Lisbon to Seville by train. Possible?

[507 001]

Hello!

I’m looking at travelling between Lisbon and Seville later in the year. So far the only route I’ve found by train is a mammoth 8hr 30min journey that involves 4hrs 30 mins on a bus....

I’d rather avoid busses altogether, so it’s either fly or train. Can anybody advise what the best way to do this is?

Cheers.

 

[30907]

Unfortunately the obvious route is by train south to the Algarve, and then by express bus taking about 2.5hr.
The only way to avoid buses is to go via Madrid, but that either means an overnight stop or a night train (I would be inclined to go for the sleeper). From Madrid its the high speed AVE.

Seat61 tells you how (select Seville or Madrid)...
https://www.seat61.com/international-trains/trains-from-Lisbon.htm

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

You can get to Vila Real de Santo Antonio by train from Lisbon via Faro (about 5 hours).
There are buses across the border to Huelva in Spain, the terminus of the line from Madrid/Seville. Takes less than a hour.
Then train Huelva-Seville takes 1.5 hours or so.
I'm not sure you can do it like this in one day because of the limited bus times.

The DB planner will give you train times to Vila Real and from Huelva.
I've found this link for the buses (which also run Lisbon/Algarve/Seville).
http://eva-bus.com/pdf/83.pdf
Flixbus run a similar bus Vila Real-Huelva-Seville but at dead of night.

 

[507 001]

Cheers for the responses guys. Looks like flying is the easiest (and cheapest) way!

Thanks anyway!

 

[Chris999999]

There is an alternative via Badajoz, but it cannot be done in one day. It would be best to break your journey in Badajoz. Some of these border towns are quite interesting. They are way off the usual tourist routes and are usually very cheap. I remember staying overnight in Guarda which few foreigners visit, yet was well worth it. Very little English was spoken, but we ordered off the menu from the items we could translate!

 

[Dougal2345]

I didn't have a great experience with Spanish long-distance buses a few years back.

Had pre-booked an "Alsa" bus from Madrid to Lisbon. I turned up half an hour early at the hell-hole that was Madrid bus station, passenger information was hopeless. Joined a long queue for the information desk, but with 5 minutes to go gave up and ran around like a headless chicken until by luck I found the bus I wanted.

This stopped for a half-hour break at a depressing little cafe in the middle of nowhere, filthy toilets plastered with racist graffiti. There was no option to stay sitting in the air-conditioned bus - had to get out in the superheated desert. But got to Lisbon in the end.

Later the same holiday, took another pre-booked Alsa bus from Vilar Formoso (which I'd reached by train from Lisbon) to Salamanca. Although I'd looked up the exact spot and time to wait, there was more confusion. Can't remember the details, but I think the coach arrived and departed unexpectedly early, and not from the stop where it should have been, so I was lucky to catch it. Just after I joined, we had another half-hour 'everyone out' stop at a shop on the Spanish side of the border.

 

[dutchflyer]

1.there are-of course-also direct coaches, most by Spanish companies. The major one is closely associated to your Nat.Express.
On movelia.es you can book online.
2.the direct coaches PT/Algarve (Faro)_SVL/ES - afaik-only run summerseason. Mostly the 2/day, on both sides sending of the national one mornings to return back home late afternoon.
3.Note that in the Spanish town of Ayamonte (which you reach by hourly ferry from PT side, not adjacent but not far form CP-estacao) the BUSstation is on the other side of town where the ferry lands-quite a walk and of course not signposted (but that was many years ago when I did this on an InterRail), some of these to Huelva run onward to Sevilla(then its best to swallow trainpride and sit on). In Huelva train and bus is also not adjacent, but close by. Having some maps on your smartyfone would be helpful. However, somehow I recall this ferry is now suspended-but not certain about this.
My trip was by then still running overnight local from LIS/in fact the far side to get by ferry) via Faro to Vilar Form.
4.off-season the only direct train LIS-MAD is te overnight, so you cannot avoid that, then hourly AVE superfast to SVL.