Lisbon Travel Guide
First Time in Lisbon
The practical playbook for a first visit — timed tickets versus free sights, Monday closures, navegante cards and the Lisboa Card, the 2026 status of the funiculars and lifts, the bread on your table, and the hills.
Lisbon is one of the easiest European capitals to love and one of the trickiest to navigate efficiently. The city is built on steep hills, the old lanes are paved with slippery limestone, several historic lifts are currently closed, and some of the biggest sights need timed reservations. None of that is a problem if you know in advance. This is the practical briefing for a first visit.
What to book, and what not to. Book the timed entries: the Jerónimos Monastery cloister, Belém Tower — which reopened in May 2026 after restoration and now admits visitors in half-hourly slots — and above all the Pena Palace in Sintra, which can only be visited at your reserved time. São Jorge Castle and the Oceanário are worth buying online to skip the ticket lines. Fado houses are worth reserving, especially at weekends. You do not need to book the viewpoints, the Alfama lanes, Praça do Comércio, the Time Out Market or Pastéis de Belém; just go, ideally early.
Know the closing days. Many national monuments and museums close on Mondays, including Jerónimos, Belém Tower and the Fado Museum, so plan Monday for the castle, the viewpoints, the Baixa or a day trip. The Lisbon Cathedral does not open for tourist visits on Sundays. Several sites close on major public holidays, and the city has its own holiday on 13 June, the feast of Saint Anthony.
Getting around. The metro is clean, cheap and fast, with four lines; the red line runs directly from the airport into the city. Buses and the famous trams are run by Carris. Buy a rechargeable navegante card at a metro station and load it with credit, which is cheaper per ride than paying on board, or buy a 24-hour ticket for unlimited travel. Contactless bank cards work on the metro and on many Carris vehicles but cost more per ride. The Lisboa Card adds free entry to many museums and monuments and includes the trains to Sintra and Cascais. Taxis and ride-hailing are inexpensive by European standards and useful for climbing hills.
The funiculars and lifts in 2026. On 3 September 2025 the Glória funicular, which climbed from Restauradores to the Bairro Alto, derailed and crashed, killing sixteen people. It remains closed, and a completely new installation is planned that is not expected back for several years. The Bica and Lavra funiculars and the Santa Justa lift in the Baixa have also been closed since then pending safety assessments, with no confirmed reopening dates as of late 2026. The newer Graça funicular reopened in April 2026. Older guidebooks and blog posts will still tell you to ride them, so check the Carris website before you plan around any of them.
The hills and the pavements. Lisbon's traditional calçada, the patterned limestone paving, is beautiful and very slippery, especially when wet or worn smooth. Bring shoes with good grip, avoid smooth leather soles, and take your time on steep streets. Plan routes so you go up by tram, taxi or the Graça funicular and walk down. Strollers are hard work in the old neighbourhoods; a baby carrier is easier.
Money and manners. Portugal uses the euro, and cards are widely accepted, though small cafés and tascas may prefer cash for small amounts. In restaurants, the bread, olives, butter and other starters brought to the table without asking — the couvert — are charged if you eat them, so send them back if you do not want them. Tipping is modest: rounding up or leaving a small amount for good service is appreciated but not expected. Coffee is a ritual: order a bica for an espresso, a galão for a milky coffee in a glass. Lisbon also charges a per-person nightly tourist tax of a few euros, collected by your hotel.
Safety. Lisbon is a safe city, but pickpockets work the crowded places, above all tram 28, the Baixa, the Santa Justa area and the viewpoints. Keep bags zipped and in front of you, phones out of back pockets, and be wary of anyone offering drugs on the street in the Baixa and Bairro Alto — the substances sold are typically fake, and buying is a bad idea.
The best views for nothing. The miradouros are free and open around the clock. Start with São Pedro de Alcântara for an overview of the old city, then Santa Luzia and Portas do Sol over Alfama, the Graça viewpoint and the higher Senhora do Monte for the widest panorama, and Santa Catarina for sunsets over the river. The arch on Praça do Comércio charges a small fee but is excellent value.
Day trips worth the time. Sintra is the essential excursion, a forty-minute train ride from Rossio, with Pena Palace on a timed ticket and the town's other palaces and estates around it; give it a full day. Cascais, a former fishing village turned seaside resort at the end of the coastal train line from Cais do Sodré, is an easy half day with beaches and a pretty old centre. Across the river, a cheap ferry from Cais do Sodré to Cacilhas gives you the best views back over Lisbon. Further afield, guided tours reach the walled town of Óbidos, the monasteries of central Portugal, and the beaches and cliffs of the Arrábida coast.
What to skip or do differently. Skip queuing for tram 28 at midday; ride early or in the evening, or take tram 12 around the castle hill. Skip trying to do Sintra in half a day. Skip the restaurants with touts on Rua Augusta and in the busiest corners of the Baixa; walk two streets away for better food at lower prices. And do not try to see everything: Lisbon rewards slowness, long lunches and the habit of stopping for a coffee wherever there is a view.