Book nowBook the fado dinner on Tuesday a few days ahead, and buy the Jerónimos ticket online: in May the ticket queue in Belém runs past an hour.
Hours, prices and coordinates are from general knowledge; re-check opening times and fares on the official sites the week before you fly.
Three days: Alfama and the castle after landing, Belém and the river, then tiles and the hill viewpoints before the evening flight.
Land at 10:30, the flat is yours from 15:00, so the bags go to a storage shop in the Baixa. Afternoon up through Alfama to the castle, fado over dinner.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →about €1.90 each35 min
Red line from Aeroporto to Alameda, then the green line to Baixa-Chiado; each of you taps your own contactless card at the gate, one tap covers the whole ride.
€5–8 a bagbook online
Bounce and Radical Storage keep bags in shops and cafés on the streets around Rua Augusta, three minutes from the flat; book the morning before and pick them up on the way to check-in.
The big square on the river where the royal palace stood before the 1755 earthquake.
free
Walk through the Arco da Rua Augusta and straight across the square to the Cais das Colunas, the stone steps down into the water. Flat, open and two minutes from the flat; fifteen minutes is enough.
€18–30 each
Plain family restaurants with tables outside and grilled fish; pick one with a handwritten board over one with a man at the door. Bread and olives on the table are the couvert, charged if eaten.
Pick up the bags on the way; it is a three-minute walk.
The Sé is Lisbon's oldest church, a fortress-like cathedral from the 1100s; Santa Luzia is the tiled terrace above Alfama.
uphillfree
Up Rua da Madalena to the cathedral, 8 minutes and about 1,000 steps on polished cobbles; the nave is free.
Five minutes further up to Santa Luzia: tiled benches and the Alfama roofs down to the river. Walking beats the packed tram 28.
The Moorish castle on Lisbon's highest hill, later the royal palace; its walls are the widest view of the city.
about €15 eachday's highlightopen to 21:00
Seven minutes up from Santa Luzia through the lanes, about 900 steps. From March to October the castle is open until 21:00; by five the day crowd thins and the light comes round onto the Baixa.
Buy online to skip the ticket queue, which can be twenty minutes. Walk the full circuit of the walls and the towers; the steps are uneven and unrailed in places. Allow an hour and a half.
Sunset in mid-May is around 20:40; stay on the walls until you go down for dinner.
Fado is Lisbon's song of loss and longing, sung to a Portuguese guitar; Alfama's small tascas are where it lives.
€35–50 eachbook aheadsilence during songs
A tiny tasca where neighbours take turns, such as A Baiuca on Rua de São Miguel, or a restaurant with professional singers, such as Parreirinha de Alfama; both have a minimum spend.
Book by phone. While someone sings: no talking, no cutlery, no flash.
Tram 15 to Belém for the Jerónimos Monastery, the custard tarts and the river front. Afternoon at LX Factory, dinner at the Time Out Market.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →35 mincard may not work
Get off at Mosteiro dos Jerónimos. The long modern trams on line 15 may not take bank cards, so have a Navegante card with credit on it (see How to pay for transport).
The monastery built with the profits of the spice trade from 1501; Vasco da Gama's tomb is in its church.
€18 eachbuy onlineday's highlightclosed Mondays
The ticket is for the two-storey cloister, carved with ropes, sea monsters and armillary spheres; go round the lower level, then the upper. The church next door is free, with its own door to the left; Vasco da Gama lies just inside.
Open from 10:00 to 18:30 in May, closed Mondays. Coaches arrive from about 10:30, so with a ticket bought online you are through before the queue builds. Allow an hour.
The bakery that has made Lisbon's custard tarts to a secret recipe since 1837.
about €1.50 a tart
The takeaway queue outside looks long and moves in ten minutes; for a table, walk past it into the blue-tiled rooms at the back, which are rarely full. Eat them warm with cinnamon and sugar from the shakers on the table.
The Padrão is a 1960 monument to the navigators; the tower is the 1510s fortress at the river mouth the ships sailed past.
free outsidetower under restoration
Cross under the road by the pedestrian tunnel to the riverside, then walk west 12 minutes, about 1,500 steps, past the Padrão to the tower. The tower has been closed for restoration; check whether it has reopened, but the outside is the part everyone photographs.
€20–30 each
A row of family restaurants with terraces facing the park and grills on the pavement: sardines are in season from June, so in May order dourada or robalo, grilled whole. Middle-of-the-road places, not smart and not plastic.
A 19th-century textile mill turned into a street of shops, studios, bars and the Ler Devagar bookshop.
free
Tram 15 back three stops to Calvário, then 5 minutes on foot. Ler Devagar is a bookshop in the old printing hall, with a bicycle flying under the ceiling; the rest is shops for things you did not know you wanted, and a few rooftops for a drink. An hour and a half is plenty.
The old Ribeira market hall, now counters from well-known Lisbon kitchens around shared tables.
€20–35 eachbusy after 20:00
Each of you picks a counter and you meet at one table; one person holds the table while the others queue. Tram 15 or 18 back from LX Factory to Cais do Sodré, or 15 minutes on foot from the flat.
Afterwards, Rua Nova do Carvalho, the pink-painted street behind the market, has bars open late.
Out of the flat by 10:00, bags to storage, then the Tile Museum. Chiado and the hill viewpoints in the afternoon, the metro to the airport at 18:15.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →€5–8 a bagbook online
The flat has to be empty by 10:00 and nobody is there to keep the bags: book the same storage shop as on the first day, until 18:00.
20 mincard, tap in
From the stop by Praça do Comércio towards Oriente; get off at Igreja Madre Deus. A taxi for three costs about €8 and takes 10 minutes.
Portugal's museum of azulejos, the painted tiles on its churches and façades, in a 16th-century convent.
about €5–8 eachday's highlightclosed Mondays
Open Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 18:00. Rooms run from Moorish geometric tiles to Art Deco; on the top floor is a 23-metre panel of Lisbon's waterfront painted before the 1755 earthquake, the one thing not to miss.
The convent church inside is gilded wall to wall. The café in the old kitchen, tiled with hanging game and fish, is good for coffee. Allow two hours; buy at the door, there is rarely a queue.
€20–35 each
Taxi back, about €9 for three. The square with the jacaranda trees and the ruined Carmo church has a few terraces; the streets off it have middle-range restaurants with tablecloths and a long Portuguese wine list. In mid-May the jacarandas are just coming into flower.
Chiado is Lisbon's old literary quarter; Bertrand, open since 1732, is the oldest working bookshop in the world.
free
Rua Garrett is flat and pedestrian. Bertrand's English shelves are in the back rooms. Outside A Brasileira sits the bronze of the poet Fernando Pessoa at a café table; coffee at the counter inside costs a third of the terrace price.
A two-level garden terrace on the Bairro Alto hill, looking across the Baixa to the castle.
uphillfree
Ten minutes up Rua da Misericórdia, about 1,200 steps, steady but not steep. The castle you climbed on Tuesday is straight opposite, with a tiled map naming what you see. A kiosk sells drinks.
A 19th-century quarter of painted mansions round a garden with a cedar trained into a 25-metre parasol.
free
Seven minutes further along the flat ridge. Sit under the cedar, then the Embaixada, an arabesque palace turned into a gallery of Portuguese design shops, across the road. Leave by 17:40.
35 minat the airport by 18:50
Down to the storage shop, about 20 minutes on foot or a taxi for €8, then Baixa-Chiado green line to Alameda and the red line to Aeroporto. A taxi straight to the airport with the bags costs €15–20 for three.
A contactless bank card or phone works at the metro gates and on most buses and trams; fares change, so re-check on metrolisboa.pt and carris.pt.
On the metro, tap a contactless card, Apple Pay or Google Pay at the gate; a ride is about €1.90 and covers the whole network. On Carris buses and trams, tap the reader by the driver. Foreign cards work. Each of you needs your own card or phone: one tap pays for one person.
The long modern trams on line 15 to Belém have been reported not to take bank cards. Buy a Navegante card (€0.50) at any metro machine, load €10 of credit ("zapping") and tap it like a bank card; one card each.
After the Glória funicular crashed in September 2025, the city's funiculars and the Santa Justa lift were stopped for inspection. Check carris.pt to see which are running; this plan walks up the hills instead, and every climb is under fifteen minutes.
Lisbon's pavements are small polished limestone cobbles, slippery on slopes and in rain. Wear trainers with a rubber grip, not leather soles; Alfama and the castle are steep on both sides.
The bread, olives, butter or cheese put on the table before you order are the couvert, charged per item if you touch them; send them back if you do not want them. Tipping is not expected; round up or leave 5–10% for good service.
A flat has nobody to keep the bags before check-in or after check-out. Bounce, Radical Storage and Nannybag keep bags in shops and cafés around the Baixa, booked online, €5–8 a bag for the day; book a place on Rua Augusta or the streets beside it.
For three, 3 days and 2 nights in Lisbon, staying in the Baixa. Covers the flat, city tax, transport, bag storage, tickets, every meal and coffee and a buffer. Flights are not included.
| Item | Economy | Comfort | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flat in the Baixa, 2 nights | €320 | €520 | €160–260 a night for a three-bed flat |
| City tax | €24 | €24 | €4 a person a night, paid to the host |
| Metro, trams, buses, taxis | €35 | €75 | Comfort adds taxis on day 3 |
| Bag storage, two days | €30 | €48 | 3 bags × 2 days × €5–8 |
| Castle, Jerónimos, Tile Museum | €114 | €114 | About €38 each |
| Lunches | €170 | €290 | 3 lunches for three, at the prices on the stops |
| Dinner with fado | €105 | €150 | Minimum spend €35–50 each |
| Time Out Market dinner | €60 | €105 | €20–35 each with a drink |
| Breakfasts, coffee, custard tarts, drinks | €90 | €135 | €15–22 a person a day |
| Buffer | €60 | €100 | Bookshop, a rooftop drink, a wrong turn |
| Total | €1,008 | €1,561 |
Realistic figure: About €1,200–1,350 for three, without flights
Cards work almost everywhere, and on the metro gates. Keep €20–30 each in cash for the fado tascas, which are sometimes cash only, and for the custard tarts and small cafés.
All of them: the WayFriend guide library.
