Getting From Madrid to Lisbon

There are a lot of ways in getting from Madrid, the capital city of Spain to Lisbon, Portugal's capital city. I have been researching for the best, the cheapest and the most convenient way to travel from Madrid to Lisbon. Since two weeks now, I have been searching online on how to get to Lisbon and vice versa considering my time and budget.

Here are the the results of the research I made the past weeks in getting from Madrid to Spain for March 2012 travel.

Travel With the Train

You can surely travel from Madrid to Lisbon with the train. Spain's Renfe trains has a daily train travelling to Lisbon. They also have a night train called Trenhotel which departs at 22:25 from Madrid Chamartin train station and arrives in Lisbon at 7:41 a.m which is around 9 hours and 16 minutes travel time. Fares vary from 60.10 € to 203.40 € depending on the type of seats you want to reserve. The train has cafeteria and restaurant, and departs from Madrid Chamartín station (subway: Chamartín, line 10). You can visit their site at renfe.com.

Travel By Plane

I believed this is the most convenient and the most cheapest way for me to go to Lisbon or Lisboa departing from Madrid. I have been searching for the cheapest flights since two weeks now and the most cheapest one I found was from Easyjet. As of today, I found a flight departing from Madrid at 7:40 a.m. on March 13, 2012 cost 12.99 € , return flight on March 15, 2012 at 4:00 p.m. cost 15.99 €. Together with admin fee of 11.00 € and a 20-kilo baggage fee of 20.00 €, all in all the return flight only cost 61.98 €. I found the standard fare in Easyjet flight the cheapest of all.

Other airlines that serve the route Madrid-Lisboa are the Portuguese airlines Bra, Portugalia, Tap Air Portugal. The Spanish low-cost airlines Iberia and Vueling also have good reputation in this route.

By Bus

If you prefer to travel by bus or coach from Madrid to Lisbon, ALSA (alsa.es) run buses to this route. Avanza Bus (avanzabus.com) also runs a service between the two capitals. There are two departures daily from Madrid at 12:00 and 21:00. Departures from Lisbon every 10:30 a.m. and 20:15 daily.

The bus travel time from Madrid to Lisbon takes 7.5 to 8.5 hours or more depending on the traffic situation and what time the bus departs Madrid.

Driving With a Car

If you want to have more freedom when travelling, driving with a car might be the best option for you. Madrid is around 628 km from Lisbon which takes around 6-8 hours depending on the traffic and also depends on the stops and rests you want to make in between your driving. One way estimated fuel cost ranging from 70.00 to 100.00 €.

I believed I am taking the plane when I decided to go to Lisbon next month. I have to finalized this before the end of this week.

Travel trip:
Plan your trip ahead in order to avoid hassles and stress.