Travel guide
Lisbon with friends: three days sorted by hill, not by hype
The Lisbon problem is not distance. It is elevation. Group the saved places by which hill they sit on and the whole trip gets easier.
By Mara Ellis, TripSake travel desk · Published · Updated · 10 min read
- Trip length
- 3 nights, long weekend
- Group
- 6 people, two of whom hate stairs
- Base
- One apartment in Chiado
- Booked ahead
- 1 dinner, 1 fado night
- Daily walking
- 6 to 9 km, plus about 300 m of climbing
- Season
- Early March, 16 degrees and dry
The short answer
Three days covers central Lisbon comfortably if you give each day one hill. Baixa and Chiado on day one, Alfama and Graca on day two, Belem on day three. Stay in Chiado or Principe Real, ride Tram 28 before 09:00 or not at all, and expect dinner to start at 20:30.
What to take away
- Sort saved places by hill before you sort them by rating.
- Tram 28 is a ten minute experience, not a transport plan.
- Belem needs its own half day and the 15E tram, not a detour.
- Book nothing except one dinner and, if you want it, Jeronimos.
- Dinner before 20:00 means an empty restaurant and a confused waiter.
Lisbon is not a flat city pretending to be hilly
On a map, the centre of Lisbon looks like a twenty minute walk end to end. It is. It is also about 300 metres of cumulative climbing if you do it badly, which is a small mountain distributed across a weekend in a way that only shows up in your calves on Sunday.
The first day we did it badly. Breakfast in Chiado, a viewpoint in Graca, lunch back down in Baixa, a shop in Principe Real, then dinner in Alfama. Four separate climbs, three of them avoidable. Two people quietly gave up around 17:00 and went back to the apartment, which is not a disaster but it does mean the group is no longer a group.
So we reordered everything by elevation. Not by rating, not by how many people had saved it. By which hill it sits on and whether the next stop is up or down from here. That is the single change that made the rest of the weekend work.
- Baixa is the flat bit in the middle. Everything else is up.
- Chiado and Bairro Alto share one hill to the west.
- Alfama and Graca share one hill to the east.
- Belem is flat but four kilometres away.
Where to stay when there are six of you
We took an apartment in Chiado. It is central, it is walkable to Bairro Alto for the evening, and the Baixa-Chiado metro station has a lift that saves you the climb up from the flat part. That lift is a genuinely useful piece of infrastructure and almost nobody mentions it.
Alfama looks like the romantic choice and it is, if you are two people with small bags. With six people and a couple of suitcases, the lanes that make it beautiful become a logistics problem. Taxis cannot always reach the door. Neither can a rolling case, over that cobble.
Principe Real is the other good option, slightly quieter, slightly more expensive, and about seven minutes downhill to Chiado. Avoid staying out by Parque das Nacoes unless you have a specific reason. It is well connected and it is not where you want to walk home from at 01:00.
The tram question, answered honestly
Tram 28 runs a genuinely lovely route through Graca, Alfama, Baixa, Chiado and Estrela. It is also one of the most pickpocketed vehicles in Europe and, between about 10:00 and 18:00, it is a standing-room queue that moves at walking pace.
Ride it at 08:30 from Martim Moniz and you get a seat, an empty tram and the entire route in about 35 minutes. Ride it at 14:00 and you get 25 minutes of queueing for 40 minutes of someone else backpack. We did the early version on day two and it was the best twenty minutes of the morning.
For actual transport, use the metro, the funiculars (Bica and Gloria, covered by a normal transit ticket) and your feet. Tram 15E to Belem is a different animal and is the right way to get there. It is modern, it runs along the river, and it takes about 25 minutes from Praca da Figueira.
Eating with a group of six
Six is the number where restaurants start saying no. Most of the small tascas that people recommend have eight to twelve tables and cannot seat you without notice. We booked exactly one group dinner, on the Saturday, and for the other two nights we split into threes and met for a drink afterwards.
That sounds like a failure of planning. It was the opposite. Two tables of three got into places that would never have taken six, and the debrief over a beer at 22:30 was better than the dinner would have been.
On timing: kitchens in Lisbon are not really open before 19:30, and the room fills around 21:00. If you turn up at 19:00 you will be served, politely, in an empty dining room. Have a drink at a miradouro first. Senhora do Monte for the wide view, Santa Catarina if you want to sit on the ground with a beer from a kiosk.
The vote that stopped an argument
On the Friday night, half the group wanted to spend Saturday afternoon at Sao Jorge castle and half wanted to do the LX Factory and the Time Out Market. Both are reasonable. Neither side was going to talk the other out of it in a group chat at 23:00.
We put it to a poll in the trip. Three options, everyone votes, done in about four minutes. The castle lost, five to one, and the one person who wanted it went on Sunday morning while the rest of us had a slow breakfast. Nobody had to be talked out of anything and nobody had to be the person who ruined it.
This is the least glamorous feature in any trip app and the one that changes group trips the most. A vote is not about the answer. It is about ending the conversation before it turns into a mood.
What we would skip next time
The Santa Justa lift. It is a beautiful piece of ironwork and the queue at the bottom is 40 minutes for a ride you can replicate by walking up through Chiado in eight minutes and stepping onto the same viewing platform from Largo do Carmo. Look at it from below, then walk.
The pink street after 22:00 on a Saturday. It is a bar street that has been photographed into a destination, and it is now mostly stag parties standing on a pink road. Bairro Alto two streets uphill is doing the same thing better.
And we would skip trying to do Sintra as a day trip on a three-day weekend. It deserves a full day, the train from Rossio takes about 40 minutes, and squeezing it in means Lisbon gets two days rather than three. Either give it the day or leave it for the next trip.
Day by day
Three days in Lisbon, sorted by hill
This is the plan as the app rebuilt it after day one went wrong. Each day sits on one hill, the climbs run in one direction where possible, and the two fixed bookings anchor the evenings.
Day 1
Baixa, Chiado and Bairro Alto
The western hill and the flat centre6.4 km on foot, one funicular
- 10:00
Praca do Comercio
Sight · 30m
Start at the river and walk inland. The whole day runs uphill from here in one direction.
- 10:45
Rua Augusta and Baixa grid
Walk · 45m
Flat, straight, rebuilt after the 1755 earthquake. Useful for orientation more than for shopping.
- 11:45
Largo do Carmo and the Carmo Convent
Sight · 1h
About 7 euros. The roofless nave is the best thing in central Lisbon and the terrace next door gives you the Santa Justa view without the queue.
- 13:00
Lunch in Chiado
Food · 1h 15m
Two streets back from Rua Garrett the prices drop by a third.
- 14:45
Principe Real and the Botanical Garden
Walk · 1h 30m
Gentle uphill, good independent shops, and a garden that most day visitors never reach.
- 16:45
Ascensor da Bica down to Cais do Sodre
Travel · 20m
Covered by a normal transit ticket. Downhill, which is the point.
- 18:00
Drinks at Miradouro de Santa Catarina
Evening · 1h
Kiosk beer, sit on the wall, watch the ferries. Free.
- 20:30
Dinner in Bairro Alto
Food · 2h
Split into two tables of three. Nowhere here seats six without a booking.
Verdict. The gentlest day. Good for an arrival afternoon.
Day 2
Alfama and Graca
The eastern hill, top to bottom8.9 km on foot
- 08:30
Tram 28 from Martim Moniz
Travel · 35m
Empty at this hour, seated, the full route. After 10:00 it becomes a queue.
- 09:15
Miradouro da Senhora do Monte
Sight · 45m
The highest viewpoint in the city and the emptiest one before 10:00.
- 10:15
Graca and the Vila Berta lanes
Walk · 45m
Residential, quiet, ten minutes from the viewpoint and nobody is there.
- 11:15
Sao Vicente de Fora
Sight · 1h
About 8 euros for the cloisters and roof. The tile panels in the cloister are the reason to pay.
- 12:30
Feira da Ladra (Tuesday and Saturday only)
Walk · 45m
Flea market next to the monastery. Skip on other days, the square is just a car park.
- 13:30
Lunch above Alfama
Food · 1h 15m
Eat before you descend. Prices drop and views improve the further you get from the castle gate.
- 15:00
Walk down through Alfama
Walk · 1h 30m
No route. That is the instruction. Aim downhill and you will come out near the cathedral.
- 17:00
Se Cathedral
Sight · 30m
Free to enter the nave. Worth ten minutes, mostly because you are walking past it anyway.
- 20:00
Fado in AlfamaBooked
Evening · 2h 30m
Booked ahead. The small houses with a set dinner and two singers are better value than the big theatres.
Verdict. Do this one downhill. Start at the top and let gravity plan the day.
Day 3
Belem, then a slow finish
Four kilometres west along the river7.1 km on foot, tram both ways
- 09:30
Tram 15E to Belem
Travel · 25m
From Praca da Figueira. Modern tram, river views, the right way to get there.
- 10:00
Jeronimos MonasteryBooked
Sight · 1h 30m
About 12 euros, timed entry helps. The cloister is the part worth the ticket; the church next door is free and takes ten minutes.
- 11:45
Pasteis de Belem
Coffee · 45m
The takeaway queue is long and moves fast. The sit-down rooms at the back are enormous and usually have space.
- 12:45
Padrao dos Descobrimentos and the waterfront
Walk · 1h
Flat river walk down to Belem Tower. Twenty minutes each way, nice in the sun, pointless in rain.
- 14:15
MAAT
Sight · 1h
The building is the exhibit. Walking over the roof is free even if you skip the galleries.
- 16:00
LX Factory
Walk · 1h 30m
On the way back under the bridge. Bookshop, food, and enough shade for the tired half of the group.
- 18:30
Last drinks at Cais do Sodre
Evening · open ended
Time Out Market if you want everything under one roof, the streets behind it if you do not.
Verdict. Half a day of monuments, half a day of nothing. The correct ratio.
One person stayed an extra day and did Sintra properly: train from Rossio at 08:40, Pena Palace first thing with a pre-booked slot, Quinta da Regaleira after lunch, back by 19:00. That is the right way to do Sintra. Bolting it onto a three-day weekend is not.
Honest comparison
Why the group chat lost and a shared trip won
Six people planning a weekend produces a specific kind of mess. Two Google Maps lists, one Wanderlog board that three people never opened, a Notes app screenshot of restaurant names, and 400 messages in which the useful information is buried under reaction gifs.
We have tried most of the tools. Here is the honest breakdown of where each one stops.
| What | Wanderlog, TripIt, Maps lists | TripSake |
|---|---|---|
| The saved places | Google Maps lists are the default because everyone already has the app. They save a pin and nothing else: no day, no time, no order, no way to tell that two of them are on opposite hills. | Pins carry the source. Paste the Reel that made you want to go and the place arrives with the video attached, plus photos, rating, price level and opening hours. When six people save the same bakery from three different videos, it merges into one spot. |
| Making a decision | Wanderlog lets everyone edit the same itinerary. In practice one person builds it and five people say "looks good" without reading it, then disagree on the day. | A yes or no vote per spot, plus polls when there is a real fork. The castle versus LX Factory poll took four minutes and ended a conversation that had been going for two days. |
| Getting everyone in | Most planners require every participant to create an account before they can do anything. In a group of six, at least two will not. | One invite link. Guests vote, see the plan and add spots without signing up. They can claim the account later if they want to keep it. |
| The day itself | TripIt is built around confirmation emails, which is great for a flight and useless for a Saturday with no bookings. TripCase worked the same way. | The day plan is generated from the votes: it groups spots that are physically close, respects opening hours, puts lunch at lunchtime, and shows the walking minutes between stops. It also knows about the hill, because it uses real routing rather than straight-line distance. |
| Splitting the bill | A separate app, usually Splitwise, with its own invite round and its own group that is not quite the same six people. | Expenses sit inside the trip, on the same member list. Photograph the receipt, split it, settle once. Nobody joins a second group. |
| What it costs | Wanderlog Pro and TripIt Pro are annual subscriptions. The free tiers work, and the things you want on a real trip (offline access, unlimited saved trips, alerts) tend to sit on the paid side. | Free, with no subscription and no paid tier at all. Nothing in this weekend, including the offline plan we used when the apartment wifi died, sits behind a payment. |
For a solo traveller with a lot of flights, TripIt earns its keep. For six friends and a long weekend, the bottleneck was never storage. It was the decision, and then getting the decision into a shape that has times on it.
Questions travellers ask
Before you book
How many days do you need in Lisbon?
Three full days cover Baixa and Chiado, Alfama and Graca, and Belem at a pace that does not wreck your legs. Add a fourth if you want Sintra, which needs a whole day rather than an afternoon.
Is Tram 28 worth taking?
Yes, before about 09:00, when you get a seat and the full route in 35 minutes. Between 10:00 and 18:00 it is a slow, crowded queue and a known pickpocket spot. Do not build a sightseeing day around it.
Where should a group stay in Lisbon?
Chiado or Principe Real. Both are central, walkable to the evening streets, and reachable by taxi. Alfama is beautiful and difficult with luggage, since the lanes are steep, cobbled and often too narrow for a car.
What time do people eat dinner in Lisbon?
Kitchens open around 19:30 and rooms fill around 21:00. A 19:00 booking means an empty restaurant. Have a drink at a miradouro first.
Do you need to book anything in advance in Lisbon?
Very little. A timed slot for Jeronimos Monastery saves a queue, and a fado house should be booked for an evening. Almost everything else can be decided on the day.
What is the best free trip planner for a group weekend?
The requirement most tools miss is letting people who refuse to install an app still take part. TripSake works from one invite link, so guests vote and see the plan without an account, and the whole app is free with no subscription tier.
Is the Santa Justa lift worth the queue?
No. You can reach the same upper viewing platform on foot from Largo do Carmo in about eight minutes, and the walk up through Chiado is pleasant. Look at the ironwork from below instead.
About the author
Mara plans routes for the TripSake travel desk. She has been to Lisbon four times and has ruined one pair of shoes there.
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