Lisbon or Porto - connections to Salamanca?
 

I'm incubating thoughts of a trip to Portugal and Spain next spring.<BR>I'd like to land in Lisbon, possibly spend some time in Porto, then proceed to Spain via Salamanca and then go home from Madrid.<BR>On the map, it looks equal in terms of distance to travel from Lisbon or Porto to Salamanca. Anyone have comments about train connections or the journey being more convenient/more scenic, etc. from either point of departure?<BR>Or would it be better to start from Madrid and do this trip in reverse?<BR>Thank you, obrigada, gracias for your thoughts.

My Suggestion is that you go from Lisboa/Porto to Salamanca on the evenning train (it departs Lisboa around 6:00 pm).<BR>Check www.cp.pt for the sud express trains.<BR>The train from Lisboa is direct from Porto you must change into the direct train (coming from Lisboa)in Coimbra.<BR><BR>You may consider some stopovers from Lisboa to Porto, or Salamanca.<BR><BR>In Salamanca your best option is probably to get an Auto Res bus into Madrid, departing every hour for a 2 hours journey.<BR><BR>www.bikeiberia.com<BR>&gt;Experien ce the best of Portugal and Spain by Bike!&lt;

I will tell you that it is cheaper to start in Lisbon and go to Madrid that the other way around. Almost 1/2! We just looked into it and travelled there this past May. As far as a quick route to Salamanca from Lisbon. There is none. We took the night train from Lisbon to Madrid (private couchette for the two of us $175) and then jumped a train to Salamanca.

We are also planning a trip to southern Spain and Lisbon. Check out europebyair.com. They have flights from Madrid to Lisbon 99.00 one way. I think this may be cheaper and faster than train.

Didier is right about the direct train from Lisbon to Salamanca; the trouble is, it gets there at 2:30 AM. You can get a bus from Porto at 9:30 AM that gets to Salamanca at 5 PM, but that's a long time on a bus. You can also start at Lisbon (I think you may have to change at Coimbra).

You may save some cash by starting and ending in Madrid. Spanair has one-way flights from Madrid to Lisbon for around $79 one-way. It's an hour flight and I think there's 4 flights a day. The open jaw ticket will probably be more than a RT to Madrid plus the Spanair flight. Good luck.

Ann Young:<BR>We're considering the same trip. Where are you flying out of? We prefer to fly direct flights whenever possible. We fly out of Chicago. I can find ORD-Madrid direct but not ORD-Lisbon.