Santiago from Portugal

Ground-transportation connections between Portugal and Spain are limited and rather slow. There doesn't seem to be a direct train all the way from Lisbon to Santiago de Compostela, though I suspect you could put separate legs together--probably with unattractive layovers.

ALSA runs buses on that route, and GoEuro turned up Eurolines buses at exactly the same departure time, which is extremely odd. I'm assuming those are the same buses. Trip duration is about 9 hours, departing at 7:45 AM. The ALSA buses are comfortable. They often have Wi-Fi (not super reliable).

There are a number of nice places to break the trip if you want to do so: Coimbra, Porto, Braga (all those in Portugal), Tuy (tiny Spanish border town), and Pontevedra. The bus also stops in Vigo, but I found it the least interesting place I visited in Galicia by a considerable margin, so it would not be my first choice. Porto's near the mid-point of the journey and would be a fine place to spend a night or two.

Border-crossing buses do not run frequently, so I wouldn't count on just showing up at the Lisbon bus station ten minutes ahead of time and buying this ticket. You also might save some money by buying ahead of time, once you're sure of your exact schedule. I've definitely seen some Spanish bus prices increase as the departure approached, but I don't know that they use that sort of dynamic pricing on this route.

We took a wonderful day tour of Santiago de Compestela from Porto. Consider a day in Porto then another day in Santiago.

Hi geovagriffith - I will be in Porto later this year and I'm considering a day trip to Santiago. Which tour company did you use?