Lisbon in 3 days, planned by the clock

Three days is the right length for Lisbon, and this plan spends them the way the city is built: one day inside the twenty-minute ring, one in Sintra, one on the water. Every stop below is a real booking with a real time, and the order follows the light and the queues rather than the map.

How the days are built

Day one stays in the city and goes west to Belém first, because the monastery cloister is the thing that fills up, and back to the castle in the afternoon when the light is on the river. Fado comes last because fado is a night thing and the good rooms do not seat you before nine. Day two is Sintra, and the plan follows the one rule that matters there: the first slot at Pena, then the rest downhill. Day three is the water, dolphins in the morning across the bridge, a food walk in the afternoon and a sunset sail at the end, which the planner times to the actual sunset of your date. If your third day is the day you fly, swap it with day one and finish on the castle instead of the boat.

What to book, and when

Book Pena Palace as soon as you know your dates, then the fado table for day one, then the dolphins, which run in the morning and fill in summer. Everything else can wait until the week before. The food tour is the one to book on the day if you are unsure about the weather, because it goes ahead in rain and you may want to trade it for a beach.

Getting around

You do not need a car for any of these three days. Day one is tram, foot and tuk-tuk; day two is the train from Rossio; day three the tours pick you up. If you would rather drive, the planner on the main page has a car mode that recalculates the legs, and the honest answer is that a car costs you time on days one and two and saves it only on day three.

The Lisboa Card question

For this exact plan the card pays on day one only if you add the Belém Tower and the tram rides, and it covers the Sintra train on day two but not Pena. Most people come out slightly ahead with the 48-hour card started on the morning of day one; it is not worth the 72-hour version for this plan, because day three is tours and boats the card does not touch.

Where to eat

The plan leaves lunch open on purpose, and the planner inserts an hour for it when a day runs past one o'clock. Belém means the custard tarts by the monastery and a fish lunch on the river; Sintra means a sandwich in Regaleira's garden rather than a queue in the town; day three has the food tour, so eat lightly before. Dinner on day one is the fado show, and the Alfama versions include it.

If you have only two days

Drop day three. Move the sunset sail to the end of day one, after the castle and before the fado, and let the planner work out whether both fit: it will, in summer, with a late fado. If you have four, add the northern loop, Óbidos, Fátima and Nazaré, as a full day, and book the eight-seat version.

Adjusting the plan

Open any day in the planner and you can drag the stops, add thirty minutes where you want to linger, move a stop to day two or switch the whole day to public transport. The sunset and the sell-out flags are updated for the date you choose, so a plan built for October will not send you to the boat at seven when the sun sets at half past six.