Transdev also has services to Porto
(€5.10, 50 minutes) running approximately every hour on weekdays but less often on
weekends, and to Lisbon (€20.50, five hours) daily.
Rodonorte
( 253 423 500;
www.rodonorte.pt
)
heads for Amarante (€7.60, one hour), Vila Real (€8.50, two hours) and Bragança
(€14.50, four hours).
Get Bus
(
www.getbus.eu
)
has six buses daily that do the 50-minute run between the Porto air-
port and Guimarães, in each direction. The ne-way fare is €8 (€4 for children); return is
€14 (€8 for children).
TRAIN
Guimarães is the terminus of a branch of Porto's wide
suburbano
network. Commuter
trains potter out to Guimarães from Porto (€3.10, 75 minutes) 11 to 16 times daily. Try to
avoid the once-daily
intercidade
(express) train, which costs €11.70 and departs at
7.43am.
TOP OF CHAPTER
Citânia de Briteiros
Sights & Activities
One of the most evocative archaeological sites in Portugal,
Citânia de Briteiros
(admission incl
museum adult/student €3/1.50; 9.30am-6pm May-Sep, to 5pm Oct-Apr)
, 15km north of Guimarães, is
the largest of a liberal scattering of northern Celtic hill settlements called
citânias
(forti-
fied villages), which date back at least 2500 years. It's likely that this sprawling
3.8-hectare site, inhabited from about 300 BC to AD 300, was the Celtiberians' last
stronghold against the invading Romans.
When the archaeologist Dr Martins Sarmento excavated the site back in 1875, he dis-
covered the foundations and ruins of more than 150 rectangular, circular and elliptical
stone huts, all linked by paved paths and a water distribution system, and cocooned by
multiple protective walls. Highlights of the site include two reconstructed huts that evoke
