Lisbon in 7 Days on a Budget (With Daily Costs)
7 Days in Lisbon: The Whole City, No Day Trip Required
A week is enough to cover every district of Lisbon itself without ever leaving the city, the core three days, LX Factory and Principe Real, Parque das Nacoes, a free miradouro-and-market day, and a seventh day in Graca and Mouraria to close it out. Want Sintra, Cascais or Obidos instead of some of these city days? The Lisbon plus Sintra 7 day itinerary covers all three as proper day trips.
Book these before you go:
- Skip-the-line Jeronimos and Belem Tower tickets , the queue runs long June-August.
- Oceanario de Lisboa tickets , it sells out school-holiday afternoons.
- Central accommodation in Chiado or Principe Real , booked well ahead for a full week.
| Day | Focus | Rough cost |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alfama and the castle | 75-90 EUR |
| 2 | Baixa, Chiado, Bairro Alto | 45-50 EUR |
| 3 | Belem | 49-54 EUR |
| 4 | LX Factory, Principe Real, Tile Museum | 30-40 EUR |
| 5 | Parque das Nacoes and the Oceanario | 35-45 EUR |
| 6 | Miradouros, Feira da Ladra, Cacilhas | 20-30 EUR |
| 7 | Graca, Mouraria and a last Alfama night | 20-25 EUR |
Getting around: a Navegante card (0.50 EUR) with Zapping credit loaded gets metro rides to about 1.72 EUR and covers the Cacilhas ferry too.
Where to stay for a week: Chiado or Principe Real are the steadiest bases, central, walkable, close to a metro stop. Budget guesthouse rooms run roughly 30 to 50 EUR a night, mid-range hotels 80 to 130 EUR.
Day 1: Alfama and the Castle
Sao Jorge Castle at opening, about 15 EUR, then down through Alfama’s alleys with no fixed route. Tram 12E over the more famous Tram 28, same views, without the city’s worst pickpocket route. Tasca lunch (bacalhau 10-16 EUR), fado dinner in the evening, check the bill for a couvert charge before you eat any of it, it’s not complimentary.
Budget: roughly 75-90 EUR.
Day 2: Baixa, Chiado, Bairro Alto
Praca do Comercio, free. A Brasileira for coffee and a pastel de nata, about 1.30-1.50 EUR. Elevador da Gloria or Bica up into Bairro Alto (3.80 EUR, or free on your card). Dinner at a tasca, the usual 8-14 EUR.
Budget: roughly 45-50 EUR.
Day 3: Belem
Tram 15E or the train, a separate district from downtown. Jeronimos Monastery is 18 EUR for monastery-only entry (older figures near 10 EUR are stale), closed Mondays. Belem Tower is a different building 10 minutes away, its own ticket, reopened May 2026 after roughly a year closed, timed 30-minute slots capped near 900 a day, around 15 EUR. Current hours are on museusemonumentos.pt . Pasteis de Belem for the original tart, worth the line; Manteigaria back in Chiado is arguably just as good without one.
Budget: roughly 49-54 EUR.
Day 4: LX Factory, Principe Real and the Tile Museum
Free morning at LX Factory, then Principe Real for a flatter, quieter afternoon. The National Tile Museum is a good low-crowd alternative to another monument, around 5-8 EUR. Three hilly days in, this is the day to slow down rather than cram in one more sight.
Budget: roughly 30-40 EUR.
Day 5: Parque das Nacoes and the Oceanario
Oceanario de Lisboa , Europe’s largest indoor aquarium, adult entry around 25 EUR, reached by metro (Red Line, Oriente station). Walk the riverside promenade afterward, flat and free.
Budget: roughly 35-45 EUR.
Is a week too long to stay entirely in one city?
Not for Lisbon. Each of the seven neighbourhoods on this list, Alfama, Baixa, Belem, Alcantara, Parque das Nacoes, Graca and Mouraria, feels genuinely different from the others, closer to visiting seven small towns than one repetitive city. The only trip this itinerary skips is a day outside Lisbon entirely, easy to add on a future visit.
Day 6: Miradouros, Feira da Ladra and Cacilhas
Free viewpoints at Miradouro da Senhora do Monte and Miradouro de Santa Luzia beat most paid rooftop bars. On a Tuesday or Saturday, Feira da Ladra flea market on Campo de Santa Clara runs best 9am to noon. In the afternoon, the ferry from Cais do Sodre to Cacilhas, covered by your transit card, ends in a seafood lunch with skyline views for less than the same plate in central Lisbon.
Budget: roughly 20-30 EUR.
Day 7: Graca, Mouraria and a Last Alfama Night
Graca sits just above Alfama, quieter and less touristed with its own miradouro, Nossa Senhora do Monte, arguably the best sunset view in the city and free. Mouraria, downhill toward Martim Moniz, is where fado actually started, older and less polished than Alfama’s tourist-facing bars, worth an afternoon of wandering with no fixed plan. For a final night, Time Out Market near Cais do Sodre before an early flight, or one more fado dinner back in Alfama if you’d rather end where the week began.
Budget: roughly 20-25 EUR.
Getting to the airport: the metro Red Line runs straight from the centre back to the airport in the same 25-30 minutes it took coming in; the Aerobus that used to make this easy stopped running in 2022, so budget the metro or a metered taxi (15-20 EUR plus 1.60 per bag) instead.
Seven-day total: figure roughly 275-335 EUR per person for transit, sights and food across the week, not counting accommodation. Book the Belem tickets for day three before anything else; every other day on this list is entirely walk-up.