Last verified: July 2026. Portugal’s train prices and rules change often, and a lot of what’s written about them online is years out of date. Everything below was checked against cp.pt in July 2026.
Portugal’s trains are old and they’re slow. But the train is still one of my favorite things about living here. It’s cheap, at least if you plan ahead. It goes to a lot of the main cities. Sometimes the AC even works.
What follows is how to actually use it: how to buy a ticket, how to pay a lot less than the person sitting next to you, and — the part almost nobody writing about Portuguese trains will tell you — when to skip the train and take the bus instead.
The booking side genuinely isn’t obvious, and it’s where most of the confusion lives: which trains you can book in advance, which you can’t, why the discount you were promised isn’t showing up, and why your card keeps getting declined.
The one thing I’d learn before you go
You can do about 95% of this in English. The CP website has an English version, the app does too, and the ticket machines will switch languages for you.
But it definitely helps to know some Portuguese. It’s the platform announcement you half-catch and then anxiously look around to see if anyone else is reacting to. It’s the ticket counter, when the machine won’t take your card and there’s a queue behind you. It’s the conductor asking you something you weren’t expecting.
None of it is high-stakes, which is exactly what makes it a good place to start actually using the language rather than just studying it. Practice Portuguese has a unit called Take a Trip that covers this specific situation — buying tickets, asking about platforms, the vocabulary you’ll hear over the speakers. It’s European Portuguese, which matters more than people realize when they turn up having learned Brazilian Portuguese from an app.
You’ll need to be a member to access the unit, but Portugalist readers can get a cheaper Practice Portuguese membership here.
Using the train for a scouting trip
If you’re coming over to work out where in Portugal you want to live, this is probably the most useful section on this page — and it’s the one thing the train is genuinely excellent for, right up until it isn’t.
Where the train is the obvious choice
If your shortlist looks like Lisbon, Cascais, Coimbra, Aveiro, and Porto — and for a lot of people it does — I wouldn’t rent a car at all. I’d probably just take the train between them.
These are all on the same spine, the trains are frequent, and they deliver you into the center of each city rather than to a business park on the outskirts. You’ll spend less than you would on a rental and parking, and you’ll see more, because you’re looking out of a window instead of at the car in front. You also get an afternoon in each place without the low-level admin of finding somewhere to leave the car.
Here’s a map of the train network in Portugal.
Where it falls apart
The rail network only covers parts of Portugal. Don’t plan your entire scouting trip around it and assume you’ll fill in the gaps.
Ericeira doesn’t have a train station. Nor do a lot of the small towns and villages that people fall in love with and end up buying in. If your list includes places like that — or if it’s really a list of regions rather than cities, and you want to poke around the villages nearby — rent a car. You’ll see three times as much in a day.
The Algarve is its own case
You can reach Faro, Portimão, Lagos, and Tavira by train, and if that’s genuinely all you’re seeing, the train will do.
But I’d rent a car here, and I say that as someone who defaults to the train everywhere else. Local public transport in the Algarve isn’t as good as it is around Lisbon, so the moment you want to see anything that isn’t a train town, you’re stuck. The region is also strung out east to west, and getting from one end to the other takes a while however you do it. And in August you will be extremely glad of the car’s AC.
Driving in and out of the towns down here isn’t bad — it’s nothing like getting in and out of Lisbon — though Portimão’s one-way system has humbled better people than me on a first visit.
Sometimes the bus is simply better
Worth checking both every time, because the gaps can be absurd. Lisbon Oriente to Caldas da Rainha is about 3 hours 20 minutes on the train. The same trip on the bus is 1 hour 10.
Bus travel in Portugal is perfectly good. The views aren’t as nice and it isn’t as romantic, but I take it often, and on the long routes it’s frequently cheaper and more comfortable than the train — you’re more likely to get working AC and working WiFi on a coach in August than on an Intercidades. There’s more on the price gap below, and it’s bigger than you’d think.
The two long-distance operators worth knowing are Flixbus and Rede Expressos. I find the Flixbus website easier to use, but Rede Expressos is perfectly fine and often has the better price. Check both — they’re actively competing on the big routes, which is very good news for you.
Local buses are a different animal. They’ll usually be cheaper than anything else, but finding a timetable is the hard part — it might be a PDF on a municipal website, or a sheet of paper taped to a shelter. Flixbus sometimes covers shorter hops that you’d expect to be a local bus route, and it’ll cost more than the local bus would, but you can look up the times and book a seat from your sofa. Depending on the day, that’s worth a few euros.
The real reason to take the train while you’re scouting
Here’s the argument that has nothing to do with getting from A to B.
Plenty of people move to Portugal intending to live without a car. It’s one of the draws. But it’s very easy to decide that from an apartment in a country where you own a car, and much harder to know whether you’d actually enjoy it here.
So use the scouting trip as the test. Take the trains. Take the buses. See how long the connections really take, how you feel about the last two kilometers from the station to the town, whether the timetable fits the life you’re imagining. A week of doing it properly will tell you more than any amount of research — and it’s a much cheaper way to find out than shipping your life over and then buying a car in year two.
Where the train actually goes (and where it doesn’t)
The network connects all of the major regions, and most large towns and cities have a station. What it doesn’t do is cover the country. Look at the map before you build an itinerary around it, because the gaps aren’t where you’d guess.
There’s a second trap, and it catches people who did check the map: the station being in the town is not the same as the town having a station. Albufeira is the classic. Its station is at Ferreiras, roughly 6 km out, so “Albufeira by train” actually means a train plus a taxi. Bus stations, by contrast, are almost always near the middle of town.
So before you book, look at where the station is, not just whether there is one. It’s a two-minute check on a map and it changes the answer more often than you’d expect.
Stations that aren’t where you think they are
The ones where you’ll be paying for a taxi:
- Albufeira — the station is at Ferreiras, about 6 km out.
- Loulé — about 5–6 km southwest of town. There’s no bus from the station. There’s a stop roughly 400 m away with about one bus an hour into Loulé, but it isn’t timed to meet the trains, so in practice it’s the taxis outside the entrance.
- Guarda — around 3.5 km from the center, which is a 10-minute drive.
- Fátima — doesn’t have a station at all. The nearest are Chão de Maçãs-Fátima, 25 km east, and Caxarias, 18 km northeast.
And then two that look like the same problem but aren’t, because the onward connection is free and already included in your long-distance ticket:
- Porto-Campanhã — 2.5 km east of the historic center. Long-distance trains from Lisbon terminate here, and you hop on an urban train for the few minutes to São Bento, which is where you actually wanted to be. Your ticket covers it.
- Coimbra-B — about 3 km north of the center, in Eiras. Alfa Pendular and Intercidades stop here, not downtown. The connecting train to Coimbra-A (Coimbra Cidade) takes about 10 minutes and is included; there’s a bus too, or a taxi if you’ve missed it.
Those two catch people out constantly — not because of the distance, but because nobody told them the second train was part of the deal, so they walk out of the station and pay for a taxi they didn’t need.
The four types of train
Comboios de Portugal (CP) runs four main types of domestic train, and the difference between the best and the worst is bigger than the difference in price suggests.
- Alfa Pendular (AP): the fastest and the nicest. Capable of 220 km/h, although it only hits that on short stretches of track, so Lisbon to Porto still takes around three hours. Free WiFi that works sometimes, a socket at every seat, a bar carriage, and a reserved seat. Note the spelling — it’s Alfa, not Alpha, and you’ll find nothing on cp.pt if you search for the second one.
- Intercidades (IC): slower, because it stops more, but not dramatically so — Faro to Lisbon is about 3h41 versus 3h05 on the AP. Older carriages, a more basic bar, free WiFi, sockets in some carriages rather than all. This is also the bike-friendly one. For most journeys it’s what I book.
- Regional (R) and InterRegional (IR): shorter distances, more stops, and a real step down. Some are perfectly pleasant. Others are plastic seats and graffiti, closer to a metro carriage than an intercity train. No reserved seat — you sit where you find space. They are, however, very cheap.
- Urban (U): the commuter networks around Lisbon, Porto, and Coimbra. Simple, frequent, and cheap. This is the Cascais line, the Sintra line, and so on.
| Alfa Pendular | Intercidades | Regional / IR | Urban | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Speed | Fastest | Slightly slower | Slow | Short hops |
| Price | Highest | A few € less | Cheap | Cheapest |
| Book ahead? | Yes, up to 60 days | Yes, up to 60 days | Yes, online now | Coimbra online; Lisbon & Porto via travel card |
| Reserved seat | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Classes | Conforto / Turística | 1st / 2nd | One class | One class |
| WiFi | Free | Free | Varies | Varies |
| Sockets | Every seat | Some carriages | Varies | No |
| Bikes | Dismantled & packed only | Yes, on hooks (reserve) | Usually, if there’s space | Yes, in marked areas |
| Advance discounts | Yes (Promo) | Yes (Promo) | No | No |
How to buy train tickets in Portugal
Buy direct from cp.pt or the CP app. That’s where the fares are cheapest, where the discounts live, and where you can change a ticket afterwards without a fight. I have never bought a Portuguese train ticket anywhere else.
The things worth knowing before you start:
- Booking opens 60 days ahead and stays open until 15 minutes before your train leaves.
- Regional and InterRegional tickets can now be bought online. This changed, and a lot of guides — including, until recently, this one — still say you can’t. You can.
- Urban trains are the exception. Coimbra’s are sold online; Lisbon and Porto suburban journeys normally run on a rechargeable travel card you buy or top up at the station.
- Tickets are personal. You enter ID details when booking, and the name on the ticket needs to match the document you’re carrying. A conductor may ask, particularly if you’ve used an age-based discount.
If your card won’t go through
This is common with foreign cards and it’s the number one complaint I hear about the site. Pay with PayPal instead — the option is right there at checkout, and you don’t need a PayPal account to use it. You can pay with your card through PayPal. MB WAY works too if you’ve been here long enough to have it.
A quirk of the station search
Small thing that has caught me out more than once. If the site loads in Portuguese, remember Lisbon is Lisboa. Type that and you’ll get Oriente, Rossio, Santa Apolónia — but not Entrecampos, which only appears once you start typing an “e.” If a station you know exists isn’t showing up, it’s usually this rather than the site being broken.
What about Omio and the other booking sites?
Omio is legitimate and listed as an official partner on cp.pt. It also tends to be slightly more expensive, and you’re a step removed from CP if something goes wrong or you need to change your plans. If the convenience is worth a euro or two to you, use it.
What I would avoid are the resellers that appear at the top of Google looking official. CP names several of them specifically as not being official partners and warns that they may charge higher prices — Rail.Ninja, Kiwi, Firebirdtours, and Destiny Travel Brasil among them. Nothing you can do on those sites can’t be done more cheaply on cp.pt.
Machines and ticket counters
Most stations have ticket vending machines, and they’ll switch to English. They’re the answer when the counter queue is twenty deep and your train is in nine minutes.
But there are things you can only do at a counter with a human being — buying a ticket for a dog traveling outside a carrier is the one that surprises people, and some international tickets work the same way. This is the moment I mentioned at the top. It’ll be fine.
How to get cheaper train tickets
Here’s where I have to update what this post used to say. It used to be that train travel in Portugal was simply cheap. Now it’s cheap if you plan, and occasionally it isn’t cheap at all. Prices have gone up like everything else here.
Promo fares
The Promo ticket is the big one, and it applies to Alfa Pendular and Intercidades only:
- Up to 56% off booking at least 5 days ahead
- Up to 65% off booking at least 8 days ahead
Those rules haven’t changed. What’s changed is how many seats they apply to. Promo isn’t a discount applied to your ticket — it’s a limited allocation of seats on each train, and when they’re gone they’re gone. It used to feel like almost every departure had them. Now it’s a few times a day, and I’ve looked at dates well over a week ahead and found no promo fares at all, then found them on the next day over.
So: the discounts are real, but they’re a limited number of seats, not a blanket price cut. Book far enough ahead and you’ll usually find one. Book in July for July and you probably won’t. And the cheapest ones are usually at an ungodly 6am.
Promo tickets can be exchanged but not refunded, which is worth knowing before you build a trip on them.
What that looks like in real money
All checked in July 2026, and the spread is the point:
| Route | Train, booked ahead | Without Discount | Bus / other |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lisbon–Porto | €21 on the 06:39 €34 on the 09:39 | €56.10–71.40 | — |
| Faro–Lisbon | €30 (summer, IC) €25 (September, IC) | €49.10 IC €52.60 AP | — |
| Vila Real de Santo António–Valença | €92.30–€104.60 | — | Flixbus €34.47 Rede Expressos €25.20 |
| Faro–Porto | — | — | Flights €20–30 |
The Vila Real de Santo António to Valença run is the length of the country, and the last time I updated this post it was €55.80. It’s now over €90, and the coach does the same journey for a quarter of that. There is no version of that comparison where the train wins on money.
And Faro to Porto by air is €20–30, which sounds unanswerable until you add getting to Faro airport, getting out of Porto airport, and the connecting train at the far end. Sometimes it’s still worth it. Just do the whole sum, not the headline one.
Discounts by age
- Seniors — 50% off, aged 65+. The best deal on the railway and the one most relevant to this site’s readers, many of whom move to Portugal on the D7 (or retirement visa). No advance booking, no card, no residency requirement — it applies regardless of nationality or country of residence. Select it at checkout and carry ID, because you may be asked at the counter and on the train. This is why I say retirees don’t need to play the promo game at all: half off, every train, every day, decided the moment you turn 65.
- Children — free up to 3, half price 4 to 12. Under-fours travel free if they share your seat. From four to twelve inclusive it’s 50% off and they get their own seat.
- Under 25s — 25% off. Straightforward, up to the age of 25.
- European Youth Card — 25% off, ages 12 to 30. Any class, any day of the week, but Intercidades, Regional, and InterRegional only. Not Alfa Pendular. If you’re 26–30 this is your discount; if you’re under 25 the two overlap and it makes no difference which you pick.
There’s also a Golden Card, which is easy to confuse with the senior discount but isn’t the same thing. It’s means-tested rather than age-based: any age, for pensioners whose household income doesn’t exceed the national minimum wage, loaded onto a CP Card. Same 50%, different qualifying test. If you’re a retiree moving here, the senior discount is the one you want.
TrainSharing (3–4 people)
Travel as a group of three and get 40% off; four people gets you 50%. On Alfa Pendular and Intercidades. So far so good — but the conditions are where people come unstuck:
- It’s for return journeys only
- Traveling on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday
- Not on a Tuesday if the Monday was a public holiday, and not on a Thursday if the Friday is one
- Everyone on the same train, same class, same origin and destination
Which is to say: it’s a midweek discount wearing a group discount’s clothes. Wonderful if your trip happens to be Tuesday to Thursday. Useless for a weekend.
Return tickets
Buy both legs together and you get 10% off on journeys of 91 km or more — unless another discount or a Promo fare applies, in which case that one takes over.
Which brings up the rule underneath all of this: you can’t stack discounts. You get one. So the question is only ever which single discount is biggest, and the answer is usually Promo if you booked early and there’s a seat left in the bucket, and your age discount if there isn’t.
So, should you take the train?
Mostly, yes — but with your eyes open. Book ahead if you want the good price, because the cheap seats are a limited number and they do sell out. Check the bus before you commit, because sometimes it’s faster, and on the long routes it’s often a lot cheaper. And don’t build a scouting trip around a network that doesn’t go everywhere.
None of that is a reason to avoid it. When it works, it really works. A €21 ticket from Lisbon to Porto — even at 6am — is hard to beat.
And if you’re still working out where in Portugal you want to live, or whether you could do it without a car, get on one. A week of riding the trains and the buses will teach you more about that than any amount of reading. Including this.
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