Most visitors will take a tuk tuk tour of the city, typically lasting 60 to 90 minutes but easy to extend and tailor. There are now 1000 of the little vehicles buzzing around Lisbon and they are unashamedly aimed directly at tourists. However, they also make sense because they get into areas that larger vehicles (especially tourist buses) can’t reach.
A tour of the old city will take in a couple of viewing points (Graca Church and Senhora do Monte are among the favourites), along with places of interest such as Alfama Square, National Pantheon and St Vincente de Fora to names just some.
Most visitors to Lisbon will want to get out to mountain-top village of Sintra, about half an hour’s drive away, and agents will find plenty of tours to book. Clients can get there by train or uber but having a guide is definitely a bonus because they tend to have tricks to avoid long queues as well as the obvious bonus of being able to explain in English what the guest is looking at.
As well as the historical village itself guests will want to visit the royal castle of Pena and the more recently built (but extremely interesting) Regaleira Palace, with its Masonic overtures. A quirky stop in town is the Lord Byron Café, where a large jar of corks indicates how many bottle of wines the gentleman drank while he lived in Sintra. (The Norwegian Aqua inaugural cruise departed from Lisbon)