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Lisbon to Santiago

Posted by (Seattle) on

Hello wise and helpful people! I'm trying to find my way from Lisbon to Santiago, and my first preference by far is a non-stop high speed train. I can see that I won't get my first preference, and while it looks like there are train tracks that run from Lisbon to Santiago, I can't find a web site that will even acknowledge that a ticket can be purchased that will allow me to start in Lisbon and end up in Santiago. I've tried the Portugal train site (www.cp.pt) and Spain's site (www.renfe.es), but I can't get anyone to even recognize a route from Lisbon to Santiago. When I look at the map, (mapa de servicos) it looks like trains run from Portugal into Spain. What am I missing?

Travel agents here in the States have told me that I must just wait until I get to Lisbon and then buy tickets there. I would like to make plans based on the assumption that I can get from Lisbon to Santiago in one day. It looks like I can book a bus (Internorte) ride. Would that make more sense?

Thanks for any help!--Ann

Posted by
67 posts

hello Ann,
I have not tried this yet myself but a wise travelling friend of mine suggested using the site" budget europe travel services" for determining what kind of railpass one would need to purchase...perhaps also they would have specifics on the rail lines ?! It may be a long shot but since you have not gotten anywhere with the other sites who knows ? Good luck !

Posted by
4555 posts

Ann....public transportation links between Portugal and Spain are abysmal, especially trains. You can really only take the train from Porto to Vigo (2/day) then switch to a local commuter link to Santiago. Probably best to take the train from Lisbon to Porto (about 3 hours), then switch to the Internorte ride from Porto to Santiago. You can take the Internorte bus run all the way, but it'll likely add 90-120 minutes to your overall journey....best, tho, if you're worried about the transfer in Porto. You might want to take an early train to Porto, sight-see for a few hours, then catch the 2:30-ish pm bus to Santiago, (4 hour run).

Posted by
4555 posts

The train from Lisbon to Porto is hardly high-speed, taking about 3 hours to do 300 km (180 mi)....but it is faster than the bus. Taking Internorte all the way will save you about 10 Euro but, as mentioned earlier, take you anywhere from 90 minutes to 2 hours longer.

Posted by
172 posts

We did the trip in reverse and the found the buses to be slightly quicker and more convenient. However we stopped in Porto for a few days, which was one of the highlights of our trip. The bus from Santiago to Porto was 2 hours 45 mins and the bus from Porto to Lisbon was 3 hours. You can see all the details of in our trip including a Trip at a Glance spreadsheet (with links) and pictures at our personal blog at: http://gadtravel.blogspot.com/2008/07/barcelona-lisbon.html

Posted by
3 posts

Thank you all so much. (We've been without power here in Seattle for a while, so it was lovely to come back to so many responses!)

We've decided to take the bus--sure it is a long ride, but we'll see so much of Portugal! We are working hard to learn Spanish, and so we want to get back to Spain as quickly as possible. We are finishing in Lisbon with a (Spain and Portugal) Rick Steves tour (on April 30), and then renting a car for a couple of weeks of northern Spain.

I was so surprised when I had a hard time finding the train connections that I wrote to all of the forums that provide me with so much incredibly helpful information. Sorry to those who double-posted! But I was quite sure that I must be missing something obvious. I wasn't, but thanks so much for the confirmation!!

These forums are truly a treasure. How did people travel before the internet?? Thanks!

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