My Sketch of the VRSA Train Station

Discovering Vila Real de Santo Antonio

The gentle train ride from Conceição to Vila Real de Santo Antonio (VRSA) takes you through 20 minutes of lush landscape. Along the way we spotted a flock of flamingos, and as we neared this Portuguese border town we saw the expansion bridge that spans the Guadiana river leading to Spain.

Five weeks ago we visited VRSA during our recce of the neighbourhood. What attracted us was the grid layout of the main town area. But after wandering around for a couple of hours, we realised this location wasn’t right for us to settle in, and we continued our search.

Searching for the Flea Market

What drew us back to VRSA was the flea market held on the 2nd Saturday of the month.

As with most of the stations along the Algarve train line, there’s usually at least a kilometre to walk to get to where you need to go, and if you’re heading to a beach location, the walk can be two or three kilometres. But as far a public transport goes, the train is a convenient choice, it’s also a cheap option.

Cost of train from Conceição to VRSA: €2.20 one way, and we scurried to or local train station in time to catch the 8:15am train.

We stumbled on the flea market by accident.

I’d read that the flea market was held at the Praça Marquês de Pombal, and by the time we found the square it was just before 9am, and there was no sign of any stalls being set up.

We assumed it didn’t start until 10am so wandered away to find a snack bar for an abatanado and a pastal de nata. We walked along Rue 5 de Outubro 3 towards Avenue da República. The United Colours of Benetton shop is on the corner of these two streets and on the opposite side of Avenue da República we saw the start of the flea market, that ran adjacent to the Guadiana river.

TIME: 9am to 5pm

Exploring the Flea Market

Last week we went to our first local Antique flea market in Tavira, and although it had a good array of stalls and objects, it seemed more expensive than the VRSA flea market. There definitely seems to be a deal to be had at many of these VRSA stalls, and luckily we’d brought our oversized FNAC bag to carry our spoils home.

Here’s some images from some of the stalls:

It was around 9am and many of the stalls were already set up and ready for paying customers, but many were still setting up. We walked the length of the market, and then walked back to the beginning again to head by to the station, and in the time it took us to do that return exploration, there were many more stalls to explore.

There’s bargains to be had, and many of the stall holders spoke great English. But we’re looking forward to learning Portuguese so we can bargain with them in their local language. Good thing is we’ve got a handle on numbers from 1 to 10, and these came in handy.

Additional Information

The same website that gave the wrong (or old) location, also mentioned that the flea markets are held on the 1st and 2nd Saturday and 3rd Sunday of each month – but I didn’t verify that, and will check again next month when we visit.

There’s also meant to be a Gipsy Market held every 1st and 3rd Sunday of the month. But it’s early days here and I’m not sure about those dates or what is sold at these types of markets.