Lisbon Airport is recommended as it is an easy drive along the A8 taking between 50 mins to 1 hour depending on traffic.

If you don't want to hire a car then you can take a taxi from Lisbon airport to Lisbon bus station (15 Euros) and there is a direct regular coach service from there taking just over an hour (9 Euros each way).

Alternatively you can fly to Oporto (2.5 hour drive) or Faro (3.5 hour drive).

Bmibaby (www.bmibaby.com) Flies to Lisbon from Manchester; to Faro from Cardiff, Birmingham and East Midlands.

British Airways (www.ba.com) Flies from Heathrow to Lisbon and Gatwick to Faro.

EasyJet (www.easyjet.com) Flies to Lisbon from Bristol, Edinburgh, Liverpool, Gatwick and Luton; to Faro from Belfast, Bristol, East Midlands, Glasgow, Liverpool, Gatwick, Luton, Stansted and Newcastle.

Flybe (www.flybe.com) Flies to Faro from Exeter and Southampton.

Flyglobespan (www.flyglobespan.com) Flies to Faro from Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

Ryanair (www.ryanair.com) Flies to Oporto from Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol, Stansted; to Faro from Stansted, East Midlands, Liverpool and Glasgow.

TAP Air Portugal (www.tap-airportugal.co.uk) Daily from Gatwick and Heathrow to Oporto & Lisbon.

Thomson Airways (www.thomson.co.uk) Flies to Faro from 17 UK airports including Belfast; most frequently from Luton, Doncaster-Sheffield, Manchester and Bournemouth.

Thomas Cook Airlines (www.flythomascook.com) Flies from 11 regional airports to Faro, including Belfast, Glasgow and Cardiff.

By train

The excellent website, www.seat61.com, gives a choice of routes from the UK to Portugal.
For Lisbon, you can take the 10.23am Eurostar from London to Paris and the 15.50 TGV service to Irún on the Spanish border, which connects with the 22.00 overnight Sud Express to Lisbon, which arrives at 11.03am the following day. Cheapest return fare is £209. Book through Spanish Rail (020 7725 7063, www.spanish-rail.co.uk ) or Rail Europe (0844 848 4070, www.raileurope.co.uk).

Car hire
Car rental companies include Avis (www.avis.co.uk); Budget (www.budget.co.uk); Europcar (www.europcar.co.uk); Hertz (www.hertz.co.uk).
Brokers include Holiday Autos (www.holidayautos.co.uk) and Holiday Cars Direct (www.holidaycarsdirect.com).
Rail travel
For timetable information visit the Comboios de Portugal website – www.cp.pt – which has an English-language option.

The Portuguese Tourism Office (0845 355 1212, www.visitportugal.com) Telephone to order brochures and ask questions.