If we are interested in doing day trips from Porto, for example Coimbra, can we just get train tickets same day or do we have to book in advance? We are travelling 3rd week of May. If booking in advance, how far in advance?
Posted by
Cascais, Portugal
1826 posts
You can purchase the day you travel. However, if you book up to 30 days in advance, the tickets are about 40% off. I guess it’s possible for all the seats to be reserved if you wait until the day of travel, but it’s not very likely in May.
Posted by
California 🦋
5298 posts
You may want to check train schedules and compare prices here:cp.pt.com
I booked most of my train tickets 60 days in advance and took advantage of the great savings!
Enjoy your trip!
Posted by
1 posts
I booked 4 train tickets from Lisbon to Porto well in advance but we could only get the discount for one ticket. I looked at the train seating plan and it looks like there are many seats available in May. In hindsite, I would have booked an open ticket with Rail Europe which cost the same as booking directly with cp.pt but is so much more flexible when arriving by air.
Posted by
Denver, CO USA
502 posts
- Go to CP.pt and sign up to become a cliente.
- Buy your tickets 3+ weeks in advance and save a lot.
- Both Porto and Coimbra can be tricky from a purchase ticket point of view. a. Both have 2 train stations with travel between the new and old at zero cost. b. When searching the schedule use Porto-Campanha and Coimbra-B. c. Porto - Sao Bento is the beautiful historic station in town with free service to Campahna every 5 minutes. d. Coimbra-B (Estação Velha) is the old (1840) suburban station a few km north of the new (1864) Coimbra-A (Estação Nova). But, you will be confused as the appearance of B is much newer than A.
- An AP train is 5 minutes faster than an IC train at a higher cost.
Posted by
OP
10 posts
Thank you to all for such great information, very helpful.