Practical Info
Lisbon Card
This is definitely worth buying. The only decision is for how many days 1,2 or 3 days. The card entitles you to free transport including the train to Sintra as well as free entry to a wide number of monuments and museums. You can purchase it in advance but it is not a virtual card and you still need to collect it. The most convenient place is at the airport and you can then use it to take the metro into the town centre. There are also places in the centre of town.
The 24 hour starts when you use the card for the first time i.e. if you start using it at 1pm it is valid until 12.59pm the following day.
Airport Arrival
The luggage collection at Lisbon airport was chaotic and if you can make do just with hand luggage for your trip I would strongly recommend it. The process for collecting a bag from the hold was to walk the length of the airport to find it and then we had to join a huge queue to get out which took about 30 minutes all very frustrating.
Airport Transport
There were long queues waiting for a taxi and they are more expensive than Uber or Bolt. Therefore if you plan to take a taxi from the airport it is better to use Uber or Bolt. Their pickup point is different to the normal taxi and is located on the ground floor of the short-stay car park (see photo on the transport link)
There is also a direct link by metro or bus which are both cheaper than a taxi. For full details of transport options click
Accommodation
There are obvioulsy a huge number of places to stay in Lisbon from expensive to cheap hotels and lots of properties with Airbnb. There were four of us and we wanted a central 2 bedroom apartment within walking distance of Baixia which is the heart of Lisbon. We found the perfect Airbnb which managed to combine being central but also quiet as it is down a little alley. Our host also arranged for a taxi to pick us up from the airport so we didn’t have to either queue or arrange an Uber on arrival.
