Lisbon to Santiago?
 

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

Hi Ann,

I hope one of our very knowledgeable Spain experts will chime in. That is a route I myself would like to take at some point in time.

Would you consider a stopover somewhere?

If you Google a bit you seem to find a number of people wanting to do this trip by rail and getting the answer that is difficult.

Some people suggest bus: http://www.internorte.pt/ where there seems to be a day service and a night service.

I figured it would be a long ride. I would never go for over 9 hrs on a bus! I made that mistake a couple of years ago. Went from Oviedo to Santiago on an express bus. Was supposed to take 4.5 hrs, took over 5 hrs. By the time we reached Santiago I was dizzy.

Maybe a stopover in Porto?

It is a beautiful drive.

Been there; done that! Train isn't worth the effort: Alfa Lisbon-Porto and a once-a-day train Porto - Vigo (via Valença do Minho). You don't want to go into Vigo so you get off at Redondela de Galicia and change for a Renfe TRD to Santiago.

On the cp.pt web site, find it under for 'rutas internacionales.'

Take a Bus, either all the way from Lisbon, or from Porto (after an Alfa Tren Lisbon-Porto). I prefer the latter because Alfa (High speed Train) just takes 3-hours & the Bus between those cities takes longer.

I have posted an answer to your question here so it seems.
http://slowtalk.com/groupee/forums/a...3/m/3551096626

Rent a car, drive. Overnight in Porto.

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!

Portugalia airlines used to have a flight sked Lisbon-Vigo: the Lisbon-Porto part aircraft type was listed as an Embraer; the Porto-Vigo sked listed aircraft type as BUS. It was not an Airbus; it was a regular Bus (sometimes a Van or Limo - depending on Pax load).

If you're not planning any stops on the way, I would recommend taking an Alfa Pendular Lisbon-Porto and a Bus Porto-Santiago.

Don't plan on renting a car in Portugal and dropping it off somewhere in Spain. Dropoff fees would be very high!