Madrid to Porto by Bus

I’ve experienced cross-country travel four times, three of which were journeys with Flixbus. I took all of these trips on my own. My first cross-country journey was between Spain and Portugal (Madrid-Porto), which was the longest and the only overnight journey among them. The second and third were between the Netherlands and Belgium (Eindhoven-Liège and Liège-Maastricht), and the last one was between Germany and the Czech Republic (Berlin-Prague). One of the points I was most curious about was the border situation. As I had hoped, there’s no stop at any border during bus travel since you’re traveling within the EU, so the journey continues without interruptions.

It was an approximately 6-hour overnight journey from Madrid to Porto. I didn’t take one of the regular Flixbus buses with the green exterior and logo; instead, a Portuguese company was providing the service for Flixbus. Normally, I had never encountered issues like the internet or charging stations not working, but unfortunately, I faced this problem on this particular journey when I needed them the most. The drivers didn’t speak much English, so I couldn’t ask about it either. As a side note, even though I never used them, the buses do have restrooms.

For this trip, I purchased the seat next to me as well to be more comfortable, and because the prices were reasonable. On Flixbus, you pay extra for seat selection; otherwise, they randomly assign you a seat. If you want to buy the seat next to you, it doesn’t double the price, and you can get it at a more affordable rate. While train and plane prices weren’t very expensive either, I preferred this option since it saved me from paying for a hotel overnight. As you might guess, it was a bit tiring, especially since I find it difficult to sleep on buses, but if that’s not an issue for you, 6 hours is manageable.

Since the bus departs directly from the terminal in Madrid, I had no trouble finding it. You can track where the bus departs from and whether it has arrived at the platform on screens, similar to airport displays. If you arrive early, Madrid’s terminal is convenient for waiting, with cafes and seating areas available. We made a few stops throughout the night, which I tracked on the map. Offline maps were really useful in this regard. I arrived at Porto station very early in the morning, around 5 AM, so I had to wait in a café at the station for a while until it got light outside.