Hi. We will be in Lisbon on March 22nd from 1-9 p.m. as a cruise stop. We have never been to Lisbon before. I have listened to Rick Steve's walking tour of Lisbon a couple times and read some travel articles but can't seem to get a plan in place about what to see and do in our very limited time in Lisbon. Seeking recommendations from people with first hand Lisbon experience. We are most comfortable using public transport to get around cities. Enjoy history, art and architecture.
Posted by
Vancouver, BC, Canada
1318 posts
If it were me...:
Eat lunch on the cruise ship so you don't waste valuable time on another meal in Lisbon.
Request a Bolt ride, about €9, 20 minutes to Campo de Ourique and line up for Tram 28.
Campo de Ourique is the far end of the line and fairly non-descript. The tram 28 lineup here is shorter compared to the other busier end. You can still expect to wait about 20-30 minutes before you get to the front of the line. You can pay cash or credit €3 pp on the tram. You could save 50% if you bother to get a viagem metro card. Quite frankly, time is more valuable than money and for a one-day visit, the metrocard is not necessary in my opinion. You will be mostly walking and if you need to get from point a to point b quickly, a bolt ride is much faster and not that expensive in Portugal.
If you have to, wait for the next tram so that you can get a window seat on the right hand side of the tram which has the better views going from that direction.
You do not want to go on the tram if there is only standing room, because it would be a big waste of your time. You will not see anything. Ride it all the way to the end of the line at Martim Moniz if you want to say that you did the whole route.
You do not want to get off and to try to get back on because once again you will be wasting a lot of your time in lineups. It would be a good idea to preview the ride online so that you can look for some of the sites on the way.
You could get off at Martim Moniz which is the very end of the line for the full experience. At this time, you will have used up 1.5 to 2 hours.
Alternatively, you could get off at Graca, about five stops earlier, which is the highest point of Lisbon, enjoy the view, and retrace the route on foot. This way, you will be walking downhill which is very important in Lisbon. You could then visit the Lisbon cathedral and another viewpoint on the way down.
You could then go down to Praça do Comércio, explore Baixa, Chiado, Bairro Alto and maybe end up at Pink Street or Timeout Market for dinner and drinks. There are so many things to see and do in Lisbon. You can read Rick Steve's guidebook and plan specific places to visit in these areas. Then you could catch a bolt ride back to the cruise ship.
As for food, any seafood restaurant is good. If you are only in Portugal for 8 hours and have one meal, any fresh seafood will taste great. Quite frankly, I found that after 8 days, the fresh seafood in Portugal became quite boring.
I'm not saying that this is the best way to visit Lisbon. There are hundreds of permutations and so much depends on what you are interested in. There's only so much that you can do with 8 hours.
Posted by
OP
27 posts
Thanks for the recommendations! Our transatlantic cruise leaves Saturday. Excited!