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| Porto metro: click on the picture to enlarge |
Metro is cheap and convenient way to get around Porto. For example, trip from the airport to the city centre will cost you 1.8 euros and lasts around 30 min (if doesn’t count train waiting time). Be aware, that during holidays and on Sundays especially after 9 there might be quite long (20-30 min) pauses between metro trains, but the good thing is that there is a sign which tells how long is the waiting time until next train and it is quite accurate. So for example, if you arrived to Porto in winter, you bought your metro ticket (you can do it in the tourist office if you don’t have small change inside the airport or there are several machines near metro but you need change, usually 20 euros are not accepted) and you wait for the metro train but there is a sign that it is going to come in 30 min; it is raining and windy - so there is no need to wait outside, check the time and go back to the warm airport and return to the station 5 min prior train departure.
I find that metro in Portugal are very easy to orient in, because it is very well structured. For example, in you need to reach Bolhão station (it is city centre and a lot of hotels are situated there). Both Airport and Bolhão stations have violet line, so you can take straight train from the airport to reach Bolhão without changing lines. Some travelers are confused with zones part. As you can see from attached metro map, the city is divided on zones and depending how many zones you are going to pass the price of the ticket changes.
Two zones cost 1.2 euros, three 1.45 euros and four 1.8 euros. Daily passes are also available. The ticket card itself cost additional 50 cents, so do not throw it away as you can recharge it as many times as you need as well as get it refunded at the end of your traveling on the conditions that you save your receipt of purchase. I actually had several cards purchased as I was frequently forgetting them at home but afterwards I refunded most of them. City centre is one big zone - zone C1 and while travel within it you need to pay 1.2 euros. On each ticket machine there is a table with all the station indication number of traveling zones you will pass, so you can choose the right ticket. Say, your hotel is near metro ‘Casa da Música’ and you would like to go to the train station ‘São Bento’. You check on a table in says z2, so you will need to buy z2 ticket for 1.2 euros. From ‘Casa da Música’ you will catch the train until ‘Trinidade’ (The one to Estádio do Dragão side) than you will transfer to orange line (The Santo Ovídio side) and second stop will be train station ‘São Bento’. To better orientate around, it is better to look for the last station on the line - this way you will know which direction the train goes, it will be written on the train as well as on the board with train waiting time.
The same ticket you purchased for metro you can use for the bus within the time limit of the ticket. Tickets are usually valid for 1-hour and have to be validated. You need to validate ticket each time before you get into your train, make a transfer and as well when you get into the bus.
Tip: first look when is the next train and if it only arrives, for example, in 20 min, don’t validate your ticket right away, wait for 2 min prior the arrival and than press it to validating machine. Don’t forget to validate both your metro and train tickets in Portugal, because there is no control when you get to the regional train or metro, so it is fairly easy to forget to do this, so keep in mind that unvalidated ticket is not valid and you would need to pay a fee in that case.
