Lisbon Transport Card: Navegante, Zapping and 24h Tickets

The card: one per person, valid for a year

Lisbon's paper transit card is the navegante occasional card. Metropolitano de Lisboa's card page still sits at a "viva-viagem" address, but the name on sale is navegante. It costs €0.50, is sold at metro ticket machines and ticket offices, and can be reloaded as often as you like for one year after purchase.

It holds single tickets, 24-hour tickets and pay-as-you-go "zapping" credit that works across the member operators, including Metro, Carris buses and trams, and CP trains. Two rules catch visitors:

• One person per card. The operator says a card cannot be used by more than one person at a time, even if it has several tickets on it. A couple needs two cards.
• One product at a time. CP's page on the same card says it holds a single ticket type at once, and you cannot load a new one until the previous one is used up. Pick zapping or day tickets for each stretch of your trip, not both.

Lisbon fares in 2026

These are the occasional fares for an adult from 1 January 2026, from Metropolitano de Lisboa's fare sheet and Carris's 2026 fares notice, checked 19 October 2026.

Zapping top-ups run from €3 to €40 on the fare sheet, and Metropolitano de Lisboa's buy page says each journey is deducted at the fare of the operator you are riding.

The €1.90 single ticket is the one to load for a metro-plus-bus trip within an hour, because it covers both. For metro-only days, zapping is €0.18 cheaper per ride.

Zapping or a 24-hour ticket?

The break-even is simple: €7.25 divided by €1.72 is 4.2 rides. Four rides on zapping cost €6.88, five cost €8.60. So the 24-hour ticket wins only on days with five or more rides inside the same 24 hours.

Most sightseeing days in central Lisbon involve fewer rides than people expect, because the Baixa, Chiado and Alfama are walkable. Three scenarios, per person:

The tram is where zapping saves most. A ride on tram 28 costs €3.30 bought on board and €1.72 on your card. The historic lifts have their own on-board fares, and several are out of service; check our guide to the Santa Justa Lift and Lisbon funiculars for which ones run before you plan a day around them.

For a day trip by train, the €11.40 Carris/Metro/CP ticket adds CP trains for 24 hours. Metropolitano de Lisboa's buy page names the Sintra, Cascais, Azambuja and Sado lines. Our guide to the train to Sintra from Rossio compares the fares for that trip.

Can you just tap a bank card?

On the metro, yes. The contactless page says the gates accept Visa, V Pay and Mastercard with the contactless symbol, physical or in a phone, at €1.92 per trip. Tap the same card in and out, and use one card per traveller.

On Carris, the 2026 fares notice publishes no bank-card fare like the metro's. Without a loaded navegante card you pay the on-board price: €2.30 on a bus and €3.30 on a tram. That is €0.58 to €1.58 more than zapping every time, so a card that costs €0.50 is worth buying if you will use Carris even once.

Staying a month or longer

Monthly navegante passes need the personalised navegante card, not the occasional one. Metropolitano de Lisboa's buy page lists the normal monthly Navegante Municipal at €30 and Navegante Metropolitano at €40; check which area each covers before you choose. The personalised card costs €7 with delivery in 10 working days or €12 express in one working day, and is valid for five years. You apply with an identity document from the list on that page and a colour passport-style photo.

At €1.72 a ride, the €30 municipal pass beats zapping from the 18th ride in a month. For a stay of three weeks or more with a daily commute, it is the better deal; for a week's holiday, stay on zapping.

Arriving soon? Our airport to city centre guide shows where to buy the card on the way in.