Getting through Lisbon airport

[Dick & Kitty]

My husband and I will be flying into Lisbon on September 18th, taking the train to Porto, and beginning our walk on the central route of the Portuguese Camino a couple of days later. We need to buy the train tickets in advance so we are hoping someone on the forum can give us some guidance on about how long it takes to navigate the Lisbon airport. We plan to take the metro from there to Estacao do Oriente.

Thanks for the help!

Kitty

 

[jungleboy]

Well, there are a lot of variables here, so no one can really give you a foolproof answer. Firstly:

We need to buy the train tickets in advance

Why? Unless you have some specific reason for this, and given that it's hard to say when you'll arrive at the train station, it seems the safest thing is not to buy them in advance and then get them at Oriente for the next available train. They are unlikely to sell out.

Regarding the airport, it depends. Your plane could be late. If you are coming from the UK/Europe on a budget airline, you will land at T2 and need to take an airport bus to T1, which will take a bit longer than if you land at T1. If you're coming from outside the Schengen zone, you're more likely to land at T1 but then you will have to go through immigration, which could be quick or slow depending on how many other flights from outside the Schengen zone are arriving at the same time.

The airport is pretty small so once you get through immigration, if you have bags to pick up, baggage claim is usually quick (assuming your luggage doesn't get lost), and if you have nothing to declare at customs, you go through quickly without stopping. The metro at the airport is close to the exit from baggage claim and Oriente is not far with no line changes.

 

[Vacajoe]

Could be quick, could be really, really long. Sorry, but it’s impossible to say. Even your seating in the plane matters, since it could be the difference between first in the Immigration line versus stuck behind the 300 other people from your flight.

Why not plan to stay a day or two in Lisbon? That way you don’t have to worry about the timing?

 

[Jamieb]

We flew in from USA. Allow plenty of time at the airport. Plane did not pull up to a gate. We parked on the tarmac and were bussed to the terminal. Took us almost an hour to get off the plane and get to the terminal. Once in the terminal we had to go through immigration - that was about 45minutes of standing in a line. We had one checked duffle type of bag that we had to pick up, because it was an odd shape it was not with the all of the regular luggage, they unloaded it at the bulk item/odd shape luggage area - so that took time to figure that out. We landed in Lisbon around 9:30am and didn't get to the train station until alittle after 1pm. Once you get out of the baggage pickup area, the metro is to your right - very easy and convenient to hop on to get to the train station. We had tickets for 2:09pm train to Porto, arrived at Campanha station around 5pm, there we changed to the local train that went to Sao Bento at 5:30.

 

[Dick & Kitty]

Thanks, everyone, for the good advice. We are coming from the US so it sounds as though we should wait to buy the tickets at the train station. The recommendation to buy them in advance came from a Rick Steve's book we have. But I think that is outweighed by the all the uncertainties mentioned in your replies.

We walked the Camino Frances in stages, over several years so we became very familiar with the Madrid airport and connecting to either buses or trains. But this is our first trip to Portugal so it will be all new to us.

Thanks again,
Kitty

 

[dougfitz]

Thanks, everyone, for the good advice. We are coming from the US so it sounds as though we should wait to buy the tickets at the train station. The recommendation to buy them in advance came from a Rick Steve's book we have. But I think that is outweighed by the all the uncertainties mentioned in your replies.

We arrived in Lisbon from Australia earlier this year, and booked tickets from Oriente to Coimbra before we arrived. It did not work! The train we had booked on did not run and we had to book on another train and then reclaim the cost of the tickets later. None of this was difficult using the CP app, although the refund required a visit to a station. If you can tolerate another app on your phone, the CP app worked well for me, but there is a ticket office at Oriente that will do that as well.

ps. at the airport, you will need to do two things, which can be done in the one transaction.

1. buy a travel card for the metro. It is cheap, but doesn't have any credit on it until you
2. load it up, just with the fare to get you to Oriente unless you are going to return to Lisbon at some stage and use the metro.

Note also that the public transport services in Lisbon, Porto, Coimbra, etc are all managed locally, and are not linked to the CP App. So if you need to take the metro once you get to Porto, you will go through a similar process there to get a travel card for that as well. You can do this at Campanha or any of the metro stops around the city.

 

[Dick & Kitty]

Thanks for the reply. It's good to get advice from people who have actually been there and done that! It appears that the metro is a good option for getting around--both in Porto and Lisbon.

Kitty

 

[naplesdon]

I live near Lisbon. I agree with everything Doug and Nick posted. The Lisbon airport can appear to be a mosh pit certain times of day and very hard to navigate. I am partially disabled and rely on Uber for my means of getting around here. Uber and the taxi service is quite reasonable and can save lots of time.

 

[Steven Dwyer]

I am very frequent traveler and always suggest waiting to buy a train ticket in a situation like this once you have cleared customs and have baggage in hand. There are plenty if different trains and they typically have open seats. Do get the CP app for your phone and you can download train schedules into the app. You can buy the the ticket in the app or at the station.

You didn’t say if you were doing carry on or checked baggage, which can add wait time. I once did carry on but had to check my poles. They didn’t arrive with the rest of the baggage, but we’re sent to the oversized luggage area. That might happened to packs as well if they are given special handling.

 

[NamaMama]

My husband and I did this on August 29. I had read that you needed to buy the train ticket in advance but was later advised by an experienced person that this was not true. Wait until you get to the train station to buy your ticket. It eliminates a lot of stress. There is a significant discount if you happen to be a vintage human. You also do not need to buy the Metro card if you do not plan on using metro in Lisbon other than to get from the airport to Oriente station. You can use a Visa card to tap through. We learned this from a Metro employee. Also, no long line at the ticket kiosk.

 

[Dick & Kitty]

My husband and I did this on August 29. I had read that you needed to buy the train ticket in advance but was later advised by an experienced person that this was not true. Wait until you get to the train station to buy your ticket. It eliminates a lot of stress. There is a significant discount if you happen to be a vintage human. You also do not need to buy the Metro card if you do not plan on using metro in Lisbon other than to get from the airport to Oriente station. You can use a Visa card to tap through. We learned this from a Metro employee. Also, no long line at the ticket kiosk.

Great! Thanks for the very recent, relevant info! Yes, we are "vintage" humans and are entitled to a significant discount on train tickets. And using the Visa instead of the Metro card is something I haven't heard before. Thank you.