Évora from Lisbon: the Intercidades, the Chapel of Bones and a Roman temple

💡 The Short Version: Évora is a CP Intercidades from Lisboa Oriente, 1 hour 36 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes, €13.90 single or €25.50 return in second class. The Rede Expressos bus is cheaper, €21.20 return. Take the 9:02 on a weekday or the 9:58 at a weekend, and come back on the 16:51 or the 19:14, both daily. In town, the Roman temple is free, the cathedral is €5 and the Chapel of Bones is €7, which also covers four more rooms. A tour earns its price only for Monsaraz and the Almendres Cromlech, which the train does not reach. Or book a tour: the Évora, Chapel of Bones, Monsaraz and Alentejo wines dayad (from £60.73) is 9 hours by van.

Getting there on your own

CP’s Lisboa Oriente to Évora and Beja timetable (valid from 6 September 2026), its 2026 fare sheet, and the Évora municipality’s transport page (updated 9 January 2026).

• Train: CP’s Intercidades on the Alentejo line from Lisboa Oriente, calling at Entrecampos and Sete Rios, 1 hour 36 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes. A second-class ticket is €13.90 single or €25.50 return; first class is €18.50 and €33.50.
• Bus: Rede Expressos, 1 hour 30 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes, €11.90 single and €21.20 return, with a terminal about 10 minutes’ walk from the centre (cm-evora.pt). FlixBus lists a fastest time of 1 hour 20 minutes and fares from £2.49 (1 October 2026).
• From the station: it is about 20 minutes’ walk to the old town; the city’s TREVO buses also run to the centre.

Intercidades seats are reserved with the ticket. Check the day’s times on cp.pt before you go. For the metro to Oriente or the bus to Sete Rios, see Lisbon public transport.

Tours from Lisbon

A tour adds the two places a day on your own cannot reach, Monsaraz and the Almendres Cromlech. Prices are GetYourGuide’s lowest “from” price on 1 October 2026; a day on your own costs about €38 with the train, the cathedral and the Chapel of Bones.

Évora, Monsaraz and Alentejo wines

From £60.73 · 4.8 stars from 283 reviews · 9 hours

From Lisbon: Évora, Bones Chapel, Monsaraz & Alentejo Winesad is a small-group van tour to Évora and the hilltop village of Monsaraz, with a stop at the Ervideira winery. The listing says admissions and the wine tasting are included depending on the option you book, so read the options before you pay.

Évora and Monsaraz with wine tasting

From £48.65 · 4.7 stars from 359 reviews · 9 hours

From Lisbon: Évora and Monsaraz with Regional Wine Tastingad crosses the Alentejo to Évora’s Roman ruins and Monsaraz, with a tasting. It is the cheaper of the two Monsaraz tours.

Évora and the megaliths

From £68.33 · 4.7 stars from 574 reviews · 8 hours

Évora and Megaliths Full-Day Tour from Lisbonad takes in Évora and the Almendres Cromlech, a Neolithic stone circle outside the city. GetYourGuide marks it as likely to sell out.

What to see

Allow five to six hours in the old town. The three sights below cost €12 together.

Évora’s Roman temple. Photo: Norbert Nagel, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.

1. The Roman temple. Built in the first half of the 1st century AD in Largo do Conde de Vila Flor. It was long thought to be dedicated to Diana, and the consensus today is that it served the imperial cult (Cultura Portugal). The enclosure is open and entry is free.
2. The cathedral. One €5 ticket covers the cathedral, the cloister, the museum and the panoramic view from the roof. Open 9:00 to 17:00, with the last entry half an hour before closing; closed on the afternoon of 24 December, 25 December and 1 January (evoracathedral.com).
3. The Igreja de São Francisco and the Chapel of Bones. The chapel dates from the 17th century, and its walls and pillars are covered in some thousands of bones and skulls from the convent’s burial grounds; the vault frescoes are from 1810 (igrejadesaofrancisco.pt). The single ticket (€7, €5 for under-25s and over-65s, €15 for a family of two adults and young people) also opens the chapter house, the nativity room, the sacred-art museum, the royal tribune and its terrace, and the Canha da Silva crib collection. Hours are 9:00 to 18:30 in summer time and 9:00 to 17:00 in winter time; summer time ends on 25 October 2026. It is closed on 1 January, Easter Sunday, the afternoon of 24 December and 25 December (igrejadesaofrancisco.pt).

Évora Cathedral’s roof. Photo: Ingo Mehling, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Start with the Chapel of Bones, which has the most to go round, then the cathedral and its roof. Leave the temple for last: it needs no ticket and has no closing time.

A day, hour by hour

A weekend arrival at 11:40 leaves about five hours for the three sights before the 16:51.

Combining it with somewhere else

Évora is one of the day trips from Lisbon. The Porto day trip is the long one: see Porto from Lisbon if you want a full day on trains, and Sintra and Cascais for the short ones. The trains leave from Lisboa Oriente, on the Metro Red Line from the airport: see Lisbon airport to the city centre. For the days in the city around it, see 3 days in Lisbon, and for the bookings in Lisbon itself, what to book before you go to Lisbon.