If you want a stress-free itinerary for Portugal, then you are in luck! We traveled as a family to Portugal for six days and Lisbon was our hub. From there, we ventured out to neighboring cities that are close by for a few easy day trips. Even if you are just focusing on Lisbon, there is plenty to do and enjoy in this beautiful city! And the Lisbon Card make it easier to navigate through the transportation and attractions.
In this post, I have put together daily itineraries and which attractions were free or discounted with the Lisbon Card. If reading through this post is not your thing, then watch the video recaps I included instead.
What is the Lisbon Card?
The Lisbon Card is the city’s official travel card. So it provides you with free transportation within Lisbon, to and from neighboring cities and free access to many attractions in Lisbon plus discounted access in neighboring cities. It is a 3-in-1 transport, entry access and discount card. For more all details, visit its official site here.
After tallying up entry fees and transportation fees to where we wanted to go, the Lisbon Card ended up being cheaper and absolutely worth it for us. You can purchase it for one-day, two-day and three-day options. Even if the card does not give you free access to all the attractions, it does give you big discounts to a lot of others, and that still adds up to great savings. Plus because it serves as your access ticket to these attractions, you don’t have to wait in the long tourist lines which is time saved to make the most out of your stay!
I purchased our Lisbon Cards in advance via their official site. Once we arrived in Lisbon, I picked up the cards from the exchange office at the airport. You can also wait to purchase once you arrive in Lisbon at exchange offices located at the Lisboa Welcome Center and Foz Palace.
By the way, you absolutely should bookmark this site. This gives you the latest updates on which attractions are free, discounted or unavailable. For example, while the Monument of Discoveries in Lisbon is free with the Lisbon Card, it was closed for maintenance on the day we visited. So we ended up snapping a few pictures from the exterior. But because the Belem Tower and the Jeronimos Monastery were two attractions still close by and open, the day was not lost.
How We Used the Lisbon Card
The Lisbon Card came in handy on almost all of the days we were in Portugal. Like I said, we were in Portugal for six days and Lisbon was our hub. We stayed at a centrally located Airbnb in the neighborhood of Cais Do Sodre. You can access neighboring cities like Cascais and Sintra for free with the Lisbon Card – which were two definite cities on the itinerary we wanted to visit.
So part of the challenge of building an itinerary from scratch is understanding location and distance. Don’t worry, because I did all that work for you! Just follow the itinerary in the order listed to make the most out of your time and that eliminates the guess work.
Lisbon Day 1 – Lisbon Card
Lisbon Day 2 – Lisbon Card
Cascais Day 3 – Free Transportation
Sintra Day 4 – Free Transportation
Benagil Cave Algarve Day 5
Day 5 Video Recap
I highly recommend you read my detailed blog post on our Benagil Cave, Algarve experience here. Part of travel is learning so I share on what we would have done differently.
Lisbon Day 6 – More Free Attractions
Six days were definitely not enough in Portugal. Other neighboring cities were on our list to visit but we just did not have the time. Of course that is a good thing because we will just have to go back! But regardless, with the Lisbon Card, we were able to do a lot, save money and save time.
Alright, well that concludes our six days in Portugal and how the Lisbon Card came in handy! I hope this gives you a stress-free and easy to follow Portugal itinerary. Or I hope it gives a great starting point so you don’t have to build an itinerary from scratch. If you have any questions, post them below or reach out to me via Instagram on DM.
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