Practical tips learned from our 5-day stay in Lisbon

Posted by Phaser on 11/18/25 05:00 PM

I relied on this forum for my research before the trip, so I thought it would be nice to share the practical tips learned from the trip, for the benefit of future travelers.

Walking in Lisbon is not as bad as people made it to be. My wife and I are in our early 50s. We are healthy but not super athelets by any means. Our Airbnb is near the Intendente metro station in the Mouraria neighborhood. We took several free walking tours during the 5 days. Meeting places for the tours were at Praca Camoes and Praca Comercio (main plaza downtown). We walked from the Airbnb to those plazas (25 minutes or so), then walked 2 hours on the tour, then walked back home. Yes, we were tired when we got home, but it's a good kind of tired, without any physical stress, and never felt that "it's too much". So, unless you are obese or have mobility issues, you should be able to explore a lot of Lisbon on foot. It's more fun to do people-watch and sightseeing while walking than going point to point directly to the destination, as we sometimes discover things or run into pleasant surprises during the walking journey.
Bolt is great. When waiting for luggage at Lisbon airport, I noticed a billboard advertising Bolt service with a promotion of 70% discount for the first ride with a code “visitlisbon”. We only used Bolt twice, as we walked most of the time, took Metro/Bus sometimes.
We made the mistake of taking Metro to our AirBnb. The exit from the underground Metro station (Intendente) to street level was by stairs only – no elevator or escalator. Had to carry our heavy suitcase up the stairs – fortunately a passing young man offered to help. The walk to the Airbnb was only about ½ mile, but it was tough dragging a suitcase through the narrow cobblestone sidewalks. So, despite my earlier recommendation of walking whenever you can, don't try to do that with suitcases.
We bought Navegante cards for zapping. It worked out great. However, there is one quirk not well known by tourists: while the Navegante card can be used on metro and bus and tram, if you change the mode of transportation, you will get charged for each separate ride, i.e. no free transfer. But if you stick to the same mode, you only get charged once. (You still have to tap the card on the second or third ride, but it won't get charged.) When we went to Belem from Intendente, Google Map tells us to take Metro then switch to a bus, but it would have cost 1.66x2 euros. Instead, we took 2 buses. It ended up being 10 minutes longer, but it cost only one zap, and it's more fun to looking out of the windows of a bus then being in a Metro underground.
Sintra is wonderful. Most of the attractions can be booked online -- if you buy tickets at least 3 days in advance, there is a 15% discount.

(1) The first day, we booked a walking tour at 11 as a way to get an overview of Sintra, so we took our time in the morning and walked to Rossio station then took the train to Sintra. The tour spent some time in downtown Sintra and around Sintra Palace (the free portion of the grounds), and ended at Jardins do Palacio de Seteais, where you could get a view of Pena Palace far away. After the tour, we kept walking another 45 minutes and reached Quintinha de Monserrate. It’s not as famous as the other 4 main attractions in Sintra partly because it's farther away, but we really enjoyed walking around inside the building as well as the grounds. We were there for 3 hours, but could have spent all day just at this one place.

(2) The second day, we wanted to cover 3 attractions, so we took a Bolt from our Airbnb directly to the entrance of Pena Palace. With the discount code, we paid under 20 euros for the ride vs 17 euros for 2 people if we took the Metro then train then 424 bus, and we saved at least 1 hour.

I am reaching max length on the post. Will finish the post in the reply section.

Posted by Phaser OP

11/18/25 05:48 PM

46 posts

Continuing from the main post:

We bought only the Pena Palace Park ticket without time restriction. We spent about an hour on the grounds of the palace. When we were ready to leave, we saw a sign/map and realized there were a few more attractions included in the ticket but they were spread out (1~1.5 miles walking distance between them). I have done quite a bit of research of Pena Palace before hand, but somehow missed this. Of those attractions, we only had time to visit Valley of Lakes, as it’s on the way to the other exit (closer to Moorish Castle, which is our next stop). There was a Chalet de Condessa d’Edla that I wish we could have visited, but we were pressed for time. In short, if we had time, we could have spent several more hours just in the Pena Palace Park (without going inside).

From the secondary exit near the Valley of Lakes, we left Pena Palace Park and walked 5 minutes to the entrance of Moorish Castle. It was the least favorite of the 4 places we visited in Sintra. The main attraction is the stone wall with parapets that reminded me of a miniature version of the Great Wall of China. But that was it. Very few signs to explain what we were seeing, and it was pretty crowded on top of the walls.

After about an hour, we left Moorish castle via the back way and hiked down a steep path which passed by Casa Hans Christian Andersen, and emerged next to Fonte da Sabuga, a cute roadside fountain with fresh spring water coming out of the pipes for people to fill their water bottles. From there, we walked 20 minutes to Quinta da Regaleira for our 2 PM timed ticket. QR was very interesting. We stumbled upon the Labyrinth Grotto in the far corner of the estate. Honestly I think it’s the second coolest site there, right behind the famous Initiation Well, but it has received little publicity as I don't remember hearing about it during my research. We were at QR for 3 hours, but could have spent 4 or 5 hours.

In summary, our 2 days in Sintra didn't feel sufficient. I mentioned earlier that walking in Lisbon wasn't too bad, but I have to admit that walking all around Sintra was a little more challenging mostly because the distances between the attractions were longer and the shoulders of the roads were narrower. We had our hiking poles for those 2 days and it made a difference.

Last practical tip: where to find public restroom. First of all, you can always go to a cafe and buy a bottle of water or a cup of coffee and ask to use their restrooms. But if you don't want to go this route, here are a few ideas.

(1) At Praca do Comercio, go to the western side of the plaza (when facing the arch, going toward your left), find a sourvenir store with a big flag of "i" for Information. At the back of the store, there is a public restroom which requires a 50cent coin. You can ask the cashier at the store to exchange paper Euros for the coin.

(2) Two blocks away from Praca do Comercio, there is a FREE museum: Museu do Dinheiro (Money Museum). It's closed on Mon and Tue. But when it's open, you can go inside to use the free bathroom and they have a free water dispenser. The museum itself is quite interesting too. A good place to spend a couple of hours AND empty the bladder AND refill the water bottle.

(3) In Belem, at the Coach Museum, there is a free bathroom next to its ticket office.

(4) In Sintra, there is a free bathroom in front of Sintra National Palace. Across the street from Sintra train station, there is an Information office + a coffee shop, they have a bathroom in the basement, but you need to pay 1e. At this price, you may as well go into a different shop and use the 1e to buy a bottle of water and use the bathroom for free.

That's all the important tips we learned from the trip. I am sure there are many smaller things that could be valuable to some people but not necessarily to everyone. Feel free to ask questions below if you want to know more.