I plan to be travel from Portalegre (actually I am more interested in Marvao and Castelo de Vide) before going to Coimbra. Would it be easier to go by bus or by train? Is there any way of checking out the connections along the way? Even though there seems to be a train station near Portalegre, I wasn't able to find the schedule for any train between it and Abrantes where there are connecting trains to Coimbra (I checked www.cp.pt). Information on bus schedules is even hardly to find, as the bus companies (Rede Expressos and Rodo-norte) don't offer information in English, and there does not seem to be any information on the Portalegre-Castelo Branco-Coimbra route from their websites. Any help?
1
nautiker
Just guessing: Did you try to get the timetables from the yellow box at the right on cp.pt? Note that this is for the fast Alfa/Intercidade-trains only. For more complete timetables, look for "Traveling in Portugal: Solutions to finding your way across the country" and then click on "Regional" (this is in the middle of the page). There'll now already be displayed a small map with the regional routes. Switch to the left column and select "Timetables and Prices" to (finally) get a search mask with all stations (or pdfs). No idea why they had to make it that difficult ;-)
Yet as much as I like (and prefer) train travel, I must admit that it can be strenuous in rural Portugal (few, slow trains). The train station are often quite far from the cities: Castelo de Vide (4km), Marvao (9km), Portalegre (12km, but a bus shuttle meeting with trains).
I don't know what are your problems with rede-expressos, but IMO it's quite easy to navigate the page without in-depth knowledge of Portugese. Horários (timetables) > Partidas (departure) > Destinos (destinations), (Ida e Volta (return) ), diariamente (daily). Unfortunately a lot of local busses aren't covered. However, my LP guide (2005) tells me that there are 2daily busses Portalegre-Marvao and that for Castelo de Vide-Marvao, you may have to change busses, best to ask the local tourist office about details once you're there.
2
carlos56
That's a lovely destination, really, but to move between towns, and around, isn't so easy. I have checked express buses; there are three express buses a day between Lisbon and Castelo de Vide (4 hours trip and 14 euros, one way). To Portalegre there are several more. In Marvão, people living there are... too few. But, on the area, there will be local buses between these and several other places. Prices for accommodation, food, etc. are quite reasonable on those destination. (Forget trains as they are very few and take too long). Carlos
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