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Transport in Porto
The “Aeroporto Francisco de Sá Carneiro” (Porto’s airport) is the main aerial hub of northern Portugal; it is located around 15Km at the north of the city center in the zone of “Pedras Rubras”. The national airline of Portugal is “TAP”, which provide connections with Lisbon and several cities in Portugal. Nevertheless, there are also other local and international airlines like Air France, Portugalia, EasyJet, Brussels Airlines, Air Berlin, Iberia, Lufthansa amongst others; which offer connections with cities like Dublin, Frankfurt, Cologne, Stuttgart, Liverpool, London, Milan, Paris, Marseille, New York, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Caracas,etc.
Many people arrive to Porto by bus; there are at least 5 departures from Lisbon every day. The trip from Lisbon to Porto lasts around 4 hours and cost about 14 euros. The bus service from Porto to Lisbon is provided by the national bus company “Rodoviaria Nacional”. The bus station in Porto is located at 366 “Rua Alexandre Herculano”.
Metro of Porto
The local bus service is provided by the company STCP (Serviço de Transportes Colectivos do Porto), which manage also the tram service. This company owns the second fleet of buses in Europe running on LPG gas. STCP offers also a text service, where you can find out when the next bus is due arrive, sending a text message (SMS) to 3001, with the bus stop code (which appear in the right side of each bus); then you will receive a reply with the arrival times of the next 5 buses to the bus stop. Usually the bus service is available from 6:00 to 21:00. There is also a special bus service from the airport (Aerobus), which is available every 15 minutes.
Nevertheless, most visitors arrive to Porto by train from Lisbon to the “Campanha” station and the trip lasts around 2 hours and 45 minutes. “Sao Bento” station is the other train station of the city; it is located at “Almeida Garrett” square in the Downtown. The trains of “Sao Bento” serve destinations in the “Douro” valley and the north of Portugal.
Porto has also a small but very efficient metro network, which is the easiest way to reach the airport or the Downtown. This metro has been in operation only from 2002. There are 5 metro lines which are classified by colors (A:blue, B:red, C:green, D:yellow, E:purple) and reach destinations like Porto, Matosinhos (line A), Povoa de Varzim (line B), Vila do Conde (line C), Vila Nova de Gaia (line D), the Airport (line E). All lines begin at “Estadio do Dragao” (FC Porto’s stadium). You can purchase tickets by putting coins into the machines located at each station, but you must remember that these machines do not accept bills. The cost of the ticket depends on the distance that you plan to travel.
Porto has also a small network of trams, which cover only two routes along the river for 4 Km, from “Ribeira” to “Passeio Alegre” in “Foz do Douro” at west of Downtown and from “Rua do Infante Dom Henrique” to “Matosinhos” at northwest of Porto. Tram service is available from 8:30 to 19:30.
The city has also a nice funicular at Ribeira near “Ponte Dom Luis”in the “Elevador da Lada” or “Funicular dos Guindais”. This service is available every day from 8:00 to 22:00. This funicular allows to reach the “Se” neighborhood.
The taxi service in Porto is quite good and cheap (for the European standards). All taxis in the city are beige and you can find them in many street corners or squares. There are also several agencies, where it can rent a car for reasonable prices. Nevertheless, the best way to know the Downtown is walking; since most attractions are near each other; besides, walking allows you discover some hidden streets, where local customs can be observed.
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Portuguese in Porto
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