We were hoping to travel via train from Spain to Valado (with a quick transfer by bus to Nazare') early in June; however, the best that I can figure is that there is only one train leaving from Santiago around 15:00, but not arriving into Porto until 6am or so with another train needed to finish the journey. It is only a 4 1/2 drive by car, 9 by bus, an overnight by train and so I was hoping to make the journey much quicker. I know that we can rent a car or actually keep the rental we will have from our travels from San Sebastian to Santiago; however, we really like trains, but do not have the time for this overnight. Any suggestions? Am I missing something? I have researched and looked at multiple sights..... www.alsa, bahn.com, eurorail point to point, petrabax, ....... thanks so much.
Posted by
New York, NY, USA
11294 posts
You can see what shows up on Rome2Rio: http://www.rome2rio.com/
But no, you're not "missing anything." Connections between Spain and Portugal are poor. And while Santiago de Compostela, Vigo, and A Coruña all have airports with flights to Lisbon, by the time you get to and from the airports on each end to your destination, it's not any faster than buses or trains.
Posted by
OP
5 posts
Dear Harold,
Thanks so much for your reply and I have tried that website as well. And so, I think our best option so that it is not overnight is to leave Santiago very early in the morning on a train to Vigo and onto Porto and then to Valado. I appreciate your answer though because at least I know to just go ahead with my train reservations. Thanks again!
Posted by
Rick Steves' Europe
16893 posts
Rome2rio will give you links to the two national railways, www.renfe.es and www.cp.pt/passageiros/en/ and I think you do need to use both for detailed schedules. This is one area where DB doesn't have all the pieces (and I don't know which side didn't share with them).
Posted by
OP
5 posts
Thanks Laura! I appreciate your help and I am going to take the plunge and order the tickets.
Posted by
1 posts
We are also trying to go to Nazare after Santiago de Compostela, but we won't have a rental car and the travel times between Portugal and Galicia, Spain seem too long. Does anyone have suggestions on a beach area in Portugal or even Spain that is within reasonable travel distance from Santiago de Compostela? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Posted by
Washington DC
27063 posts
There are certainly beaches in Galicia, but I pretty much ignored them, so I don't have specifics for you except that the Cíes Islands, accessible by frequent boats from Vigo, seem very popular. There's a limit on how many tickets are sold each day, so the (sandy) beaches don't get grotesquely crowded. Only round-trip tickets are sold and you must choose your return time when you buy your ticket. Three companies provide service, but you cannot mix-and-match the outbound and return tickets. I paid 18.50 euros. I bought my ticket a day ahead of time, but many people seemed to be making day-of purchases. [Edit: Rereading this, I see I didn't make it clear that you can certainly visit the island as a day-trip; that's what I did.]
I think the commercial boats all go to the same island, which is only modestly developed. There's a campground (you can rent a tent or bring your own), and there are two restaurants. Also a small convenience store at the campground. There are trails to various points on the island, including a lighthouse (uphill) with a good view. The island itself has some trees and isn't flat, but in my mind it's mainly attractive for the views--and the sandy beaches, of course.
Unfortunately, Vigo isn't as touristically interesting as a number of other cities in Galicia. It has a small old quarter, but I much preferred A Coruña, Pontevedra and Santiago de Compostela. The first two may have accessible beaches. If you do go to Vigo, I can recommend a side-trip to Tuy, an historic town on the Portuguese border. Bus service is available; go prepared with some sort of map, because without one, it's a bit tricky to find the core of the old town, and that's where the tourist office is. There's an English-language audio guide for the cathedral, which was a pleasant surprise in such an isolated area.
Betanzos is a popular side-trip from La Coruña; Cambados and Combarro, from Pontevedra. I liked them all, but Combarro is smaller and to me wasn't as interesting. The latter two are coastal but I don't know how close they are to good beaches. All are accessible by bus.
There are beaches all along the northern coast of Spain, but I don't know where you're headed after your beach break.
Posted by
11136 posts
We were traveling from Porto to Santiago de Compostela and since the train schedules were not very reasonable, we took a taxi ceom Porto to Vigo and rented a car there. our hotel found us a driver whose rate was reasonable.
Posted by
1 posts
Thank you for the idea about taking a taxi from Porto to Vigo. The train schedule doesn't work and the car companies charge prohibitive fees to drop a car in a another country so the taxi idea and dropping the Portuguese car in Porto then renting another car in Vigo is the solution we needed to transition from Portugal to Spain. Not sure why I didn't think of it!