The Andante card. Buy the paper Andante card (€0.60) at any metro machine and load Z2 tickets (€1.40), good for an hour on the metro, the buses, the Guindais funicular and the Gaia riverside. Validate at the reader every time you board, even on a transfer; the hour runs from the first tap. From the airport take metro line E on a Z4 ticket (€2.30, about half an hour to Trindade). Andante 24 is €5.35 for Z2 and only pays if you ride four times.
Livraria Lello. Around €10 buys a voucher that comes off a book you buy inside that day; the Lello editions and the gold ticket cost more. Book a time slot online and join the ticket-holder line, not the one round the corner. Open 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. daily; the first slot is the only quiet one.
Port lodges in Gaia. Taylor’s runs a self-guided visit with an audio guide and takes walk-ins. Graham’s, Cockburn’s and the smaller houses run timed guided tours whose afternoons fill in summer; book the day before. Expect €20 to €30 for a tour ending in three ports, more with food. Cross the lower deck of the Dom Luís bridge to get there.
Clérigos and São Bento. The Clérigos tower sells timed slots (around €10 with the museum), open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., and the stairs are narrow; book the first slot. São Bento station’s tile hall is free and empty before 9 a.m.
Sundays, tipping and the tourist tax. Bolhão market runs 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday to Friday, closes at 6 p.m. on Saturday and is shut on Sunday, as are most shops; the lodges open. Tipping is not expected; round up a euro or two. The tourist tax is €3 a person a night for up to seven nights, paid at the hotel.
Francesinha. Pork, sausage and steak in a sandwich under melted cheese and a beer-and-tomato sauce, egg on top. It is lunch, not dinner, and one between two leaves room to eat again. The known places line at 1 p.m.; go at noon.
The hills. The cathedral and the Clérigos quarter sit well above the Ribeira and every street between them is steps. Plan each day downhill: cathedral first, river last. The Guindais funicular takes you back up to Batalha in two minutes on an Andante Z2. Waystop shows the walking minutes between stops; a ten-minute uphill leg is the one to swap for the funicular.
On the day. Keep the Andante card in a pocket of its own; it is paper and a phone against it confuses the reader. Lello scans the voucher from your phone; the lodges and the tower want the booking name at the slot time.