Layover in Lisbon
 

I might be heading to London in Sept and I was planning on flying TAP there since I saw they had some very decently priced fares.

I was wondering if a 7-8 hour layover is a enough time to venture out of the airport and sight see a bit?

It absolutely is. LIS is probably the most convenient main airport of any major European city.

I'd suggest taking an Uber to the Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcântara in town - this cost me a mere €8!

There you have a lovely view of the city and castle, with sangria and other snack stalls. You're right in the heart of town so you can wander on foot from there to everywhere - down to the riverfront / up to Barrio Alto / through Rossio and up to the castle. There are also loads of good restaurants and bars around there.

Just take care walking on the pavements (sidewalks) - they can be very narrow!

a 7-8 hour layover gets you 6-7 hours to sightsee. Do a search in the forum - there are some threads with tips on what to do/see.

If you're *G and want to shower afterwards, bring your towel, as the airport lounge charges for towels.

How did this go? I have a 6am to 4:30pm layover in April and would very much like to spend 5-6 hours in Lisbon. I know its possible, just would be interested in hearing your experience.

Follow up question - I have an 11 hour layover (11am - 10pm) in Lisbon before heading to PDL. Would that be enough time for a day trip to Setubal or Evora?

We frequently do a day trip to Evora at weekends. By car it's up to 2 hours, depending on route, traffic and stops. So if you pick up a car at the airport it's certainly do-able - though with the airport faff involved at both ends of the trip I wouldn't dream of recommending the trip.

Setubal is much closer, and you can get there quite easily by train. But unless you have a particular reason for going there, the big question is ... why bother?

More traditional and easily managed short day trips by train would be to Estoril/Cascais or Sintra. More ambitious, by car, would be Obidos.

Even better and much, much more sensible would be hang around Lisbon. Lots to do, see and eat.

Thanks for the reply - that's great info. I'm spending a couple of days in Lisbon after PDL, so I was thinking of heading somewhere else on the day of my layover.

The ANA lounge charges for towels, and at the time this was written it was the only lounge. Now that TP opened its own lounge, towels are free in the TP lounge. Just writing this so that *G folks reading the thread won't think they need to bring a towel.

If this is in August, I'd recommend against doing anything with a rental car - lines to pick up a car are about an hour long, depending on the day. Use uber or public transport.

Setúbal is more than doable. Commuter trains every 10 mins during rush hour from Areeiro station (5 min uber ride from the airport) and 30-60 min off-peak. What you'd do there is another matter. It's a nice little town, but there are few attractions to speak of. I much prefer Sesimbra if you want a day to chill in a beachside town with good seafood, but Sesimbra is not as easy to get to.

You can always do Sintra-Cabo da Roca-Cascais - get it out of the way now and spend more time in LIS later, or come back and finish what you didn't finish.

Óbidos-Peniche-Nazaré is also doable with a car, but you'll lose an hour picking one up (leave an extra 30-40 mins on the return to get back to the terminal).

So I have a quick layover in LIS coming up, and would like to get out a bit and see the city quickly. Where does Uber pickup at LIS? Are there usually cars waiting? Don't have a ton of time so not sure if faster to take the Metro or Uber into town at 8am on a Friday

TIA

Peak rush hour is 8:30AM-9:30AM. Uber will still be faster than the metro to get to the center, though a taxi would probably get you there slightly faster at that time (taxis can use the bus lanes, uber can't).

Uber pickup is upstairs in the departures drop-off lot. As you exit the baggage claim, turn right, go up the escalator and out the doors. Cross a few lanes of traffic, and you'll pick up your uber there. Usually it's a max wait of 5-7 mins.

Of course it also depends on where in the center you're going, because small changes to your destination can have a huge effect on the drive times.

Great thank you. The Uber site just said to "get pickup instructions from your driver" so wasn't super helpful but this is