Lisboa Card 2026: Prices, What It Covers, Is It Worth It

The Lisboa Card costs €31 (about $36, £27) for 24 hours, €51 (about $59, £44) for 48 hours and €62 (about $72, £53) for 72 hours for an adult, and those prices hold until 31 March 2027. In exchange you get free entry to 51 museums and monuments, fast-track entry at 12 of them, and unlimited travel on Lisbon’s metro, buses, trams, funiculars, ferries and suburban trains, including the trains to Sintra and Cascais.

That last part is what usually decides it. The Lisboa Card is a transport pass with a museum pass bolted on, and if you were going to buy train tickets to Sintra anyway it starts paying for itself before you enter a single building. This review sets out the current prices, exactly what is and is not covered, which museums are shut for restoration right now, and the two situations where you should not buy it. Lisbon is the easiest city in Portugal to do on public transport, which is half the point of the card.

Lisboa Card prices

The Lisboa Card comes in three durations and two age bands, and every version carries the same benefits. An adult is anyone over 15, a child is 4 to 15, and the prices below include VAT and are valid until 31 March 2027.

The 72-hour card is the cheapest per day at about €20.70 (about $24, £18), against €25.50 a day for the 48-hour version and €31 for a single day. Lisbon’s own shop is currently running a 5% discount for buying online rather than at a desk, which takes the 72-hour adult card to €58.90 (about $68, £51).

The clock starts when you first use the card, not when you buy it. Fill in the date and time of first use, sign it, and validate it on a bus, tram, train or metro gate. If you start at midday on Saturday, it runs out at midday on Sunday. A voucher bought online stays valid for six months, so buying ahead of a trip carries no risk.

You can buy the card from Lisbon’s own shop or from GetYourGuide, which sells the 24, 48 and 72-hour Lisbon Card with free cancellation up to 24 hours before, which is the safer option if your dates might move.

What the Lisboa Card includes

The Lisboa Card includes three things: free entry, free transport and a long list of discounts. Each is worth understanding separately, because the free entry is the part people overestimate and the transport is the part they underestimate.

Free entry to 51 museums and monuments

Free entry covers 51 museums and monuments, with fast-track entry at 12 of them. The headline sites are listed below, in the order Lisbon’s tourist board puts them.

1. Castelo de São Jorge: the hilltop castle over the Alfama. Use the “Lisboa Card / Residents” queue at the ticket office.
2. Royal Treasure Museum: the crown jewels, in Ajuda.
3. Jerónimos Monastery: the Manueline monastery in Belém, with fast-track entry.
4. Torre de Belém: the riverside tower, also fast-track.
5. Pilar 7 Bridge Experience: the lift up a pier of the 25 de Abril bridge.
6. Lisboa Story Centre: the city’s history museum on Praça do Comércio.
7. Sintra Myths and Legends Interactive Centre: in Sintra, reachable free on the train.
8. National Palace of Mafra: the baroque palace and library at Mafra.

Beyond those, the free list runs through the National Pantheon, the Ajuda Palace, the Museu do Ar, the NewsMuseum, the Arco da Rua Augusta, the Estufa Fria glasshouse and a long tail of regional museums as far out as Batalha, Alcobaça and the Convento de Cristo in Tomar.

Free transport across the whole network

Transport is where the card earns its keep, and the coverage is wider than most people expect. Portugal’s national rail operator sets out what is included, and the list is below.

• Metro: all lines and the full network extension, including the red line out to the airport.
• Carris: every bus, tram, lift and funicular in the city, tram 28 included.
• CP suburban trains: the Sintra line between Lisboa Rossio or Oriente and Sintra, the Cascais line between Cais do Sodré and Cascais, and the Azambuja line between Santa Apolónia or Oriente and Azambuja.
• Fertagus: trains across the river between Roma-Areeiro and Setúbal.
• Transtejo and Soflusa ferries: the river crossings to Cacilhas, Trafaria and Barreiro.

The card is only valid as far as the stations named. Travel beyond them and you buy a normal CP ticket for the rest.

Discounts on everything else

Discounts run from 5% to 50% on local services, tours and cultural activities, and from 5% to 10% at participating shops. The pattern is that municipal and national sites tend to be free while privately run attractions are discounted, so the Oceanário, the zoo, the Pavilhão do Conhecimento, Quinta da Regaleira and the Sintra palaces all cost money with the card, just less of it. For a discounted attraction you show the card at the ticket office and pay the difference; you cannot use it to walk in.

What the Lisboa Card does not cover

Five limits matter enough to change a plan, and none of them are obvious on the box. They are listed below.

1. Belém Tower and Jerónimos Monastery need a reservation. Both have a daily cap on Lisboa Card entries, and you book with your card number once you have the physical card. Turning up on the day with a valid card is not enough at either site, and Lisbon’s own shop says so in response to visitors who found out the hard way.
2. Concession rates are not matched. The card has one adult price. If you are over 65 or a student with valid ID, many sites already sell you a reduced ticket, and the card may save you nothing.
3. The Sintra palaces are discounts, not entries. Pena, Sintra National Palace, Queluz and Regaleira are all discounted, not free, so a Sintra day on the card still costs real money at the gate.
4. Most museums close on Mondays, and national museums and monuments also close on public holidays, Christmas Day and 1 January. A 24-hour card started on a Monday morning is largely a transport ticket.
5. Children aged 13 to 15 need their own ticket for São Jorge Castle, even on a child card.

Which museums are closed for restoration

Six sites on the Lisboa Card list are shut for restoration works at the time of writing, and three of them are among the ones older guides recommend most. The closures are listed below.

• National Tile Museum (Museu Nacional do Azulejo)
• National Museum of Ancient Art (Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga)
• National Costume Museum (Museu Nacional do Traje)
• National Theatre and Dance Museum (Museu Nacional do Teatro e da Dança)
• National Archaeology Museum (Museu Nacional de Arqueologia)
• Elevador de Santa Justa

If you are working from a list that opens with the Tile Museum and the Museum of Ancient Art, it no longer matches what is open. Check Lisbon’s own card page before you build an itinerary around any single museum, because this list changes.

Is the Lisboa Card worth it?

The Lisboa Card is worth it if you will use public transport every day and visit two or three ticketed sights a day from the free list. It is not worth it if you are here to walk, eat and look at the outside of things, which is a perfectly good way to spend three days in Lisbon.

Do the sum in the right order. Start with transport, because that part is certain: a card user takes the metro in from the airport, rides tram 28, crosses to Cacilhas on the ferry and takes the train to Sintra or Cascais without buying a single ticket. Then add the gate prices of the specific sights you actually want, which change often enough that they are worth checking on the day you plan rather than trusting any guide, this one included. If those two together beat €31, €51 or €62 for your dates, buy it.

The 72-hour card is the one that usually wins, because it is the cheapest per day and because three days is long enough to fit a Belém morning, a Sintra day and a city day around the closures. The 24-hour card is the hardest to justify: one day is not long enough to visit three museums at a comfortable pace, and if that day is a Monday it is close to pointless.

When the Lisboa Card is not worth it

Skip the card in four situations. If you qualify for a senior or student concession, the gap between the card price and your reduced tickets is usually too small. If you are visiting fewer than two ticketed sights a day, individual admission is cheaper. If your trip falls on a Monday and you cannot shift it, most of the free list is closed. And if you are staying in the centre and walking everywhere, the transport half of the card, which is the strong half, is wasted on you.

There is also a simpler test. Add up the gate prices of the sights you have actually written down, not the ones on the card’s list you will never reach, and compare that number with the card price. Most people who decide the card was not worth it counted the whole list.

How to buy and collect the Lisboa Card

Buy online and collect on arrival. The Lisboa Card is a physical contactless card, personal and non-transferable, so an online purchase gives you a voucher rather than the card itself, and you exchange it at an Ask Me Lisboa desk. Bring the order confirmation email and arrive at least 30 minutes before the desk closes.

The main collection points are listed below.

1. Lisbon Airport, in the arrivals hall, which is the sensible choice if you are starting the clock on the metro ride into town.
2. Lisboa Welcome Centre, the main tourist office on Praça do Comércio in Baixa.
3. Foz Palace, the office beside Rossio station, where the Sintra trains leave from.
4. Santa Apolónia station, the arrivals station for trains from Porto and abroad, near the cruise terminal.
5. Kiosks on Rua Augusta in Baixa and in Belém.

Buying through GetYourGuide’s Lisboa Card listing adds free cancellation up to 24 hours before, which the official shop does not offer; buying direct from Lisbon’s own shop is 5% cheaper. Pick whichever of those two things you value more.

Practical tips for using the Lisboa Card

Get the card working for you rather than the other way round. Four tips make the difference between a card that pays and one that sits in a pocket.

1. Book Belém Tower and Jerónimos as soon as you have the card number. These are the two sites where card holders get turned away, and the reservation is the fix.
2. Start the clock in the airport metro station, not at your hotel the next morning. The ride in is the first free journey and there is no reason to pay for it.
3. Give Sintra a whole day and take the train from Rossio. The train is free, the Myths and Legends centre is free, and the palaces are discounted, so the day costs far less than the same day on a coach tour. There is more on this in our guide to day trips from Lisbon.
4. Use the shopping and tasting vouchers before the clock runs out. They expire with the card and nobody remembers them on the last afternoon.

Leave room in the budget for the thing the card does not cover, which is eating. Lisbon’s pastéis de nata are not discounted by any pass ever invented.

Where to stay in Lisbon

Stay somewhere on the metro or a tram line and the card does the rest. Four options across the price range are set out below.

Flora Chiado Apartments put you in the middle of Chiado in apartments with a kitchenette, a microwave, an oven and a coffee machine, some with a dishwasher. Breakfast is continental, there is an airport shuttle and a lift, and guests score the location 9.8, which is about as high as Lisbon goes. Bairro Alto is a short walk uphill. Check dates at Flora Chiado Apartments if you want to walk to everything.

Lisbon Woods House is the budget pick and sits out at Parque das Nações, 3 km (1.9 mi) from the airport and a 15-minute walk from Gare do Oriente. It is a one-bedroom apartment with a full kitchen, a work desk, garden and city views, free parking and free Wi-Fi, and guests rate the location 9.3 for how easy the airport run is. See rates at Lisbon Woods House if you are arriving late or leaving early.

Palácio do Visconde – The Coffee Experience is the hotel this page used to list as Palácio do Visconde, at Rua Maria da Fonte 55 in Arroios, with a metro and train stop at the door. It has a restaurant, a bar, a terrace, room service and an airport shuttle, and it scores 9.2 overall with particular praise for the breakfast. Look at Palácio do Visconde for a quieter neighbourhood on a direct metro line.

The Felix 10 has more outdoor space than most Lisbon hotels: a sun terrace, a garden, balconies with garden or city views, plus a bar, a shared kitchen, a fitness centre and private parking. It scores 9.4 overall and 9.8 for staff. Compare rooms at The Felix 10 if breakfast matters to you.

If you would rather swim than sightsee in August, we have a separate list of hotels in Lisbon with swimming pools.

Lisboa Card questions

How much is the Lisboa Card in 2026? An adult card costs €31 (about $36, £27) for 24 hours, €51 (about $59, £44) for 48 hours and €62 (about $72, £53) for 72 hours. Children aged 4 to 15 pay €21, €28 and €35. These prices run until 31 March 2027.

Does the Lisboa Card include the train to Sintra? Yes. The Sintra line between Lisboa Rossio or Oriente and Sintra is free with the card, as are the Cascais line from Cais do Sodré, the Azambuja line, Fertagus trains to Setúbal and the ferries to Cacilhas, Trafaria and Barreiro.

Does the Lisboa Card cover the airport? Yes, through the Metro. Every Metro line is included, and the red line runs to Aeroporto, so the ride into the city is free once the card is validated.

Is Jerónimos Monastery free with the Lisboa Card? Entry is free and fast-tracked, but capacity for card holders is limited each day, so book a slot with your card number once you have collected the physical card. The same applies at Belém Tower.

When does the Lisboa Card start counting? At first use. You write the date and time on the card, sign it, and validate it on public transport or at a monument. An unused voucher stays valid for six months.

Is the Lisboa Card worth it for one day? Rarely. A 24-hour card at €31 needs two or three paid sights plus heavy transport use in a single day to break even, and most museums close on Mondays. The 72-hour card at about €20.70 a day is the easier one to justify.

Do not forget about travel insurance

Hope for a smooth trip and prepare for the other kind. Travel insurance covers you if part of your trip to Lisbon gets cancelled, if you get sick or hurt while travelling, and sometimes when your electronics break or get stolen. I always make sure I am covered on every trip I go on.

Do not have travel insurance yet? Check out SafetyWing. They offer flexible plans that you can sign up for while you are already on your trip. They were also the first travel insurer to cover COVID, and when I got COVID they reimbursed all of my expenses without making a fuss. Their customer support team is good and I can personally recommend them.

WonderfulWanderings Pro Tips

The 4 tips below come from reading the card’s own shop and the rail operator’s page side by side, which is where the small print and the contradictions live.

1. Check the closure list before you count a museum towards the price. Six of the sites the card covers are shut for restoration, including the National Tile Museum, the National Museum of Ancient Art and the Elevador de Santa Justa. The rail operator’s page still advertises a free ride on the Santa Justa lift while the card’s own shop lists it as closed, so the shop is the page to believe.
2. Ask for the “Lisboa Card / Residents” queue at São Jorge Castle, and count your teenagers. Card holders have their own line at the ticket office, which is worth knowing on a summer afternoon. Children aged 13 to 15 still need their own ticket for the castle even on a child card, which is the one place the age bands do not behave.
3. Use the river crossings. The card covers the Transtejo and Soflusa ferries to Cacilhas, Trafaria and Barreiro, and it is the benefit visitors most often leave unused. The crossing to Cacilhas is a short one, and the walk along the far bank looks straight back at the city you have spent the day inside.
4. Decide between 5% and free cancellation before you buy. Lisbon’s own shop is running a promotion that takes 5% off an online purchase, so the 72-hour adult card falls from €62 to €58.90. Buying the same card through GetYourGuide costs full price but adds free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead, which is worth more on a trip with a chance of moving.

About the author. This guide is written and maintained by the Wonderful Wanderings editorial team. Wonderful Wanderings was founded in 2012 by Sofie Couwenbergh, and the first-hand notes in this post come from her own trips to Lisbon and Sintra. The team covers Portugal for independent travellers, including the city passes, tours and hotels worth booking in Lisbon, and updates this page when prices, opening days and card benefits change.