Faro Airport to Lagos
About 90 km west — the far end of the Algarve. The summer Aerobus runs direct, otherwise it's a coach or train via Faro, a long taxi, or a hire car on the A22.
Lagos, FaroDronepicr / Wikimedia, CC BY 3.0Lagos is a historic western-Algarve town with a walkable old centre, a maritime past you can still read in its fort and church, and the golden cliffs and grottoes of Ponta da Piedade just south.
Every way to get there
Our verdict: for Lagos, a private transfer is the easiest door-to-door option (from €80). Travelling light on a budget? The bus is cheapest (from €11) but slower, with a change in the city.
What it costs for your group
The bus is charged per person, while a taxi or private transfer is one price for the whole car — so the more of you there are, the better door-to-door value looks.
| Group | Bus (per person) | Private transfer | Best value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solo · 1 traveller | €11 | €80 | Bus |
| Couple · 2 travellers | €22 | €80 | Bus |
| Family of 4 · 4 travellers | €44 | €80 | Bus |
Which option should you choose?
| If your priority is… | Our pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest price | Bus | From €11, though slower with a change in the city. |
| Speed & comfort | Private transfer | Door-to-door, fixed price, a driver waiting for you. |
| A group of 3–4 | Transfer or taxi | One flat fare splits cheaper than several bus tickets. |
| A late-night arrival | Transfer or taxi | Both run 24/7 when buses and the tram have stopped. |
By transport mode
Bus / shuttle
Line 56 rolls all the way to Lagos via Albufeira, Lagoa and Portimão in about 2h20; the faster 57 is quicker but limited. Fares run €11–17. High season only — no winter service.
Where to catch it: Aerobus stop on the departures-level roadway outside the terminal.
Best for solo & budget travellersTaxi
Around €90 for up to three passengers and €115 for up to eight, plus A22 tolls. Refuse a larger cab you don't need, as the bigger tariff adds roughly 20%.
Where to catch it: Metered taxi at the arrivals rank; confirm the driver will run the meter for the long motorway trip.
Best for small groups in a hurryPrivate transfer
From about €80 if booked ahead — for a 90 km run the fixed price beats a metered taxi whose total you can't see coming. Book early for the best rate.
Where to catch it: You're met at the terminal exit and driven straight through on the A22, with the motorway tolls already built into the fare.
Best for families, groups & late arrivalsCar rental
About €25–55/day. Worth it out at this end of the coast, where public links are thin and the surf beaches around Lagos and Sagres are easiest with your own wheels.
Where to catch it: Collect the car from the rental counters and lot at the airport; the A22 toll road runs almost door to door.
Best for travellers who want to exploreLagos & Faro in photos
Buying tickets in Faro
Faro airport is linked to the city by the Próximo bus, principally route 16 (with route 14) to the bus terminal and centre, taking about 20 minutes for a single fare of roughly €2.80 paid to the driver. The airport has no train station of its own; the nearest is Faro railway station in the centre, about 6-7 km away, from where regional trains serve the wider Algarve. Carry some cash for the bus, though contactless is increasingly accepted.
Taxi scams & safety in Faro
Faro is low-key, but still use the marked taxi rank outside arrivals rather than any driver approaching you. Metered taxis into Faro city are short, typically around €10-16, a little more at night, on weekends, or with luggage and tolls, so confirm the fare basis before setting off. Uber and Bolt both operate at Faro airport and are often cheaper and more transparent than a metered cab; request the car in the app and meet it at the designated ride-hail pickup point.
Getting from FAO to Lagos
Lagos sits about 90 kilometres west of Faro Airport, which makes it the furthest of the beach towns most people fly in for. It is also one of the few Algarve runs where public transport genuinely reaches the door rather than dropping you two towns short. The catch is that the good option only exists in summer, and the fallback plan leans on a change in Faro that eats more of your day than the map suggests. If your reason for coming is Ponta da Piedade and the long sweep of Meia Praia, here is how the hour-plus west actually plays out.
The Aerobus to Lagos disappears every winter
Between roughly May and October, the Vamus Aerobus (line 56, with the quicker but thinner line 57) leaves straight from the departures-level roadway outside the terminal and runs all the way to Lagos. There are about six departures a day and the fare sits somewhere around €11 to €17. Line 56 is the workhorse, calling at Albufeira, Lagoa and Portimão on a journey that stretches to roughly two hours twenty; line 57 trims that but runs far less often, so you take whichever one lines up with your landing. This is the single best-value way to reach Lagos when it operates. The problem is the calendar: outside high season the service simply is not there, and a spring or autumn arrival leaves you with nothing direct at all.
The train-via-Faro plan quietly eats your afternoon
The other public route people find online is the train, and on paper the Algarve line running west to Lagos looks tidy. In practice you cannot board it at the airport. First you take the local bus into Faro, then you walk or transfer to the mainline station, then you wait for a westbound service, and only then do you start the actual journey along the coast. Each of those handovers is short on its own; stacked together with luggage and a fixed connection you can miss, they turn a one-hour idea into a half-day one. A coach out of Faro's bus terminal has the same shape of problem. None of it is expensive, but the string of changes is exactly why plenty of travellers headed this far west stop pricing the chain and just book a car to the door instead.
One fixed fare for the whole 90-kilometre haul west
Because Lagos is so far along the A22, a pre-booked private transfer earns its keep on this route more than on the short hops near the airport. A driver meets you at the terminal exit and takes the motorway almost the whole way, with the A22 tolls already folded into a price that starts around €80 when you book ahead. On a run this long, that fixed number is the real advantage: you know the total before you land, which you never quite do with a metered taxi ticking over toll gantries. Booking early tends to secure the lower end of the range. A rank taxi will also do it, at roughly €90 for up to three people or about €115 for up to eight, plus those tolls on top. If you take one, ask the driver to run the meter before you set off, and turn down a larger eight-seater you do not need, since the bigger tariff adds around a fifth to the bill.
Renting when Sagres and the surf are the plan
This is the corner of the Algarve where your own car stops being a luxury and starts being the sensible choice. The rental desks sit inside the airport, a day runs about €25 to €55, and the A22 delivers you almost to Lagos without a junction worth worrying about. Once you are based there, the payoff keeps coming: the surf beaches strung out toward Sagres, the cove at Ponta da Piedade, the quieter sands west of town, are all awkward to reach on the thin bus network and easy with a set of keys. If your trip is the cliffs and the coast rather than a single hotel pool, the car pays for itself in the days after you arrive, not just on the ride in.
So the decision comes down to timing and appetite. Land in high summer travelling light, and the Aerobus is hard to beat for the price. Land off-season, or with a group and bags, and the maths tips toward a booked transfer whose fare you can see in advance. Planning to chase beaches beyond Lagos itself? Collect a car at the airport and skip the connection puzzle entirely. Check whether your dates fall inside the Aerobus season before you commit to anything, because that one detail decides which of these is even on the table.
