Hello,
My partner and I plan to travel Porto-Nazaré-Lisbon during our trip to Portugal. Has anyone ever taken the train to or from Nazaré? Most people recommend the bus, but my partner has never done rail travel in Europe so I wanted him to at least get the experience once during our travels.
Sincerely,
Lori
I have not made this trip. My niece regularly flies into Lisbon, then catches the bus to her parent’s condo in Nazare. She is an extremely savvy traveler so I am assuming this is the best connection via public transport.
How many days do you have for the trip? Nazare wouldn’t be my choice of beach location. I went by car when I visited Nazare.
Lori, I did a day trip from Coimbra by bus to Nazare. I love trains and dislike buses and looked into taking the train for sure (from either Lisbon or Coimbra), but it was just too much trouble. Too many connections. The train doesn't even drop you directly in Nazare anyway; you need to take a local bus from the station into Nazare. The bus from Coimbra or Lisbon is direct. As much as I was not looking forward to the bus ride back and forth, for a bus it was comfortable enough.
I loved Nazare, and I have several friends who visited and also enjoyed their visits and would recommend it, even though it's a bit tacky-touristy.
If you are staying in Lisbon, you can certainly take trains for the day to say Sintra or Cascais if you just want to ride a train somewhere.
@Jennifer We are spending twelve days in Portugal, two nights in Nazaré. We are going more to see the town and surrounding area than the beach. I blame Rick Steves for promoting the place ;-)
Thanks @Andrew. I am glad you recommend the town and offer some lived experience of how to get there. Yes, I did some research today and the trains are a milk run (nearly four hours) while the bus is 2 1/2 hours so that answers our question. We are also thinking of visiting Cascais so we will experience the train then!
A previous poster indicated that Nazare and Coimbra are connected by bus. If that's true you could take the train from Porto to Coimbra and then a bus to Nazare, then either bus it back to Coimbra and use the fast train down to Lisbon and connect to Cascais from there. If you want the milk run, that's fine too, just wanted to throw an option if time is getting tight for you.
mergs, unfortunately, the bus and train stations in Coimbra are not close to adjacent. So connections are not simple. They can be done with some walking but it's hardly convenient. I'd probably just take direct buses between Porto, Nazaré, and Lisbon, and do the train travel as I suggested for local day trips near Lisbon.
@mergs you are not totally wrong. It is possible to take a train from Vila Nova de Gaia (near Porto) to Valado train station which is near Nazare, but it is two trains and extra 90 minutes and additional transit to get to and from each train station. The train is also infrequent so if we miss the 6:30 train then we have to wait until 11:30. a.m. We are deferring to Andrew's advice. But thanks for suggesting that I try :-)
My wife and I have just been to Nazaré we took a coach from Aveiro where we had been staying - the journey was OK but very boring, just motorway and the toilets on the coach were payable, so you need the right coins- unbelievable! We decided to return to Porto by train and it was a much better experience. Free toilets of course and a chance to see the real Portugal from the window including rice fields and river scenery instead of just tarmac. We took the train from the pretty station at Valado just a short taxi ride from Nazaré. The train was direct to Coimbra and it was a simple change of platform there for the express to Porto. Very easy and we paid just €12 for the pleasure including reserved seats on the express train. I cannot understand why some people think this journey is too complicated. It is a touch of real travelling and not at all painful - OK I like trains but we were amazed to see so many other likeminded people on the platform at Valado, where you will find some wonderful tile work. One tip is to get a taxi into/from Nazaré as the bus does not stop at the station, it's a walk up to the main road. Hope this helps . Malcolm
Malcolm, I love trains too, but some people don't mind an express bus that's direct and convenient. An express bus from Nazare to Porto would be easier for most people than: taxi to Valado, train to Coimbra, train to Porto Campanha, local train to São Bento station. Each change adds time and uncertainty.
A pay toilet on a bus is a new one for me! But, I've not taken an express bus in Europe for a few years now.
