Portugal without a Car--a problem?
Jun 22nd, 2000, 01:58 PM
#1
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Portugal without a Car--a problem?
I am going to central and northern Portugal for 2 weeks in August and for various reasons (including a hatred of driving) we are not renting a car. Do you think we will have any trouble traveling by train or bus? <BR>We have booked our hotel reservations as follows: Lisbon (4 nights), Coimbra (2 nights), Obidos (2) and Porto (4) and use these cities as our homebase for day trips. Does anyone have any ideas for day trips accessible from these cities by train/bus? Also--any restaurant suggestions?
Jul 14th, 2000, 05:24 AM
#2
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Jessie - I believe you're not getting responses because the only practical way (imho)to travel around Portugal is to drive. If you're interested in northern Portugal, you should try to get to Viana do Castello, on the coast, not far south of the Spanish border. Wonderful pousada, fantastic views, great small towns in the area(but you need a car). Sorry, I'm getting carried away. I enjoy Portugal so much, I can't imagine not getting a car and seeing the Minho region. Some other posters have reported wasting a lot of time with trains in Portugal.
Jul 14th, 2000, 07:48 AM
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It is certainly very easy to get along the Southern coast by train, buses are also plentiful & cheap.I'd be surprised if it wasn't the same further North. <BR> <BR>I've notices a lot of posters saying how dangerous the roads there are to drive, can't comment, every time I've been I've only used public transport.I find you meet the people & see the view - freeways are the same the world over, why come all that way to sit in a car. <BR> <BR>A good guide book will have all the details - get one!Enjoy Portugal!Bom Dia!
Jul 14th, 2000, 10:35 AM
#4
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You can easily visit Sintra and Quelez from Lisbon by train, both in the same day if you get a really early start. <BR> <BR>The advantage to having a car is that you can see several places in a day. We pulled off near Coimbra and visited the Roman ruins in Conimbriga (sp?)in the morning and then headed off to see several other places where we wouldn't have been able to with public transport. A lot of the places we visited, we went to see one site (the abbey in Batalha, the monsastery in Alcobaca)and then left. <BR> <BR>We didn't find Portgugese drivers to be that bad although they did cut it close when passing. <BR> <BR>
Jul 14th, 2000, 05:16 PM
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Dear Jessie: <BR> Easy to get to Sintra by train from Lisbon, but the rest was down hill when we tried to use buses. <BR> We went to Obidos from Leiria by bus. NO ONE spoke English at the bus station (this happened repeatedly). When we tried to find WHERE to get the bus, attendants would impatiently & vaguely point around the frantic bus station. (Buses pulled in without any system while sometimes school children ran among them - chaos!) It took 2 hours & 40 minutes to get to Obidos (a short distance), 30 stops along the way. We learned the bus would return in 2 hours, which wasn't enough time to enjoy that marvelous place. (The bus driver didn't know his own schedule but some passengers did.) <BR> We had trouble going by bus to Tomar as well, ending up staying all night to get to see enough of the sights (so we paid for 2 hotel rooms). <BR> When some English speaking passengers got on the bus in Leiria, they told the driver they wanted to go to Nazare. When we got there, the bus driver & the other passengers never said a word to these people, leaving them just sitting on the bus (for all they knew, this was just another stop - there was no sign in the bus station that this was Nazare). Fortunately, we warned them that they had arrived. <BR> Hope you have better luck. (The train should be O.K.) <BR>Susan <BR>
