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Monday, July 4, 2022

Algarve Travel—How to Get Around and Beyond

Accessing the Algarve Region, is easy via land transport from the rest of Portugal or from Spain.[1]
Its main hub is the city of Faro, the regional capital, which has its own international airport. There is another small airport in the Algarve, in Portimão, though it receives far fewer flights.
Video 1.  Best of the Algarve! Benagil & Prata da Marinha (YouTube link)

Ways to Get around the Algarve without a Car


If you’re planning on exploring Algarve without a car, you’ll be able to do so by:[2]
  • Train
    • The train is one of the easiest ways to get around the Algarve.  But, not every town has a train station which means you'll have to take a bus to visit some towns. 
    • The main towns that have a train station are Lagos, Portimão, Faro, Olhão, Tavira, and Monte Gordo.
    • Faro to Lagos by train one-way is €7,50 (retrieved on 07/04/2022) for a journey of around 1 hour 40 minutes.
  • Bus
  • Taxi (or Uber)
  • Day trips
  • Renting a car for the day
  • Boat
Figure 1.  Main departure train stations to Algarve


How to Travel from Lisbon to Lagos by Train


You can use CP - Comboios de Portugal web site to book online tickets.  Here are some important notes (read [4] for more details):
  • Two main departure stations in Lisbon (or Lisboa; See Figure 2)
    • Lisboa - Entrecampos—arrives Lagos 3h 50m avg.
    • Lisboa - Oriente (or Estação do Oriente)—arrives Lagos 3h 50m avg.
  • The four lines of the Algarve train network are 
  • Book on line at the official website here
    • Either credit cards or PayPal are accepted
    • Download Smartphone app (Google or Apple)
  • For long-distance trips
    • You CANNOT buy long distance tickets from the conductor when starting your trip on a regional train. Read [4] for more details.
  • For short regional trips
    • Regional tickets are NOT VALID for use on Intercity (IC) or Alfa Pendular (AP) trains except at Messines - Alte for journeys to and from Algarve stations. 
    • When boarding at a staffed station, buy from the ticket office if it's open. 
    • If boarding at an unstaffed station or when the ticket office is closed, you buy your ticket from the train conductor and it's CASH ONLY. 
    • Most stations in the Algarve are unstaffed.

Figure 2.  Credit: [4]

How to Fly to Algarve


It's possible to fly into the Algarve from various European cities. Direct flights arrive in Faro Airport from cities such as London, Dublin, Paris, and Frankfurt, among many others.[1]
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