Getting around Lisbon

Before your first ride in Lisbon you need one thing, a Navegante card at €0.50, and after that the choices are small: the metro for distance, the trams for the hills and the suburban train for the coast. The red line drops you into the city about twenty minutes after the airport, while the old funiculars that once shortened the climb are mostly stopped, apart from the one to Graça, so the slope of the street now decides more than the map does.

Aeroporto station sits at the southern edge of the Terminal 1 arrivals hall, and the direct red line from it reaches the centre in about 20 minutes. It calls at Oriente, where trains for the rest of the country leave from one big building, about ten minutes from the airport. If you are staying in the centre for the first time, change at Alameda to the green line for Baixa-Chiado, the usual stop. Contactless bank cards open the metro gates, and for trams, buses and trains you should count on the Navegante card described below.

The Aerobus that older guides still list stopped running in 2023. If you land after the metro has closed, night buses leave the arrivals area for Baixa, Cais do Sodré and Oriente, and taxis wait outside the halls at any hour. The ride to the centre is short, about fifteen minutes.

Where to stayWhich district the metro leaves you in front of:Where to stay in Lisbon →

One card, three ways to pay

The small card is the Navegante Ocasional, €0.50, sold from machines in metro stations and valid for a year, and everything else is credit loaded onto it. A single ride on the metro or a Carris bus or tram costs €1.90, the same ride on zapping credit costs €1.72, and a 24-hour ticket costs €7.25. Zapping suits a few rides scattered through the day, and if you expect to ride from morning to night, add up your rides and compare the total with the day ticket before you buy it.

Paying the driver is the dearest way in, with a bus ticket at €2.30 and a tram ticket at €3.30, and the modern articulated trams on line 15 do not accept cash at all, so load the card before you board.

If Sintra or Cascais joins the day, the 24-hour Carris/Metro/CP ticket at €11.40 covers the suburban trains too. Compare it with the ordinary day ticket plus two train rides at €2.05 on zapping and take the cheaper, and if the two come out level, take this one for the sake of one thing fewer to think about.

3 daysThe three-day plan, with the ticket named at every stop:Lisbon in 3 days →

The metro

The metro has four colour-coded lines, blue, yellow, green and red, with 56 stations over 44.5 kilometres. It runs every day from 6:30 until 1:00, with trains every 5 to 8 minutes off-peak and every 3 to 5 at rush hour.

The interchanges a visitor needs are few. Baixa-Chiado joins the blue and green lines under the old centre, Alameda joins green and red, and Marquês de Pombal joins blue and yellow at the top of the Avenida. Rato, on the yellow line, is the stop for Príncipe Real. Cais do Sodré on the green line is where the Cascais trains start, and Santa Apolónia on the blue line lies at the lower edge of Alfama. The metro does not enter the narrow lanes of Alfama or reach Belém. That is exactly where the trams and trains take over.

Six tram lines remain, on 31 kilometres of track, and 45 of the 63 vehicles are the old yellow Remodelado cars. If you want transport rather than atmosphere, take the 15, which runs from Praça da Figueira through Belém to Algés on modern articulated cars and reaches the monastery and the tower without a change. The others are the 12, a clockwise loop from Praça da Figueira past the Santa Luzia viewpoint. The 18 runs from Cais do Sodré to the Ajuda cemetery and the 24 from Praça Camões to Campolide. The 25 runs from Praça da Figueira to Prazeres, and the 28 from Martim Moniz through Graça and Estrela to the same terminus.

Hidden gemsTram 12E instead of the 28, and why nobody queues for it:Lisbon without the queues: tram 12E and the Prazeres cemetery →

Hills, lifts and walking

Lisbon is built on steep ground, and the lifts that used to take the climb out of a walk are not running. The Santa Justa lift and the Glória, Bica and Lavra funiculars have been stopped since the Glória accident of September 2025, and only the Graça funicular, reopened in April 2026, still carries passengers, at €4.30 for two rides. So if you plan a long day, go up a hill by tram or metro and come down on foot. The steep climb from Baixa to Chiado and Bairro Alto now falls to your legs.

Hidden gemsThe one funicular that runs, and what is at the top:Lisbon without the queues: tram 12E and the Prazeres cemetery →

Three stations matter. Cais do Sodré is where the Cascais line starts, calling at Belém on the way, Rossio is where the Sintra line starts, and Oriente is where trains for the rest of the country leave. The Sintra and Cascais trains are suburban services paid for with zapping credit at €2.05 a ride, with no reservation, so you can simply turn up. The timings and what waits at the far end are on the day-trips page.

Day tripsWhich station each train leaves from, and how to reach it:Day trips from Lisbon →

When the metro stops

The metro runs until 1:00, counted from the last departure at each line's terminus, so if you plan a late dinner in Bairro Alto, plan the taxi or the long walk home as well. After that the night buses and taxis are what is left, and the night routes from the airport go to Baixa, Cais do Sodré and Oriente.

FoodWhat to eat before the last metro, dish by dish:What to eat in Lisbon →

BudgetWhat all of this costs a day:What Lisbon costs →

When to goWhen it is hot and when it rains, month by month:The best time to visit Lisbon →