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Welcome to Lisbon! In this page, you can find some helpful resources to help you plan your stay.

Moving around

By Metro

The Lisbon Metro is the fastest and most efficient of moving about the city, although some neighbourhoods (such as Belém, Alcântara, and Amoreiras) as not quite as well served by the system. You are always required to validate your ticket at the gates both when entering and exiting the station, and must be ready to provide a valid ticket when requested by Metro agents when travelling on the network.

The Metro has 4 lines: Red, Yellow, Blue, and Green. At the station, follow the signs with the name of the destination of the train you want to get on. The last train departs from the origin station at 1 am.

To ride, you need to pay a fare. There are two main ways to pay:

  • Contactless — you need to tap your contactless-enabled bank card or phone running Apple Pay or equivalent at the reader located in the barrier on your way in and out. You will be charged €1.80 and will be able to travel across the network.
  • navegante® occasional card — You can purchase a navegante® occasional reusable card for €0.50 at the vending machines located at all Metro stations. You can opt to top up your card with daily tickets, single trip tickets or using the Zapping stored value option. A single Carris/Metro ticket allows you to travel on the Metro and Carris buses for 1h for a flat fee of €1.80. If you opt to use the Zapping stored value top-ups, each Metro journey will deduct €1.61 from your balance. Each rider must purchase their own card. Cards can be recharged as many times as you need and are valid for 1 year from the time of purchase.

Refer to the Metro website for more information regarding fares.

Metro trains and stations are generally very safe, although some common sense cautions are generally advised when travelling alone at night. Keep your personal beloggings with you and be wary of pickpockets, especially when the train is very crowded and when passing through more touristic areas downtown during the summer. Follow the Police recommendations and, if you require assistance, reach out to Metro staff or contact the Public Safety Police (PSP) at (+351) 21 765 42 42. In an emergency, dial 112.

The Lisbon Airport has a Metro station, and is the most efficient way of getting from the airport to the city centre.

By bus or tram

Within the limits of the city of Lisbon, bus services are operated by Carris. They operate the yellow buses, trams, funiculars, and the Santa Justa Lift.

To travel you will need a ticket, which you can either purchase on board from the driver, using cash, for €2.10, or loaded on to a navegante® occasional card, following the same procedure as for Metro tickets (detailed above). As of now, you cannot use Contactless payments onboard, the only digital payment method available inside buses is MB WAY (requires a Portuguese bank card).

You can use the Transit feature of the Google Maps app to get real-time waiting time estimates for each bus stop.

Ride-hailing (TVDE)

There are 2 ride-hailing platforms currently operating in Portugal: Uber and Bolt. These services are generally known in the country by their legal designation - TVDE. You can identify licensed cars working for these platforms by the white "TVDE" badge on their windshields. These services can only be hailed through their respective apps.

By bike/e-scooter

Although Lisbon is a hilly city, you can opt to travel short to medium distances via bike or e-scooter. Here's some currently running operators:

  • Gira network of docking (e-)bikes, operated by the Lisbon City Council.
  • Lime (Uber) - e-scooters and dockless e-bikes.
  • Bolt - e-scooters.
  • Bird - e-scooters.

Be aware that for dockless bikes and e-scooters, you can only finish your trip on designated parking areas — you can find them in your provider's app.

Useful resources

Here's a curated list of other websites which may prove useful while planning, or during your stay.

BioData.pt | ELIXIR Portugal in the Greater Lisbon area

In case you're in town to visit one of the BioData.pt | ELIXIR Portugal associate organisations, here's a list of which institutions are located within the Greater Lisbon area.

Lisbon

Oeiras

Porto Salvo

Bobadela

Caparica

Reach out to us

The BioData.pt | ELIXIR Portugal Management Unit in Lisbon is located within the offices of INESC-ID, one of our associate organisations. If you need to reach out to us, you can find contact information in this page. We're always available to help out if you need us.

 

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