Getting around in Lisbon

This is going to be one of those useful posts for those of you heading to Lisbon on how to get around the city. Like many European cities these days, I found the integrated transport system in Lisbon both easy to use and cheap to get around most of the major tourist sites.

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First of all you’ll probably arrive at Lisbon’s Portela airport and many of the articles I’ve read talk about the cost of taxis and how to get the best deal and avoid being ripped off. Some recommend that you walk to the taxi rank on the departures side, to be less likely of getting a taxi driver who will take advantage of your tourist status.

Personally, if you’re staying reasonably centrally, I wouldn’t bother and just take the aerobus service from right outside the Arrivals terminal. You walk through Exit 3 and see the bus stop with the Aerobus sign. The buses go every 20 minutes from here into the city and there’s a map on the bus stop showing the route and the stops.

At this point it’s a good idea to know roughly where you are going and which will be the nearest stop for you, so consult your tourist map. Once you get the lie of the land it’s straightforward as the aerobus route goes through the main artery of the downtown area via Avenida de Liberdade and ends up near the river. Even if your hotel’s not along this route, you can identify a metro stop that is along the route such as Restauradores and alight there then pick up the Metro. The aerobus cost us €3.50 and you pay on the bus. It’s worth keeping the ticket as it also gives you a discount off the sightseeing bus.

The next thing that you need to know about is the metro which again is clean, cheap and easy to use, once you’ve bought your travel card. The one you want is the 7 Colinas card which is a travel card you get for either a day or several days and covers you for travel on the metro, trams and elevadors. We bought one for our main sightseeing day for around €7 at one of the automatic machines in every station that take both cash and credit cards.

Although there were instructions in English, it wasn’t that easy to follow which card you wanted, but fortunately there was a helpful lady at the ticket office who came to show us. Once you have your 7 Colinas card, you’re away! I love the freedom of these day cards that enable you to jump on and off local transport without thinking twice – it’s one less thing to worry about when you’re on holiday. The metro system is pretty self explanatory and not huge – there are only 4 lines and they are coded with colours and symbols.

One thing I also enjoyed about the Lisbon metro was that there were tiled murals in many of the stations which made it a pleasant environment – check out these rabbits from Alice in Wonderland, or perhaps it’s some other fairy story.

One of the peculiarities of Lisbon that I might mention at this point are the Elevadores or small tram cars that climb the steep hills of Lisbon. When you see the routes on the map it seems rather peculiar until you get there and see that there’s a central flat area with steep hills on both sides and Elevadors to take you up those hills.

If you don’t get the Elevador it’s not the end of the world as you can still walk, but it’s a steep climb you might not want to do more than once a day. There was an Elevador behind our hotel and we could see it trundling up and down. In fact there are two carriages and as once goes down the other goes up, with the weight counterbalancing each other. You can use the same 7 Colinas card or single tickets for the Elevadors that you use for the metro and trams.

Lastly, there are the trams, some of which are pretty old and quite a tourist attraction in their own right. The one that’s best known is the No 28, which goes from the hill on one side of the city, down into the downtown area and then up the hill on the other side to the Castelo Sao Jorge. It’s definitely the one to take to save you legs up to the Castelo but is worth taking the trip just as a sightseeing ride, although pretty busy in high season, when you should watch out for pickpockets.

The other main tram route that we took was the one from Cais de Sodre station out to Belem to see the Monastery of Jeronimos – I think it was the 15A. The tram is the main public transport out to Belem as the metro doesn’t go there. Of course there must be loads of other tram routes although we didn’t take any others, but it’s a fun way to get a feel for the city as you watch it pass by your window.

Those were the main ways we used to get around in Lisbon. If you’ve visited the city yourself and have any useful tips, do add them in the comments.

Other Lisbon articles to enjoy

An autumn weekend in Lisbon – Podcast Episode 5
The Monastery of Jerónimos in Lisbon
View of the rooftops of Lisbon

This article is originally published at Heatheronhertravels.com

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