In the video we use the navegante card to travel around just a little of Lisbon. We don’t scratch the surface of what there is to see and I would like to return
We spent a day of our stay in Estoril travelling in to Lisbon from Estoril.
Theres a rail station next to the beach in Estoril so that’s where we started. A card called a “navegante” card can be bought from a machine or from the ticket office at the small station. Trains run about every 15 minutes from Cascais to Lisbon Cais do Sodré Station. The journey from Estoril takes around 30 minutes to Lisbon.
Navegante Card cost is €0.50 and is topped up with credit. The type we added was Pay as you go ‘zapping’ credit which works for Carris, Metro, Transtejo, CP, Fertagus, Metro Sul do Tejo, Rodoviária de Lisboa and TST. So basically everything you need to get around Lisbon.
You can check the remaining credit really easily by scanning it at ticket vending machines or station ticket offices. You get a reciept when you top up and you should keep it with you just in case the ticket malfunctions.
The card I’m referring to is actually the Navegante occasional card. There is a frequent user card valid for 5 years instead of 1 year and has greater functionality with ability to load more passes and with various categories of user such as Seniors and Children for different pricing. These require documentation and (probably) a Portuguese address as they take up to 10 days to be issued.to the city again sometime.
Since we travelled I’ve seen another tourist travel card called the Lisboa card which you might be tempted to buy instead, it offers free entry to many attractions in the city such as Jéronimos Monastery at Belém. If you are planning on visiting several of these then it may be worthwhile, but the cost is around €31 a day so its a lot more expensive than the navegante card for just getting around.Looking around the info for Lisboa card it seems to suggest there is a daily travel ticket you can add to the navegante card which is €7 which would be even better than our €10 of “zapping” top-up.
“Zapping” credit also lasts for the lifetime of the card so probably more useful for a casual visitor than all you can use in a day for €7