Getting Around Portimão
Portimão has three parts. The working city centre lies on the Arade river, the resort strip of Praia da Rocha is about 2 km away on the coast, and the marina sits between the two. Most hotels are in Praia da Rocha or by the marina rather than downtown, so the address of your hotel matters more than the name of the town.
Portimão station is on the Algarve line, served by regional trains. Intercidades and Alfa Pendular trains from Lisbon call at Tunes, where passengers change. Add the train and its arrival time to the booking, and the car is scheduled for that arrival, in Tunes or in Portimão.
For business and hospitality, the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve is about 10 minutes from the centre. Besides the circuit it has a VIP tower with 48 executive boxes and event rooms for 150 to 400 people. Lagos is 21 km west and Alvor 5 km, both short drives. A round trip covers the ride there and back, with both pickup times chosen by you; for a day at the circuit, hourly service reserves one chauffeur and one vehicle for the hours you choose.
In the centre of Alvor, access for cars is limited by automatic bollards and allowed only in the morning, for loading. Send the full address with your booking, and support will say how close to it a car can get.
Airport Transfers to Portimão
Faro Airport is the airport for Portimão, 70 km east. The transfer takes 1 hour to 1 hour 20 minutes, almost all of it on the A22 motorway. Lisbon, 279 km north, is an option when your flight lands there, and Seville, 264 km away in Spain, only when its flights fit much better; both are drives of three hours or more.
The motorway is the easy part. The last stretch into town, and any journey on the EN125 through the area, is where time goes: the old coast road is busy on summer weekends and at the weekday morning and afternoon peaks. Journey times vary with traffic and weather.
Book with your flight number: your chauffeur checks the flight status and times the pickup to when you actually land, and your booking confirmation shows where to meet the chauffeur. For a departure from Portimão, what counts is the length of the drive, not the time on the clock: 1 hour to 1 hour 20 minutes to Faro Airport, longer on a summer Saturday. You set the pickup time yourself, and the confirmation shows it.
Long-Distance & Cross-Border Travel from Portimão
A holiday in Portimão can continue in the city. Lisbon is about 280 km north, and the move from a beach hotel to one in the capital is one booking, door to door, with the luggage in the same car. Sagres and Cape St Vincent, the south-western corner of mainland Europe, are 56 km west and make a day out on their own.
Seville is 254 km east. The route follows the A22 the length of the Algarve, crosses the Guadiana into Andalusia and continues on the A-49. For a city stay in Seville after the coast, you get the same chauffeur and car from start to finish, with no change of vehicle at the border.
The Portugal–Spain border is an internal Schengen border. Bring the travel documents required for your nationality and your route.
Groups, Luggage & Summer Travel in Portimão
Many groups in Portimão come for the circuit. The Autódromo hosts rounds of the world superbike championship, WorldSBK, which was held there in March 2026, and the MotoGP Grand Prix of Portugal, scheduled for November 2026. Formula 1 is due back in June 2027. Cruise passengers add to the numbers: the port had 56 cruise calls in 2025, and more are expected in 2026.
When you book for other people, all their transfers can be kept in one account, each with its own booking and confirmation; when guests land on different flights, every arrival gets a transfer of its own. A Sprinter van takes up to 12 people with their bags; larger groups travel by coach, with up to 56 seats, chosen to fit the group and its luggage. Race teams' guests, golf bags and beach luggage all count.
The Algarve's high season, June to September, is the time to book early, as are race weekends in the years they are held: local vehicles and drivers are booked up early. If your plans go beyond a standard booking, write to support with the dates, addresses, number of passengers, flights and luggage, and the team will arrange it.
