Best Tram Tours in Lisbon: Tram 28 vs the Red Tram

Searching for a tram tour in Lisbon returns two products that could hardly be less alike, and the listings do very little to separate them.

The first is Tram 28, the yellow one from every photograph of the city. It is not a tour. It is a Carris public service running from Martim Moniz to Prazeres, used daily by people going to work, and it costs €1.90 on a loaded travel card. Nobody narrates it, nobody saves you a seat, and between 10:00 and 17:00 you will very likely be standing in a crowd.

The second is the red Hills tram, a Carris tourist tram operated as Yellow Bus. That one genuinely is a tour: it follows most of the Tram 28 route, seats everyone who boards, plays commentary in twelve languages through an earpiece, and the ticket lasts 24 hours. It costs €25.

So the choice is not really between routes. Both climb the same hills through Graça, Alfama and Estrela. The choice is between €1.90 standing with no explanation and €25 sitting with one. This page compares four bookable tickets on that basis, sets all of them against what the tram itself costs, and covers the historic lines that carry the same 1930s carriages without any of the queues. For other ways up the same hills, our Lisbon tuk tuk tour guide and our Lisbon walking tour guide cover the alternatives. If you are still working out how to get in from the airport, our Lisbon airport transfer guide covers the options into the city. The travel advisories flag Tram 28 for pickpockets, and our is Lisbon safe guide covers what they say. For a seated alternative, our Lisbon city tour bus comparison covers the hop-on hop-off buses, and our guide to Lisbon for seniors covers the gentler ways up the hills. Everything else is ranked in our best things to do in Lisbon guide.

This is where operators really differ: these four are not competing with each other at all. One is a seat, one is a pass, one is a guide, and one is a three-day sightseeing bundle. Ranked below by who each genuinely suits, with the honest note that none of them is highly rated.

Our take: Both trams climb the same hills. The €23 between them buys a guaranteed seat, a narration and 24 hours of public transport, not a better route. If you are content to stand and you have read a little history beforehand, the yellow one is one of the great cheap rides in Europe.

This is the decision the search results obscure, so here it is directly.

The yellow Tram 28: public transport with a view

€1.90 on a loaded card, €3.30 cash, and a contactless bank card works too. Guests tapping a card straight onto the reader report paying around €1.75 a ride, which is the easiest route to the cheaper fare because it skips buying a Navegante card at all. A 7 km route from Martim Moniz to Prazeres via Graça, Alfama, Baixa, Chiado and Estrela, taking 40 to 50 minutes end to end. It runs from about 06:00 to 23:00 every 10 to 15 minutes, and after roughly 21:30 it terminates early at Estrela.

The carriages are Remodelado stock from the 1930s: wooden seats, brass fittings, 2.4 metres wide, and no air conditioning. Around 20 seats and 28 standing places. That is exactly why people want to ride it, and also why it is uncomfortable. Pickpocketing is a well-known problem on the route, and guests raise it often enough that it is worth keeping your bag in front of you in the crush.

Two things the route description never mentions. The queue is worse than the guides admit: guests report 45 minutes to two hours at Martim Moniz, including in April and other shoulder months, with tuk tuk drivers working the line throughout. And it is not a round trip. At the terminus everyone is put off, and going back means rejoining the queue and paying a second fare. Several guests describe expecting a loop, being ejected at the end of the line and having to work out where they were.

The terminus advice cuts both ways, which is worth understanding before you queue. Boarding at Martim Moniz or Campo de Ourique gets you a seat, because crews deliberately fill only the seats and leave standing room for people joining en route. It also gets you the longest wait. Boarding mid-route means little or no queue and almost certainly standing.

The red Hills tram: the same hills, sitting down

€25 for 24 hours. A Carris tourist tram running most of the same route as a 1 hour 45 loop, every 40 minutes from 09:30 to 18:10, starting at Praça do Comércio and stopping at Basílica da Estrela and Portas do Sol. Everyone gets a seat. Commentary comes through an earpiece in twelve languages, including Japanese, Mandarin, Russian and Swedish, which no guided walk in the city matches.

The detail that changes the arithmetic is that the ticket includes free travel on the public Carris trams for its 24 hours, plus the Carris Museum. A standalone 24-hour Carris and Metro pass is €7.25, so the tour component is really costing about €18.

Two caveats from guests rather than listings. Audio failures are a recurring complaint in recent reviews, which matters because the commentary is the entire reason to pay, so check your headset works before the tram pulls away. And the red tram runs on the same rails as the yellow one, so it moves at the speed of whatever public tram is in front of it, waiting while that one loads and unloads. The relaxation is real; the speed is not.

We wouldn't book the red tram expecting to hop off and back on. Three stops, forty minutes apart, and guests who left the tram describe the next one arriving full and giving up on it. It is a seated loop, and it is worth €25 as that rather than as a network.

How to choose

Ride the yellow tram if you can go before 09:00 or after 20:00 and you are happy standing. Book the red one if anyone in your party cannot stand for 45 minutes, or if you are here in July and August when the queues are worst. Book the guided walk if what you actually want is someone to ask.

The map shows why these two trams feel so similar. The yellow Tram 28 runs the full 7 km between its termini at Martim Moniz and Prazeres, climbing through Graça and Alfama, dropping through Baixa and Chiado and out to Estrela. The red Hills tram covers most of that same arc from Praça do Comércio, but it only stops three times.

The red tram's three stops are marked, and so are the two Tram 28 termini where the carriages start empty. Those five pins are the ones that decide your morning.

Tram 28 gets the queues, but it is not the only historic line. Most of Lisbon's tram network still runs Remodelado carriages, the yellow 1930s stock with wooden seats and brass fittings, on lines 12, 18, 24, 25 and 28. If the tram itself is what you came for, the others give you the same carriage without the crowd.

Tram 12: the one that overlaps the 28

From what we've seen in reviews, this is the alternative guests recommend most often, and we'd shortlist it above the 28 for anyone whose priority is the carriage rather than the full route. Line 12 runs a shorter circuit covering much of the same historic quarter on the same stock at the same fare, and because far fewer visitors know about it you can generally sit down. Guests who queued an hour for the 28 and then found the 12 tend to be emphatic about it.

Tram 24: the quiet one

The most useful alternative on this page, and almost nobody writes about it. Line 24 runs the same historic stock through Chiado and Príncipe Real up to Campolide, and it is one of the quietest routes in the city. You can generally sit down at any hour. It does not have Alfama, which is why it is empty, but the carriage is identical.

Tram 25: a near-parallel to the 28

Runs from Praça da Figueira to Campo de Ourique via Lapa and Cais do Sodré, overlapping the western half of the 28 without the Alfama section that draws the crowds. Same fare, same carriages, a fraction of the queue.

Tram 15: the only accessible tram

Line 15 to Belém is the exception in every way. It uses modern Articulado stock, Siemens-built, air-conditioned and low-floor, and it is the tram line generally described as Lisbon's only step-free, wheelchair-accessible route. If mobility is a factor, or you are travelling with a pushchair, it is the only realistic tram in the city. The red tourist tram is listed as not wheelchair accessible, and the historic Remodelado carriages have steps and narrow doorways throughout.

The funiculars: mostly closed, and why

Several tickets on this page list free funicular access among their benefits. That benefit is currently worth very little, and the reason is serious.

On 3 September 2025 the Ascensor da Glória derailed, killing 16 people and injuring 23. An initial report by the Portuguese investigation office found that the cable connecting the two cars had failed at its attachment to the upper cabin. Lisbon immediately suspended the Bica and Lavra elevators and the Graça funicular for inspection.

As of our checks in September 2026, the Graça funicular had reopened on 30 April 2026, while Bica and Lavra were still out of service with no reopening date announced, and reporting indicated the Glória would be replaced by a new funicular rather than repaired, expected around 2029. Accounts of the Santa Justa lift conflict, some describing the lift running with its rooftop deck closed and others the whole structure shut pending checks.

None of that stops the trams running. It does mean that if a ticket's funicular access is part of why you are buying it, you should check what is actually operating on the dates you travel rather than assuming the listing is current.

The range on this page runs from €1.90 to €47, and almost all of it is explained by how long the ticket lasts and whether anyone is talking. Every figure below is either from the four listings compared above or from the published Carris fare table.

• Tap a contactless bank card and skip the card purchase. Guests report paying around €1.75 a ride by tapping straight onto the reader, against €3.30 in cash. It is the simplest way to the cheaper fare, and it needs no ticket machine and no queue.
• Check the audio works before the red tram moves. Dead sockets and a failing sound system are the most repeated complaint about the one thing that ticket is really selling. If yours does not work, say so on the platform rather than after the loop.
• Confirm the red tram's route length before you pay. The operator lists 1 hour 45, resellers say 1 hour, and guests over the past two years report anything from 30 minutes upward, with several saying the route was cut. Ask the conductor what today's loop covers.
• Do not count on hopping off the red tram. There are three stops and a 40 minute frequency, and guests who got off describe the next tram arriving full. Treat it as a ride-through with the option to leave, not a network.
• Ride before 09:00 or after 20:00. Between 10:00 and 17:00 the tram is reliably packed, and in summer the queue at Martim Moniz can cost you two or three departures. Early morning also gives you the better light.
• Watch your pockets, genuinely. Pickpocketing on Tram 28 comes up constantly in reviews, and the crush between Portas do Sol and Graça is where guests describe it happening. Front pockets, bag in front, and be careful at the moment of boarding.
• Consider tram 24 or 25 instead. Both run the same 1930s Remodelado carriages as the 28, at the same fare, with a fraction of the crowd. You lose the Alfama section, which is precisely why they are quiet.
• Take tram 15 if anyone in your party needs step-free access. It is the only wheelchair-accessible tram line in Lisbon, modern and air-conditioned, and it runs to Belém. The historic trams and the red tourist tram are not accessible.
• Check the funiculars before counting them as an inclusion. Bica and Lavra have been closed since the Glória accident in September 2025 and the Glória itself is being rebuilt. Graça reopened in April 2026. If that access is part of what you are paying for, confirm what is running on your dates.
• Check for a transport strike before you buy a multi-day pass. Lisbon's transport strikes affect these tickets, and one guest lost half a 48-hour pass to a strike they were not told about at purchase. A pass bought the morning of is safer than one bought two days ahead.
• Skip the tram in rain if the view is the point. The windows steam up, the boarding scrum gets worse, and guests describe seeing nothing at all through fogged glass on a wet afternoon.
• Visiting in August? Our Lisbon in August guide covers peak-summer heat and crowds, when the trams are at their busiest and an early-morning ride is the only comfortable one.
• Set expectations honestly. These are the lowest-rated tours we have compared in Lisbon, at 4.0 to 4.3. The recurring complaint is not that the trams are bad, it is that the word tour promises more than a tram ride delivers.