Santiago to Porto: what works and what no longer does

This is the most asked-about journey once the Camino ends, because flying out of Porto is usually a good deal cheaper than flying out of Santiago, and because plenty of people string the two cities together. The short answer is the bus: three hours ten minutes at best, from 22.99 €, no changes. The long answer is more interesting, because the option everyone types in first, the train, is cut in half until 2027, and that is why half the internet will tell you a route that takes a morning is impossible.

The direct bus, which is the answer

BlaBlaCar Bus runs six direct services a day. What matters is not the fare, which barely moves, but where it drops you: three go to Francisco Sá Carneiro airport and three to the city centre, at Porto-Campanhã station. If you are flying out of Porto, the 08:00 to the airport saves you crossing the city with your bags.

Fares are dynamic and rise as the bus fills, so treat 22.99-29.99 € as indicative: it is what was showing in August for September and October departures. The cheapest is the 16:45 to Campanhã; the dearest, the midday one to the airport.

FlixBus also runs a direct service, at 17:05, 3 h 10 to Campanhã. The departure time is good if you want a full last day in Santiago, but it costs a lot more: between 53 and 80 € depending on the date, across the three dates we checked. None of theirs reaches the airport without a change, and with one you are looking at 3 h 40 to 5 h 55 for 45-65 €. Their option with a change in Vigo, on the other hand, is the cheapest of the lot: 21-23 €, for an hour or two more.

The Valença route, which is a real train

If you like trains and do not mind changing, there is a version that works well: get yourself to Tui or Valença (same border, one bridge apart) and take the CP Regional to Porto from there. That leg is the easy, cheap one: around 11.30 €, between 1 h 30 and 2 h, and 13 or 14 departures a day, so it needs no planning ahead.

The reason almost nobody knows about it is mundane: Rede Expressos is not in Google Maps, and CP does not show up properly either, so the planner tells you there is no way through. There is, and it is comfortable. You just have to look it up on two separate sites.

Side by side, with the catch in each

If you are flying out of Sá Carneiro

Take one of the three direct airport services and ignore everything else. Sá Carneiro is north of Porto, so going into the centre and back out to the airport is forty minutes of metro you do not need to spend. The 08:00 puts you at the terminal at 11:10; the 09:55, at 13:25.

Allowing the usual two hours for an international flight, the 08:00 covers anything from 13:15 onwards, and the 12:25 covers evening flights. For an early morning flight no bus works: you need to sleep in Porto the night before.