Travel from Portugal to Spain and/or Morocco

If you have a home in Figueira da Foz for two weeks why visit Spain and Morocco?

Figueira da Foz is situated almost equidistant between Porto and Lisbon and only 40 kms from the historic University Town of Coimbra.

You can download the Coimbra to Figuera da Foz Train Timetable in pdf format on my blog:

http://barlaventostravelblog.blogspot.com/

On the right hand side panel scroll down to the section:

>> Algarve & Portugal - Travel Transport Links

At the bottom you will find a link

>> Train Timetable - Coimbra to Figueira da Foz

With a hire car or by train you should have enough to do in these towns and surrounding centres such as Obidos, Alcobaça, Tomar, Batalha, Sintra and Torres Vedras to take up at least a week to two weeks of your time.

Visiting Morocco from here would require a long days (7 to 8 hours) drive to Algeciras, a ferry crossing, a couple of days in somewhere like Tangier and then a ferry crossing and a a long days drive.

Only Royal Air Maroc operate flights from Lisbon to Casablanca. It is not possible to check prices online but I suspect that they will be pricey.

As regards Spain, if you do want to do an excursion, be aware that is it a large country and that there are many beautiful cities and towns to visit.

From Figueira da Foz, I would recommend a route by hire car that took you from there, via the IP1 onto the IP5 through Guarda and then to Salamanca.

This would take about 3 to 4 hours. Salamanca is a wonderful University city and the site of one of the famous Napoleonic War Battles.

Spend the night there - the IBIS Hotel is good. Central and stayed there in December 2007.

Alternatively, you could run North via Porto and Braga and visit Vigo and the famous pilgrimage and University Town of Santiago da Compostela.

Do not forget that there are good intercity bus services in Spain and Portugal.

You can check out some of them on my blog.

Part II/Follow-on comment

Thanks for the rating.

Honestly, there is so much to do in the immediate area as I described, that a Moroccan diversion by air via Madrid on a low cost airline to my way of thinking is a bit of a waste of resources.

Bear in mind that it will take you a day to get to Morocco flying via Madrid - It will take 90 minutes by car to Lisbon Airport, a 2 hour check-in, 1 hour flight - up to 90 minutes on the ground at Madrid Barajas Airport and then a 90 minute flight to your destination and then immigration and then to the hotel. Probably in the order of 7-8 hours minimum provided there are no delays on the Lisbon Madrid route. Remember with low-costs if you buy 2 different sectors and your incoming one is late they will not wait for you and you may have to buy another ticket for the second sector.

Honestly, I do suggest you review the Morocco option.

If want to do other countries/cities why not look at Barcelona which is a great city. You can get low costs daily from Lisbon with ClickAir. Despite your comment, I have just had a look at Clickair's site and they no seem to currently operate Lisbon to Madrid.

Vueling.com is low cost airline that operates this route. However, do not buy your ticket yet as there is a real possibility they may merge with ClickAir or another airline in the next few months.

Also bear in mind that Ryanair operate flights to the following destinations from Porto Airport just over 90 minutes from Figueira da Foz by Car which are in or near the towns mentioned:

Bergamo - Italy - 60km from Milan but a wonderful old hilltop city. I was there last year.
Pisa - Italy
Valencia - Spain

Again don't book until nearer the time as Ryanair are renowned for terminating routes without notice.

Volareweb.com also operate Porto - Milan Malpensa.

Portimao to Morocco

The only realistic option to get to Morocco from Portimão is via Seville and Algeciras by bus/ferry.

See this page on my blog for more background info: http://goo.gl/zJdSN

As regards the Morocco side of the trip, I suggest you post in the Morocco forums.

One other new alternative, albeit rather convoluted, might be to fly from Faro Airport to Porto Airport and then from Porto Airport to Marrakesh. Both services operated by Ryanair.com. The flights do seem to tie in going, On the way back you might need to spend a night in Porto.

You could also train or bus from Portimão to Porto.

See Cubsur's excellent site at:

http://www.algarve-bus.info

Portugal to Morocco

I have just got back to Lagos in the Algarve, from a trip to Sevilla and Algeciras and can comment as follows:

1) There are several ferry services operating several times a day between Algeciras and Morocco.

See this page for links.

http://tarifa.costasur.com/en/ferry-to-morocco.html

2) TRANSPORTES GENERALES COMES operate a regular Seville to Algeciras Bus Service four times per day.

Timetable is here:

http://www.tgcomes.es/horarios_33.htm

3) Using the information shown on Cubsur's site, you should be able to get from Lisbon or the Algarve to Seville and easily connect to the above service.

Be aware that Algeciras is a real port town and not exactly salubrious. There are not many hotels nor hostels and those that are not exactly new nor welcoming.

We stayed at the Hotel Alboran Algeciras which is a bit out of town and cost Euro 70+ per night for a double room. It was clean and pleasant though.

If you have to stay en-route, I recommend overnighting in Seville.

Portugal, Spain, Morocco

Some observations:

1) Seville & Cordoba in August will be hot hot hot! (Possibly +40ºC between 11:00 and 17.00) You will be hard pushed to do much therefore in two days. If time is a constraint I would recommend scratching Cordoba and spend two days in Seville.

2) Day 12 Tarifa - Lagos is going to be a very long day, you will have to route via Seville as previously explained:

Timetable for coaches between Tarifa and Seville can be found here:

http://www.tgcomes.es/horarios_33_english.htm

The bus at 08:00 arriving Seville at 11:00.

There is a DAMAS/EVA bus to Lagos at 13:30 arriving 16:40.

See Cubsur's excellent site here

Note that this routing by coach is really the only feasible way of travelling by public transport from Gib/Tarifa/Cadiz to the Algarve/Lagos.

There is no train connection between Seville and Portugal/Algarve and the only flights between Mainland Spain and Portugal is the Ryanair Faro to Madrid Flight 4 days a week.

There are no direct flights between Faro International Airport (Airport for the Algarve - situated 70kms from Lagos) and Faro. TAP/Air Portugal offer a service but it routes via Lisbon and is a pain owing to frequent delays and cancellations.

A much better way to visit Porto would be to catch the early train from Lagos which connects with the Alfa-Pendular Express from Faro and arrives Porto at 12:44.

If you go to my blog at:

http://barlaventostravelblog.blogspot.com

scroll down on the right till you get to the panel entitled:

>>Algarve & Portugal - Travel Transport Links

You will find a link entitled:

Porto - Lisbon - Porto Train Timetable.

Click and you will download a timetable for the Alfa Pendular Service including the service from Faro.

You can also find in the same panel a link to the Algarve line train timetable.

A final thought now I have come to think about it!

Spanish airline ClickAir operates Barcelona - Tangier although costs of flights in August are expensive. Early August - + Euro 300. Mid August onwards circa Euro 170.00 & taxes. However, if you are already flying to Seville.....

So you could fly Barcelona - Tangier direct spend your few days in souks seeing the carpet salesmen and then take the ferry to Tarifa.

Then take the bus to Seville.

Spend a couple of days in Seville and maybe Cordoba and then go Lagos.

A further option is the above flights are to expensive is to fly Barcelona to the airport at Jerez la Frontera near Cadiz and then get a bus teh last 130km from there to Tarifa. Spanish low costs SPANAIR, CLICKAIR, S.A. and VUELING AIRLINES appear to operate this route according to AENA the Spanish airports authority.

Then ferry over to Morocco and then do Seville on your way back.

Algeciras, Spain (Ferries from Morocco) and Lagos (Algare, Portugal)

The following is a brief synopsis of bus routing between Algeciras, Spain (Ferries from Morocco) and Lagos (Algare, Portugal)

Algeciras to Seville (Prado )

Timetable here.

http://www.tgcomes.es/horarios_33.htm

Seville to Lagos (Seville - Plaza das Armas) (DAMAS/EVA Transportes)

Sevilha Lagos 07:30 12:00 Diariamente
Sevilha Lagos 16:15 20:45 Diariamente

http://www.eva-bus.com/home_pesquisa2008.php?lang=PT&servico=0&origem=Sevilha&destino=Lagos&Procurar=Ok

Visit to Portugal

jabraltur? Sorry but I don't know that place!

Portugal is a fair sized country! Which place in Portugal do you wish to travel to from Madrid in January?

How long does one need to tour portugal? Depending on which areas in Portugal you want to go to and what you want to see I would say from 1 week to 1 month.

Portugal to Morocco - By bus from Lisbon or Faro to Seville, Spain and then by bus to Algeciras, Spain. Then ferry to Morocco.

Ryanair.com have announced that they will be operating three low-cost flights a week from Porto to Marrakesh as from November 2010.

Royal Air Maroc and TAP-Air Portugal also operate flights from Lisbon to Casablanca,

Lagos to Morocco

The only logical and direct way to get from Lagos to Morocco via Algeciras on a budget is by bus via Seville.

1) Lagos to Seville (Price one way € 20:00)

Take the twice daily coach service from Lagos to Seville Plaza das Armas bus staion.

Lagos Sevilha 06:30 13:00
Lagos Sevilha 13:45 20:15

2) Seville (Prado ) to Algeciras (Fares unavailable but will not be expensive.)

There are at least two companies operating this route:

TG Comes

Timetable here: http://www.tgcomes.es/horarios_33.htm

Linesur also operates this route but no online timetables.


You will need to get a local C4 bus between Estacion Plaza das Armas to El Prado Bus Station which runs from just after 6 in the morning till 23:30.

Algarve Portugal to Morocco

Unfortunately, the only way from the Algarve to Morocco is via Seville and Algeciras/Tarifa.

There are no direct flights.

There is no rail link from the Algarve into Spain.

The road routes run east from the Algarve frontier to Huelva and then to Seville. There reason is that there is a large national park protecting the Dona Ana Area and Guadalquivir river estuary that lies between Huelva and Cadiz. There are no routes through this park and so one has no alternative but to pass through Seville.

However, there are good bus services from the Algarve to Seville and from Seville to Algeciras/Tarifa.

On the return there are services that run from Seville to Lisbon.

Check out this post on my blog which may help:

http://barlaventostravelblog.blogspot.com/search?q=Tarifa

Lisbon to Morocco options

Rail is not an option!

Small matter of few train links between Portugal and Spain, the Straits of Gibraltar and yet to be developed submersible trains/rail tunnel to be built.

Basically you will have to head by coach to Tarifa/Algeciras in Spain or by a scheduled flight with a major airline or as from 2nd November 2010, nip up to Porto and get ryanair.com from Porto to Marrakesh.

These old articles on my blog may also be off interest.

http://bit.ly/dDmFsb

Bus from port coming from morocco to lisbon

You will need to get a bus to Seville from which ever port you arrive at:

See: http://www.tgcomes.es/horarios_33.htm

From Seville to Lisbon there are two options:

1) http://www.alsa.es

This company currently operates 2 daily services between Sevilla and Lisbon as follows:

SEVILLA(Prado) LISBON 23:30 07:30next day

2) EVA Transportes/DAMAS Change and buy ticket in Faro

Sevilla Plaza das Armas Faro 08:00 10:40
Faro Lisboa 11:00 14:15

Sevilla Plaza das Armas Faro 16:15 18:55
Faro Lisboa 19:00 22:15

Portimão - Cruise Vessel "Funchal" lying off as no tug available.

The Portuguese national daily, "Publico" and the regional Algarve daily "Sul" report tonight that the Portuguese Cruise Ship "Funchal" is currently lying of the coast between Alvor and Portimão with 400 passengers aboard.

The vessel, which is returning from a New Year's cruise to Madeira and Morocco, was due to dock in Lisbon on Sunday but was diverted to Portimão owing to poor weather conditions. However, the Port of Sines which  is supposed to provide a tug boat to Portimão in such instances has been unable to dispatch one. Another tug dispatched from Setubal, after the intervention of the President of the Câmara Municipal de Portimão and Central Government authorities, has reportedly turned back to Setubal owing to 7m waves.

It seems incredible to me that the Algarve coast with harbours at Portimão and Faro does not have a single tugboat to assist vessels that need to enter local harbours in times like these.

The availability of such as vessel would probably also increase the usage of Portimão and Faro harbours with concomitant economic benefits to the local economy!

To me this is an issue of not just Portuguese national maritime security, but also EU maritime security.

Resources need to be found to make this happen!

Articles (in portuguese) here:

http://bit.ly/JASuYr

and

http://bit.ly/1hoisNq

Algeciras, Spain - Restaurante

Although not a tourist city, Algeciras may be one of the places you need to visit en route to Morocco or Gib.

Situated in the center, Restaurant Asador La Carbonera offers good cuisine and a nice relaxing enviroment.

Prices are expensive, however and watch the wine list, particularly!

Address:

Corner of Calle Muro/Calle Murrillo
Algeciras.

Tel: 956 66 37 38

Faro to Marrakech

There are no scheduled air services between Faro and Morocco.

To drive, would mean travelling via Seville, Spain to Algeciras a distance of about 500km. Ferry to Tanger and then a +- 600km drive to Marrakech.

The total distance by driving would be well in excess of 1000km each way.

The only possibility that might meet your needs would be to drive to Seville Airport. Ryanair.com have scheduled flights from there to Marrakech