Bikes in Public Transportation
Train & Bus
Portugal
The following information is based on our personal experiences. We don’t guarantee for correctness and completeness of the information. If you made any contrary experience please let us know, so we can update the information for the future.
Trains: Find the schedule directly at the national railway company. Bike transportation in InterCitys (IC) and Regional Trains (R) is free of charge, but limited in capacity. Specially in the summer season it’s recommended to make reservations in advance.
Buses: Rede Expressos, a national wide operating bus company allows bike transportation with a ticket which must be purchased online together with your own ticket. Please be aware that Rede Expressos is quite restrictive with the wrapping of the bikes. Theoretically the whole bike must be packed in a box, in practice at least every dirty part of the bikes (chain, transmission, wheels, …) must be fully covered. Rede Expressos will refuse the bike transportation otherwise!
Flixbus officially allows only fully wrapped folding bikes. In practice they allow bikes when ever they want, but we also experienced several cases where bikes where refused also with a valid reservation.

One Way Rentals
Hotel Delivery
Luggage Transfer
Personal Transfer
Lisbon & South Portugal
For travels from Lisbon to Lagos, Faro and Porto the train system is quite convenient. Our rental station in Lisbon is 5 minutes walking from train station Santa Apolonia, where the trains to Porto arrive and leave. Trains to the Algarve leave from Oriente, which is 20 minutes on cycling lanes from our Lisbon location.
Trains from Lisboa Rossio to Sintra takes 45min and are connected with direct trains once every hour. Trains from Lisboa Cais do Sodre to Cascais are leaving 2 – 3 times per hour.
For day tour to Serra de Sintra it’s a convenient option to catch the train to Sintra in the morning and return from Cascais after your ride. Be careful both trains can be very crowded during the high season. Best to be at the station early to make sure that you find place for the bike.
To cross the river Tejo and leaving Lisbon in direction to Setubal it’s necessary to catch a ferry or a train. It’s not allowed to cross the bridges by foot or bike. We recommend to go on the ferry boat from Cais do Sodre to Barreiro and catch the connecting train from Barreiro to Setubal. This way you can skip the suburban rush at Rio Tejo’s southshore.
Alternatively you can opt for the ferry Terreiro do Paco to Seixal, where you find a cycling lane towards Setubal or the Ferry from Belem to Trafaria, where you start right at the beaches, but need to struggle a bit on main roads on the first 20km.
Public transportation on Portugal is quite economic. Usually every ride costs about. EUR 2,50. Bike transportation in trains is always free of charge. In Porto and Lisbon you need to buy a rechargable card (EUR 0,50). We recommend to choose “Zapping” which is prepaid money charged on the card and valid in the whole metropolis area in almost all transportation.
Both tickets cost EUR 2,45. Bike transportation is free of charge and limited only in the rush hour. Find the schedule directly at CP – national railway company.
Porto
The metro system of Porto connect Porto directly with many major towns in the North of Portugal. So can be reached Aveiro with suburban trains in a little more than an hour. With connection in Aveiro or directly from Porto, Coimbra is only 90min away. All Metros leave from Sao Bento station, but also stop at Campanha station.
Regional trains also circulate between Porto and Braga or Viana do Castelo, which are ideal start locations to discover the North of Portugal including Geres National Park.
Along the St. James Way bike transportation is only possible between Porto and Valcenca (at the spanish border), Spanish trains does not accept bike transportation!
The urban trains of Porto also allow to transport bikes free of charge and connect the whole metropolis region of Porto. Prices are very affordable too, but vary on every leg according to the distances. Specially in Porto it is recommended to avoid the rush hours, as you might have problems to get your bike into the train. Between other destinations, the urban trains of Porto connect the metropolis of Portugals north with the citys of Braga (perfect start location for rides to Geres National Park) and Aveiro (perfect to shortcut the way between Lisbon and Porto).
Coimbra, Figueira da Foz, Obidos
Due to the strategic location in the middle between Lisbon and Porto, Coimbra got plenty of train connection, Regional and Inctercity. As the region south of Figueira da Foz is not the most exciting, also a train from Coimbra to Leiria during your route is an option. The long distance trains stop at train station “Coimbra B”.
Figueira da Foz got connecting trains frequently to Coimbra and a few to Caldas da Rainha. Both might be interesting connections as the area directly south of Figueira is one of the more boring parts of the coast and the river valley of Rio Mondego to Coimbra sometimes is challanging due to the wind.
Also Evora, Beja, Caldas da Rainha and Tomar got direct connections with Lisbon, but only a few trains per day. If you decide to get into the train on a smaller station along the way, there might not exist a ticket selling at the station. We recommend to buy your ticket online, but you can also buy in this train.

