Seven hills over the Tagus — yellow trams, tiled façades, a spice-money monastery at Belém and fado after dark in Alfama
✈ International🛂 Visa — Schengen Required💱 €
€2,212
Est. total budget
5
Days
10
Attractions
13
Meals planned
💡 Recommended trip length for Lisbon: 5 days — Belém's monastery and tower, Alfama and tram 28, a day in Sintra, the Oceanário and a miradouro at sunset.
🗓 Prices & visa rules verified: August 2026
1
Arrival Day
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🔒
2
Day 2 — a free sample of your itinerary
Your unlocked preview day
🥮
08:00
🥮Breakfast
A galão and a pastel de nata at a tiled pastelaria.
€5.45 /person (est.)
🏛
09:15
🏛Praça do Comércio & Baixa· Baixa
🕒 Open all day · The square is free and always open. The Santa Justa lift queue is absurd — walk up through Carmo from Largo do Carmo instead and the viewing platform costs a fraction. The Rua Augusta arch top is €4 and quieter.
€6.00⏱ 2 hoursculture
Praça do Comércio → Time Out Market
🚶~15 min on foot · Terreiro do Paço (Blue line) → Cais do Sodré
🍤
11:25
🍤Time Out Market & Cais do Sodré· Cais do Sodré
🕒 10:00–24:00 · Last entry 21:30 · Free to enter, you pay per counter. Busiest 13:00-14:30 and 20:00-21:30 — go either side and you will get a table. The traditional half of the market next door is cheaper and where locals actually shop.
Free entry⏱ 1.5 hoursshopping
🥖
12:55
🥖Lunch
The prato do dia at a tasca, or a bifana roll.
€13.62 /person (est.)
Time Out Market → Jerónimos Monastery
🚇~30 min by metro · Cais do Sodré → Belém (tram 15E)
⛪
14:25
⛪Jerónimos Monastery· Belém
🕒 10:00–18:00 · Last entry 16:30 · Closed Mon · Opens 10:00; closes 18:00 May-Sep and 17:30 Oct-Apr. Book a timed slot online — the walk-up queue regularly runs an hour. The church itself is free; the €18 is for the cloister, which is the part you came for. Pastéis de Belém is 300 m east and worth the queue.
€18.00⏱ 2 hoursculture
Jerónimos Monastery → LX Factory
🚇~15 min by metro · Belém (tram 15E) → Alcântara-Mar / tram 15E
🎨
16:45
🎨LX Factory & the 25 de Abril Bridge· Alcântara
Part of your Day 2 — unlock to see the full description, how long to allow, opening hours and the ticket price.
🔒 Locked
🐟
19:00
🐟Dinner
Grilled sardines or bacalhau, with vinho verde.
€22.70 /person (est.)
3
Day 3
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4
Day 4
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5
Departure Day
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🔒 You're viewing 1 of 5 days. Unlock to open the other 4 fully-planned days.
✈️Flights€1,035
Per person · return from India€517.62
Total · 2 adults€1,035
🏨Accommodation€326.92
3-Star hotel · per night (per room)€81.73
4 nights × 1 room€326.92
🎭Attractions & Activities€228.40
Jerónimos Monastery€36.00
Sintra — Pena Palace & Quinta da Regaleira€64.00
Alfama & Tram 28€6.40
São Jorge Castle€30.00
Belém Tower€30.00
Praça do Comércio & Baixa€12.00
Oceanário de Lisboa€50.00
Total (all pax)€228.40
🍽️Food & Dining€361.42
🌅 Breakfast × 4d × 2 pax€43.59
☀ Lunch × 5d × 2 pax€136.22
🌙 Dinner × 4d × 2 pax€181.62
Total food & dining€361.42
🚇Local Transport€80.00
Per person · per day (public transit)€8.00
5 days × 2 pax€80.00
🛂Visa — Schengen Required€180.00
Entry typeSchengen short-stay visa (Portugal)
Fee€90 per applicant
ProcessApply via VFS Global for Portugal + biometrics
ProcessingAbout 15 working days — Portugal's slots book out early, so apply 6-8 weeks ahead
ValidityUp to 90 days in any 180-day period (Schengen-wide)
TipCarry travel insurance, hotel bookings and return tickets for the application.
Estimated Grand Total
Lisbon · 5 days · 2 adults
€2,212
Estimate · 2 adults, 3-star. Your dates, group & final plan set inside the full itinerary.
In your Itinerary
10 attractions
✓ All 10 attractions with descriptions, opening hours & ticket prices. Your personalised day-by-day plan unlocks with the full itinerary.
✓ Day 2
01 / 10
⛪ Jerónimos Monastery
Belém
culture
2 hours
🕒 10:00–18:00
The high point of Manueline gothic, paid for with pepper money from the spice route — a cloister carved with ropes, coral and armillary spheres, and Vasco da Gama's tomb just inside the church door.
✓ Day 2
02 / 10
🏛 Praça do Comércio & Baixa
Baixa
culture
2 hours
The grid rebuilt after the earthquake — a vast riverside square open to the Tagus on one side, a triumphal arch you can climb, and the wrought-iron Santa Justa lift running up to the ruined Carmo convent.
✓ Day 2
03 / 10
🍤 Time Out Market & Cais do Sodré
Cais do Sodré
shopping
1.5 hours
🕒 10:00–24:00
A 19th-century market hall where two dozen of the city's better kitchens run counters around a shared hall of long tables — the easy way to eat well in Lisbon without booking anything.
✓ Day 2
04 / 10
🎨 LX Factory & the 25 de Abril Bridge
Alcântara
shopping
2 hours
🕒 09:00–23:00
A 19th-century industrial yard under the bridge deck, now bookshops, roasters, studios and rooftop bars, with the red suspension bridge rumbling directly overhead every few seconds.
05 / 10
🏰 Sintra — Pena Palace & Quinta da Regaleira
Sintra
culture
6 hours
🕒 09:30–18:30
Up into the misty hills — a romantic palace painted egg-yolk yellow and blood red on a crag above the treeline, then a gothic estate whose garden hides an inverted initiation well you spiral down inside.
06 / 10
🚋 Alfama & Tram 28
Alfama
culture
3 hours
🕒 06:00–23:00
The oldest quarter, the one the 1755 earthquake spared — washing lines over stepped alleys, tiled façades, fado spilling out of doorways at night, and a yellow 1930s tram grinding up through the middle of it.
07 / 10
🏯 São Jorge Castle
Alfama
culture
1.5 hours
🕒 09:00–21:00
Moorish walls on the highest hill, taken in 1147 and lived in by Portuguese kings for four centuries — ramparts you can walk the whole way round, peacocks in the grounds, and the best single view of the city.
08 / 10
🗼 Belém Tower
Belém
culture
1 hour
🕒 10:00–18:00
A small limestone fort in the river, built to guard the harbour and carved with rhinoceros heads and Moorish turrets — Portugal's postcard, and the last thing the caravels saw on their way out.
09 / 10
🐟 Oceanário de Lisboa
Parque das Nações
leisure
2.5 hours
🕒 10:00–20:00
Europe's largest indoor aquarium, built around a single five-million-litre ocean tank you circle on two levels — sunfish, rays, a sea otter pair, and four habitat wings around the outside.
10 / 10
🌇 Miradouro da Senhora do Monte
Graça
leisure
1 hour
The highest of Lisbon's viewpoints — a small terrace under a pine, looking straight down the roofs of Graça and Mouraria to the castle, the river and the bridge beyond it.
✓ All 4 stops on your Day 2 route. Unlock to see all 10 attractions mapped across your full itinerary.
✓ All 10 tips — visa, airport transfer & ways to spend less.
🛬
Airport → your hotel
Humberto Delgado Airport (LIS) is unusually close in — about 7 km, inside the city itself. The Metro red line starts at the terminal: €1.80 on a rechargeable Navegante card (€0.50), roughly 25 min to Baixa changing at Alameda or Saldanha. The Aerobus is €4. A taxi or Uber to the centre is only €12–18 — with luggage and two people it is barely more than the metro. Note the metro has stairs at several central stations; if you have big cases, take the taxi. Verified Aug 2026.
💰
Ways to spend less
Lisboa Card — €31/44/54 for 24/48/72 hours. It covers all metro, tram, funicular and bus travel PLUS free entry to Jerónimos and Belém Tower and the CP trains to Sintra and Cascais. With those two monuments alone (€33) plus a day's transport it pays for itself on day one.
Museums and monuments are free on the first Sunday of the month for everyone — and busy accordingly.
A 24h Carris/Metro pass is €7.25 and includes tram 28, the funiculars and the Santa Justa lift, which cost €3.20-€6 each individually. Two rides and you are ahead.
Skip the Santa Justa lift queue and walk up to the same viewing platform from Largo do Carmo for a fraction of the price.
Order at the counter, not the terrace: Portuguese cafés legally charge more for table service, and the couvert (bread and olives) put in front of you is not free.
🆘
Emergencies
112 — single EU emergency line, English-speaking, free and 24/7. Tap water is safe everywhere in Portugal.
📱
SIM & data
MEO, NOS and Vodafone sell prepaid SIMs at the airport and in any shopping centre; eSIMs work fine. EU roaming plans cover Portugal.
🌤
Best time to visit
March to June and September to October are ideal — warm, long days, and the crowds thinner than midsummer. July and August are hot and packed, and Sintra becomes genuinely unpleasant. Winter is mild (15°C), often bright, and much cheaper, but bring a coat for the evenings and expect some rain.
🚋
Getting around
Get a rechargeable Navegante card (€0.50) and load a 24h pass (€7.25) — it covers metro, buses, all the trams including 28, the funiculars and the Santa Justa lift. Trains to Sintra and Cascais leave from Rossio and Cais do Sodré and are separate unless you have a Lisboa Card. The hills are no joke: this is a city where a two-block walk can be a hundred vertical metres.
🛂
Visa for Indians
Indian passport holders need a Schengen short-stay visa. Apply through VFS Global for Portugal with biometrics; fee ~€90, processing about 15 working days. Portugal's appointment slots are among the hardest in Schengen to get in summer — start 6-8 weeks out, and apply to the country where you will spend the most nights.
🍽
Food to try
Pastéis de nata (best at Manteigaria or Pastéis de Belém), bacalhau à brás, grilled sardines in June, bifanas, and ginjinha from a hole-in-the-wall in Rossio. Vegetarians should be warned that Portuguese cooking is heavy on fish and pork — but Lisbon's newer restaurants and the Time Out Market handle it well.
🚨
Pickpockets on tram 28
This is Lisbon's one real scam risk and it is very organised. Tram 28, the 15E to Belém and the crowded funiculars are worked hard. Bag in front, nothing in back pockets, and be sceptical of anyone creating a sudden crush at the doors. Violent crime is rare — this is a pocket problem, not a safety one.
🌄
Sintra needs a plan
Pena Palace runs timed entry and sells out days ahead in summer; the 434 bus queues can run an hour; and the hill is far too steep to walk. Book Pena first, take the earliest slot you can, and treat everything else in Sintra as optional. Going on a weekday saves an enormous amount of standing around.