City Sightseeing

Great way to visit the city (if you’re lazy ^^ or just if you like the open bus like me). Choose a sunny day and take a scarf because it can be windy.
You’ll have some explantions with the headphones. The best place to sit is on the top of the bus to have a wonderful view. We did the red tour (historical center), a friend said the blue tour isn’t very interesting. I enjoyed a lot the part in Belém. We drop off there and came back in the city center walking. A bit long but if it’s sunny and if you really like to walk it’s really nice.
Very nice staff.
We had a ticket until 3 PM but they didn’t check the time. They don’t really care !

Compared to City Sightseeing tours that I’ve taken in different cities this one is extremely poor. The tour lasts over an hour and my girlfriend and I counted only ten instances where the commentary told us any information about where we were. There’s no air-​conditioning at all on the bus, in thirty plus degree heat it was a nightmare. I can’t think of any positives about this tour other than perhaps the price, which was cheap enough. We only stayed on it for one of the two tours so we definitely didn’t get our moneys worth. Not recommended.

Horrible hop on off bus! Avoid at all costs! This is a poorly run bus service in Lisbon. While some of the drivers are a friendly most are not. The stops are not clearly identified, and while on the bus they do not announce the next stop. You are then forced to listen to the crappy headset and make a guess as to where the heck you are! If you don’t push the button indicating you want to stop the bus keeps going.
I am especially upset with the fact that while waiting for 1 hour (they’re supposed to have a bus every 30 min) at the stop closest to our hotel, the bus driver (who clearly saw us) drove past us despite us waiving frantically at the designated #7 Amoreiras stop. I’m traveling with elderly parents and the 15 min walk downhill on the rough cobblestone sidewalks is just too much for them.
The drivers are more interested in socializing with their bus driver friends than providing service to paid customers. Case in point, on the first day we waited 30 min in the hot sun while the bus drivers sat inside a bus laughing and talking story. When another bus arrived one of the bus drivers told us we needed to go to that bus. This is clearly a monumental waste of money and a total rip off for tourists.
**update: a few drivers are nice & once onboard helped us with stops.

A rip off. We have used the same buses in other cities and have been very happy, but here in Lisbon it was a very different experience. You can skip it while in Lisbon. Here is my list of grievances: 1) I should have been suspicious when you are forced to buy 2 days and both lines, 2) Can I pay with credit card? NO, 3) No air conditioning in the lower level, the bus was a furnace, 4) Bus driver would step out at stops to have a cigarette, while we were toasting under the sun, 5) The audio was useless: 5a) the voice was so low it couldn’t be heard (while the music was very loud), 5b) Unlike other cities the commentary was super scarce and limited to naming very few places, no story, no nothing, 6) Besides the terrible service the truth is that you don’t need the bus to go to the 2 or 3 areas in the city that you can’t reach walking — you may be better just going there by taxi.

After using these buses in many cities, we decided to buy a ticket to take a bus tour of Lisbon and I must say I was very disappointed. The commentary is a waste of time, mostly just dreary music and about half of the systems didn’t work. The bus didn’t really follow the assigned stops and it would randomly stop at various locations. At times the bus just loops around in the same area over and over and you end up seeing the same structure many times. Nice enough sitting on the bus to see around but there must be better and cheaper ways to do it. I am usually a big fan of hop on hop off buses but definitely not this one.

The infamous Hop on, Hop off bus tour! I saw a brochure for another bus tour with a different company, but when we got to the Marquês de Pombal, a worker from City Sightseeing Portugal approached us with a brochure, and we decided to go with this company because it was cheaper, and I’ve had fairly pleasant experiences with this company in other cities in the past. Only 18 euros for 2 days, and there were two lines to ride.
We did the blue line the first day and got off at stop 6 (Rua do Comércio), as it looked quite lively there by the river. It was nice to walk around and browse the shops. We got yummy gelato from Amorino, and I bought some cool postcards made out of cork to send home to my folks.
We accidentally screwed up by jumping on the red line by accident to get out of there and ended up back at the starting point of the bus tour. Oops. So watch out for the sign in the front window, folks!
So we had to start the blue line tour all over and rode it to the end. It wasn’t that exciting, and I was a bit disappointed at the lack of what Lisbon had to offer. Also, there were some issues with the audio connection, and the sound kept cutting in and out. But at least it was a beautiful sunny day to sit on the upper deck.
On the second day, we did the red line tour with the intention of using it as transportation to get bus stop 15 (Mosteiro dos Jerónimos) to go get the famous Portuguese egg tarts at Pastéis de Belém. We made it there okay, but after we got there, it started pouring. Unfortunately, the bus stop wasn’t covered, and we got completely soaked while waiting to get back on the bus.
When the bus finally came, everyone was sitting at the bottom deck, and it was leaky with lots of drips from the ceiling. Some of the seats were so wet that it was impossible to sit on, so we had to stand in the aisle for a while. Not the greatest experience in a leaky ‘ol bus. :/

Wir haben uns mehr zufällig für diesen Anbieter entschieden (es gab noch zwei weitere). Der Preis war nicht der günstigste, Erwachsene 18,-EUR/p:P. und Kinder 9,-EUR/p.P., aber es hat sich gelohnt. Es werden zwei Rundtouren von jeweils 1,45 Stunden gefahren, dieses haben teilweise gleiche Haltestellen fahren sonst aber in verschiedene Richtungen. Es gibt pro Rundtour ca 20 Haltestellen, an diesen kann man aussteigen und dann mit einem der nächsten Busse weiterfahren, diese sind im halben Stunden Takt da. Dadurch kann man selbst entscheiden wo man länger verweilen will und was man nur durch die Busfahrt kennen lernen möchte. Die Busse sind oben offen und unten geschlossen, also mit Schattenplatz. Im Preis enthalten sind Kopfhörer, diese können an jedem Platz angeschlossen werden und man erhält dann Infos zur Sehenswürdigkeit oder der Umgebung (estehen 7 Sprachen zur Auswahl), zwischendrin läuft Musik.