Cherry Train to Fundão: Day in Cova da Beira

There are many ways to get to Fundão in June, but only one skips the A23 traffic, serves you breakfast on board, and drops you off in the middle of the cherry orchard you were trying to find on Google Maps. It is the Fundão Cherry Circuit, the tourist train run by CP (Comboios de Portugal) with the Fundão Municipality, operating during the cherry harvest, from late May through the third week of June. If you have never done it, it is the most complete full-day trip you can book in this region without having to juggle car, lunch, and tastings yourself.

What it actually is

It is not the regular Alfa Pendular. It is a chartered tourist train with an on-board guide and stops designed for first-time visitors to Cova da Beira. The outbound leaves Lisbon-Santa Apolónia at 8:15 AM, arriving in Castelo Branco at 11:03 AM. From there, a coach transfer takes you up to Alcongosta for a regional lunch, then to an orchard for hands-on cherry picking, then back to Fundão for more tastings before the train leaves Fundão at 7:25 PM, reaching Santa Apolónia at 10:50 PM. It is a long day. But it is a day you spend not driving, not parking, and not asking someone to mind the bottle of cherry liqueur you just bought.

For 2025, CP scheduled seven departures between May 31 and June 21. The 2026 calendar usually follows the same pattern, aligned with the harvest and with the Festa da Cereja in Alcongosta, which this year runs from June 12 to 14. Check exact dates on cp.pt before booking.

Prices and booking

• Adult: €86
• Child (4 to 12 years): €55
• Groups: specific rates, contact CP directly
• Booking: cp.pt/rota-cerejas or in person at any CP ticket office

The fare includes the round-trip train ride in comfort class, the Castelo Branco-Alcongosta-Fundão coach transfer, the guided visit to the Casa da Cereja in Alcongosta, the regional lunch, a visit to a working orchard with hands-on picking, and a tasting of cheese from Quinta do Pomar (named best cheese in the world at the 2024 World Cheese Awards). What is not included is a full stomach, that one is on you: there is always more food than you can fit.

One warning: tickets sell out. The 2025 campaign was sold out weeks ahead for most dates. Book as soon as sales open, usually in April or early May.

What you actually see

Casa da Cereja, Alcongosta

Alcongosta is the village that lives off cherries. Not as a marketing line: many family calendars here are still set by the April blossom and the June harvest. The Casa da Cereja, set inside the village, is a small but honest visitor centre about the Saco do Fundão cherry variety, the production cycle, and why this specific cherry reaches symbolic auctions above €800 per kilo (it happened in May, at the opening auction of the 2026 campaign). The guided visit lasts 30 to 40 minutes. The best part is the conversation with the staff, not the panels.

Regional lunch

Lunch changes year to year, but the base is Beira cuisine: cured sausages, sheep cheese, soup, a main meat course, and, by definition, a cherry-based dessert, usually the famous pastel de cereja or a reinvented conventual sweet. The programme says traditional restaurant, without naming which one, due to capacity logistics. It is not a gourmet lunch, it is a well-done, generous one. House wine is not headlined in the brochure, but it does tend to show up at the table.

Orchard with hands-on picking

This is the part that earns the ticket. Stepping off the coach, walking into an orchard with branches bent to the ground, and having a grower explain how to spot a ripe cherry without bruising it is something you cannot fake at a supermarket. Bring a bag, you can pick and take cherries home. Kids go feral, run straight to the trunk, and come back with the face of someone who just figured out the food chain.

Practical tips

• Clothing: layers. You leave Lisbon cool, at noon the orchard is 28°C, late afternoon in Fundão cools again. Trainers or shoes with stable soles. Orchard ground is loose dirt and some stones.
• Hat and sunscreen: picking happens in open sun between 2 and 4 PM.
• Extra bag: for cherries you will want to take home. Buy one at the Casa da Cereja if you forget.
• Camera: the orchard shots with the Gardunha mountain behind are genuinely good, no filters needed.
• Cash: bring some for small producers selling liqueurs, jams, and cherries in syrup beside the coach.

Worth staying an extra day?

It is, very much. The train is designed as a Lisbon day trip, but if you can stretch it to two or three days, you get time to visit Castelo Novo, hike up the Gardunha, and see the region without the return clock pressing. For accommodation, Rustic House Fundão is the most central pick, Gardunha Apartments work well for families, and Casas da Mina Hostel is the budget choice. For an end-of-day drink, Zona L Bar has a terrace and Beira wines at sensible prices.

To set the wider scene, also read our guide to Fundão cherries in June. And if you come in April instead, with cherry blossoms rather than fruit, the blossom guide has the right viewpoints.

The best moment

For me, it is the half hour right after lunch, when the coach pulls up at the orchard gate and nobody has stepped off yet. The guide is telling the story, the grower waits with baskets, and ahead of you is that red patch you usually only see in photographs. It is a short moment. Then you step in, eat three cherries too many, and the afternoon unfolds. But those two minutes before are worth the ticket.