Lisbon in 4 Days on a Budget (With Daily Costs)
4 Days in Lisbon: City Core, Plus a Slower Fourth Day
Four days keeps you entirely in the city: three days for Alfama, downtown and Belem, and a fourth for the parts of Lisbon that never make the 3-day list, LX Factory, Principe Real and the Tile Museum. If you’d rather spend the fourth day on Sintra instead, see the Lisbon plus Sintra itinerary , which covers that day trip properly with a booked Pena Palace ticket. This version stays in the city.
Book these before you go:
- Skip-the-line Jeronimos and Belem Tower tickets , the queue at both runs long June-August.
- A fado dinner show if you want a set venue rather than a walk-in table.
- Central accommodation in Baixa or Chiado , which books out fastest for four-night stays in peak months.
| Day | Focus | Rough cost |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alfama and the castle | 75-90 EUR |
| 2 | Baixa, Chiado, Bairro Alto | 35-40 EUR |
| 3 | Belem | 49-54 EUR |
| 4 | LX Factory, Principe Real, Tile Museum | 30-40 EUR |
Before you go: get a Navegante card (0.50 EUR) and load Zapping credit; it drops metro fares to about 1.72 EUR and covers trams and buses too.
Day 1: Alfama and the Castle
Morning: Sao Jorge Castle first thing, around 15 EUR, before the tour buses arrive, then wander down through Alfama’s stepped alleys with no fixed route. Ride Tram 12E rather than the more famous Tram 28 if you want the same views without the city’s worst pickpocket hotspot, worst between Martim Moniz and Se.
Afternoon and evening: lunch at a small tasca (bacalhau plate 10-16 EUR, bifana sandwich 3-5 EUR), then a fado dinner in the neighbourhood. Check the bill for a couvert charge, bread and olives brought unasked cost 1-4 EUR per person and it’s not free just because nobody mentioned it.
Budget: transit ~4 EUR, castle ~15 EUR, food and fado dinner ~60-75 EUR. Total roughly 75-90 EUR.
Day 2: Baixa, Chiado, Bairro Alto
Morning: Praca do Comercio costs nothing to admire, and coffee with a pastel de nata at A Brasileira in Chiado runs about 1.30-1.50 EUR for the tart. Afternoon: take the Elevador da Gloria or Bica up into Bairro Alto (about 3.80 EUR, or free on your transit card) instead of climbing.
Evening: Bairro Alto goes from sleepy to loud after 9pm. Dinner at a tasca is the same 8-14 EUR band as everywhere else in the centre.
Budget: transit ~3 EUR, food ~35-40 EUR.
Day 3: Belem
Morning: tram 15E or the train out to Belem, a separate district, not walkable from downtown. Jeronimos Monastery is 18 EUR for monastery-only entry (some sources still list around 10 EUR; that price is outdated), closed Mondays, book ahead Oct-March. Belem Tower is a different building 10 minutes away, not part of the monastery, with its own ticket. It reopened in May 2026 after roughly a year of conservation work, now running timed 30-minute slots capped near 900 visitors a day, tickets around 15 EUR. Current hours and prices for both sites are on museusemonumentos.pt .
Afternoon: a warm tart at Pasteis de Belem is worth the line, though Manteigaria back in Chiado is arguably just as good with none of the wait. Evening: end at Time Out Market near Cais do Sodre, before noon or after 9pm for a seat.
Budget: transit ~4 EUR, monastery ~18 EUR, tower ~15 EUR, food ~20 EUR. Total roughly 49-54 EUR.
Is Belem worth a full morning on only four days?
Yes, and don’t rush it. Jeronimos Monastery’s cloister is one of the best pieces of architecture in the city, and the tower’s timed-entry system means you can’t just breeze through both sites back to back the way you can with free sights downtown. Budget three to four hours for the district, tram ride included, longer if the Belem Tower queue is running past its usual half-hour slots.
Day 4: LX Factory, Principe Real and the Tile Museum
Morning: LX Factory under the 25 de Abril bridge is free to wander, an old industrial complex now full of small shops and cafes, busiest on weekends when the market runs. From there it’s a short tram or Uber ride to Principe Real, the leafy square with boutiques and a genuinely different pace from Alfama’s tourist crush.
Afternoon: the National Tile Museum (Museu Nacional do Azulejo) is a quieter, less crowded alternative to the big-name monuments, entry runs in the 5-8 EUR range and it’s a real look at Portuguese decorative history rather than a photo-op line.
Evening: spend it wherever you didn’t get to yet, or just sit somewhere with a drink and watch the city instead of rushing to one more viewpoint.
Budget: transit ~3 EUR, museum ~6 EUR, food ~25-30 EUR. Total roughly 30-40 EUR.
Where to stay: Baixa or Chiado is the most central base and flattest for hauling luggage. Alfama is prettier but hillier. Whichever you pick, being near a metro stop matters more than the neighbourhood on a four-day trip, since you’re moving around the city every day.
Should the fourth day be Sintra or more of the city?
Depends on what you skipped on day one through three. If you left Belem rushed or barely saw Alfama’s upper miradouros, stay in the city, this itinerary’s day four fills exactly those gaps. If the city core already feels done and Sintra’s Pena Palace is the reason you booked Lisbon in the first place, the Lisbon plus Sintra 4 day itinerary swaps this day for a properly booked palace visit instead.
Four-day total: roughly 210-240 EUR per person across transit, sights and food, not counting accommodation or the couvert charges you didn’t order. A fourth day spent slower, without a train ticket attached, is the cheapest way to extend a Lisbon trip.