Lisbon without the queues: tram 12E and the Prazeres cemetery

Lisbon has too many famous queues for anyone to reach what stands right beside them — and beside them is usually the same thing, without a ticket and without the wait. Here are ten, each with an address and the days it runs.

The order is geographic where possible: Mouraria, Graça, the Pantheon and Alfama go together in one afternoon, and Prazeres and LX Factory sit on the same side of town, at the end of the 28 line and one stop beyond.

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Tram 12E instead of 28

Line 12E is a short loop: Praça da Figueira – Martim Moniz – up past the cathedral – Portas do Sol – back down. The same yellow 1930s Remodelado carriages, the same hill and the same view as the most famous stretch of the 28 — without the queue the 28 draws at Martim Moniz. The ride takes about twenty minutes; the fare is €1.72 with zapping on a Navegante card, more from the driver. If you really want the 28, board at the Campo de Ourique (Prazeres) terminus — you get a seat, because everyone else boards at the other end.

Santa Justa and the funiculars are stopped — only the Graça one runs

After the Glória funicular accident on 3 September 2025, in which sixteen people died, Lisbon halted all its historic lifts: Glória, Lavra, Bica and the iron Santa Justa lift of 1902 stand idle until they are cleared as safe, and no reopening date has been confirmed for Santa Justa. Carris is replacing Glória and Lavra with entirely new installations. The only one running is the modern Graça funicular, reopened on 30 April 2026: from Rua dos Lagares in Mouraria, by Martim Moniz, up to Largo da Graça, daily from 7am to 9pm. The on-board fare is €4.30 for two rides, and a monthly Navegante pass covers it. At the top is the Graça viewpoint, with Senhora do Monte ten minutes further on.

The viewpoints that cost nothing

Lisbon has a dozen official miradouros, all free, each looking at a different part of the city. One of the highest is Senhora do Monte in Graça — pines, benches, the whole city underneath; Graça, lower down, has a drinks kiosk. Portas do Sol and Santa Luzia face Alfama and the river, and that is the view people buy castle tickets for. São Pedro de Alcântara looks across the valley to the castle, and Santa Catarina (Adamastor) is for sunset over the bridge. Jardim do Torel, above Avenida, is a small park on the edge of the hill. Not one has a ticket desk.

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Feira da Ladra, Tuesdays and Saturdays

The city flea market on Campo de Santa Clara, behind the National Pantheon, runs Tuesdays and Saturdays from nine to six, rain or shine, and has done since the 13th century. On sale: azulejo tiles stripped from demolished facades, fado records, medals, keys, fishing nets and a great deal of rubbish, and among it things worth buying. Prices are haggled and cash is essential; go at opening time. Getting there: tram 28 to Voz Operário, or fifteen minutes uphill from Alfama.

Cemitério dos Prazeres

At the tram 28 terminus, in Campo de Ourique. A cemetery opened in 1833 after a cholera epidemic, laid out as a small city: named streets, family mausoleums built like cottages, and at the end of the main avenue a view of the 25 de Abril bridge. Entry is free, daily, during the day. Pair it with the Mercado de Campo de Ourique two blocks away, where lunch is eaten at counters of cooked food. If you're riding the 28 to the end of the line, get off.

Where to stayWhich neighbourhood puts tram 28 on your doorstep?Where to stay in Lisbon →

The National Pantheon — the terrace round the dome

Santa Engrácia on Campo de Santa Clara took so long to build (1682 to 1966) that 'obras de Santa Engrácia' became Portuguese for a job that never ends. Today it is the national pantheon: the tombs of Amália Rodrigues and cenotaphs for Vasco da Gama and Camões. The ticket is €10, and the reason to go is the lift to the terrace around the dome — a full circuit over Alfama, the river, the container port and the bridge, from a height no viewpoint gives you. Closed Mondays. On Tuesdays and Saturdays the flea market is at the door, so do both together.

The Tile Museum, Rua da Madre de Deus 4

Three kilometres east, in the Madre de Deus convent of 1509, a museum devoted to a single object — the tile. The museum is closed for renovation with no reopening date announced, so check the official site before you go; the ticket is €10. Two things stay with you: the convent church, lined floor to ceiling in gold and blue tiles, and a 23-metre panorama of Lisbon painted around 1700 — the city before the 1755 earthquake, street by street. The café is in the old cloister, tiled with kitchen scenes. Bus 794 or 759 from Praça do Comércio, about twenty minutes.

LX Factory, and why on a Sunday

An 1846 textile works in Alcântara, under the 25 de Abril bridge: two streets of sheds turned into workshops, cafés and the Ler Devagar bookshop, in the old print works with shelves to the ceiling. Free to walk into any day, but on Sundays a market fills the main street — old things, records, clothes and food, roughly 11 to 18 — and that is when it is alive rather than an empty yard. Getting there: tram 15E to Calvário or bus 714 from Praça do Comércio. For the view straight up at the bridge, walk to the end of the car park.

Day tripsThe Cascais train stops right below the bridge:Day trips from Lisbon →

Ginjinha, and where to eat outside the centre

A Ginjinha, Largo de São Domingos 8, open since 1840, is a counter the size of a wardrobe that you stand at on the street. The sour-cherry liqueur comes in a small glass and you're asked 'com ou sem elas' — with the cherry or without; it takes a minute. For food, the rule is: climb. In Graça and Anjos the tascas do a 'prato do dia' at midday — soup, a dish, a drink and coffee, chalked outside and only in Portuguese; a meal in a tasca is €10–15. A bifana, a pork sandwich in a white roll, is eaten standing, as at Casa das Bifanas on Praça da Figueira. Last rule: photographs on the menu and a man calling you in from the door — walk on.

Sintra has six ticketed palaces, and a day fits two, three at most. The practical choice: Pena 'Essential' at €20 gives the palace and the park, and that is enough — the dearer 'Complete' adds a few rooms. The Moorish Castle (€12) is the walk downhill from Pena, with no interior, just the ramparts along the ridge. The National Palace in the town is the one to drop if you only have a day and a clear sky, and Convento dos Capuchos and Monserrate belong to a second visit. One hack: from the centre of Sintra a free, signposted path climbs through the Vila Sassetti estate up to the road for the Moorish Castle, skipping the bus 434 queue, in about thirty minutes.

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