We will be travelling in between some small towns in the Alentejo district and then down to the Algarve.
1) Are there working bathrooms on the Rede buses?
2) I have read that it's important to keep your eye on your luggage but the luggage will be under the bus.Do we need to worry about it getting stolen?
The long distance buses do have bathrooms. You might be able to find out on their website. I’ve only used Gypsyy and Flixbus and they have quite nice bathrooms.
Don’t worry about your luggage. You put it under the bus before boarding and it’s locked. The only caveat - if it’s black, be sure to put something distinguishing on it so another passenger doesn’t mistake it for his/hers.
We used Redeexpressos buses for long distances, sometimes they had washrooms sometimes they didn't.
We personally witnessed a situation where a passenger took someone else's luggage because they were identical - it was an honest mistake not intentional theft (passengers are responsible for loading and unloading the luggage).
As Kathrynj stated, best to have some easely seen identifier on the luggage.
I suggest that you research the bus routes available for your itinerary, the Alentejo is mostly a rural vast area with minimal public transit.
I got off the bus us to find that a lady had mistaken my bag for her bag. Other than both being of a similar colour I’m not sure how that happened. I managed to run after her and get my bag. She also managed to get her bag before the bus took off for the next stop. It was a mistake not theft.
