Destination Report: Lisbon – Part Two: Cost of Nomad Living

Last week we shared everything we did, ate and saw in Lisbon in our Part I. In this week’s blog post, we are now taking a deep dive into our budget and how the two of us spent around $2,000 USD during our 3 week stay in Lisbon, Portugal this summer. While we thought Porto was expensive, Lisbon actually became the most expensive city we have lived in since we started traveling around the world! Are you ready to see our numbers and find out what surprised us the most in Lisbon?

We stayed in Lisbon for 3 weeks and the two of us spent $47 per person per day, or $1,964 in total.

Where We Traveled Lisbon, Portugal

What did we do, see, eat? Check out our destination guide of Lisbon

Number of Days 3 weeks (from August 13, 2019 to September 2nd, 2019)

Type of Travel Married Couple, Slow Travel/Nomadic, Price Conscious

Total living cost $1,964 (for 2 people) or $47 per person and per day or $2,820 over a 30 days period

Note: Unless specified otherwise, prices are in USD and were converted from the local currency (EUR or Euro) to USD using a 1:11 ratio. (so 1 USD = 0.90 EUR). 

With our previous trips to Montreal, Quebec City, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico City, Oaxaca City, San Miguel de Allende, Aruba and Porto, our average monthly spend per person was around $37 / person / day (Excluding cost of getting in & out). Lisbon was above this average with a daily budget of $47 / person / day for a monthly budget of about $1,410 per person. While everything was really affordable, our budget was so high because  accommodation alone represented 66% of it! 

For this budget, we rented a car to spend a day in Obidos/Sintra/Foz do Arhelho, took a lot of public transportation to go on a few hikes with the Lisbon Hiking Meetup group, tried a few restaurants while also cooking delicious meals at home and enjoyed a couple of free city tours to learn more about the sights, culture and history. We did all of this while staying in a two story loft apartment that was beautifully decorated and highly functional. Our apartment was located in the heart of the city center with a terrace that had a breathtaking view of the city. And did we mention that even though the location was central, it was really quiet? What did we spend on within this budget? Well let’s look into each main budget category in more detail. 

(For more details about what to do, eat, see & avoid, please check out Part I of our destination guide about Lisbon)

If you want to know every single expense we had, fill-out out the form below to download our itemized budget spreadsheet.

How much did we spend? 

Note: If you are curious about how we generally decide to spend our money, check out this article where we explain our decision making process.

Accommodation: $30.75 / person / day

(Or $922 / person / month).

Similar to Porto, accomodation in Lisbon was quite expensive (especially for people visiting). With the minimum wage in Portugal still around 600 EUR/month this was surprising. We talked to a few people that have been living in Lisbon for several years and they have been experiencing a huge increase in rent due to its popularity. Accommodation remains the biggest part of our budget, we averaged 45% on our first year while slow traveling. For Lisbon, the accommodation represented 66% of our overall budget! 

While we pulled some of our own Airbnb tips and got a monthly discount, we still ended up paying a lot more on accommodation than we would have liked. Also booking during the peak of the season (which is July/August) did not help.

That being said, we LOVED our apartment.

👉 You can check out our Airbnb rental listing here.

It was one of the best we’ve had because it was an apartment that a family was subletting and is normally their permanent residence. Those types of apartments work out much better for us because they are much more functional, usually have a fully stocked kitchen and there are so much more charm and care put into the decor. Sublets are also better for the local rental economy because there are unfortunately more and more cities where locals are getting priced out in place of for-profit Airbnb rentals.

Our apartment was well decorated, extremely functional, very quiet, and had a terrace that made for some great dinners with spectacular views of the city, especially at sunset. The apartment was located in the historical center of Lisbon, in the Rossio area. It was on a charming street and our host provided us with helpful lists of grocery stores and local restaurants. We were also just a 10-minute walk from the Alfama neighborhood that is a must-see in Lisbon.

⇒ In total, for the length of our say, the 2 of us spent $1,291.52 on this apartment for a total of 21 nights.

Transportation: $1.49 / person / day

(Or $45 / person / month)

Since our AirBnB was walking distance from shops, restaurants and grocery stores, we only used public transportation to go explore outside of the city. The network of buses (Carris), trains (CP), metro (Metro de Lisboa) and ferries (Transtejo et Soflusa) is pretty developed, convenient and affordable.

For buses & metro, prices start at 1.50 EUR (or 1.66 USD). You will need to purchase a reloadable Viva Viagem card that lets you conveniently load as many tickets as you need to travel (cost of the card is valid for one year: 0.50 EUR – or 0.55 USD). Fares are based on a zoning system which means you pay depending on how many zones you need to cross, starting at 1.50 EUR (or 1.66 USD). Note: Keep in mind that you can only load the card with one type of zone. If you want to load a different zone onto your card, it has to be emptied first. To activate your ticket, make sure to tag it prior to boarding the vehicle. You can find metro fares here, bus fares here, train fares here and ferry fares here.  

Taxis & Uber are also widely available in Lisbon. We used Uber to get from the airport to our apartment as we liked the convenience and it’s fairly inexpensive.

You also have access to bike & electric scooters pretty much everywhere in the city with companies like Lime.

⇒ In total, for the length of our stay, the 2 of us spent $62.76 on transportation.

Groceries: $5.82 / person / day

(Or $174 / person / month)

We went grocery shopping mostly at Pingo Doce & the wonderful Saturday Farmer’s market (for fruits/vegetables), Celeiro / Go Natural (for cooking staples like flours, sweeteners) and Lidl (for the rest). Grocery items are really affordable in Lisbon. Check the part one of our destination guide of Lisbon for more details about each of these stores and where they are located.

⇒ In total, for the length of our say, the 2 of us spent $244.29 on groceries. This covered 49/60 meals (breakfast, lunch & dinner) which is about $2.48 / meal.

Eating Out: $6.72 / person / day

(Or $202 / person / month)

Lisbon has a wonderful offering of cuisines, vibe and price points so the sky really is the limit! Check the part one of our destination guide of Lisbon for our favorite restaurants.

⇒ In total, for the length of our stay, the 2 of us spent $261 on restaurants + $21 on snacks for a total of $282. Our restaurant budget covered 11/60 meals (mostly lunch or dinner). The average cost of our meals was $11.86 (including tax + tip) which is 4.0 times more expensive than eating at home (by doing the ratio between what a full day of eating out would cost vs a full day of eating at home as per our budget). 

Activities: $1.75 / person / day

(Or $52 / person / month)

Our paid activities in Lisbon included only tip for two walking tours and cost of transportation to go hiking. We also rented a car and public transportation to visit outside of the city and these costs are part of our “Transportation” category.

⇒ In total, for the length of our say, the 2 of us spent $73.36 on activities. 

Miscellaneous: $0.26 / person / day

(Or $8 / person / month)

Various purchases not worth calling out 🙂

⇒ In total, for the length of our say, the 2 of us spent $10.4 on misc expenses. 

Our Money Savings Tips

How did we save money for this trip?

• Avoid visiting during peak season (July and August). We made this mistake and paid a premium for our accommodation! As you can see, the cost of living was inexpensive for us except for our apartment. If we had come on the fringe months, accommodation would be much cheaper.
• Stay outside of the historical center. Again, because housing is the biggest expense, you can save a lot of money if you don’t mind walking 10-15 minutes to get into town or better yet taking public transportation. We found the outside area enjoyable and less touristy.
• Enjoy the free viewpoints. In this city of 7 (technically 8) hills, there is no shortage of amazing viewpoints around the city. There’s no need to wait in line and pay admission for the Elevador de Santa Justa viewpoint. 
• Stay away from the “touristy” restaurants in the historic area. Most of them are touristy so not only are they pricey, they don’t really feature the homemade authentic cuisine you want
• Don’t take a Tuk Tuk tour. Instead take a free walking tour to have a more enjoyable experience of the city at a fraction of the cost. 
• Use your two feet every day! This helped us reduce our public transportation footprint while increasing our exercise activity. Double win!
• We use travel credit cards with sign-on bonuses to maximize free miles that we then apply towards our trip to travel for (almost) free. 
• Use AirBnB. AirBnB is a website that allows homeowners, in destinations all over the world, the ability to rent private spaces (or entire apartments) for a fee. As nomadic long term travelers, we like to call AirBnB our home as it has helped us save a lot of money and provides us with really great places managed by wonderful hosts! Pro tip: If you sign up for AirBnB using our referral link, you will get a 55 USD credit (or the equivalent in your local currency), which should give you a pretty nice discount on your first night.

So that’s it folks! What do you think about our budget in Lisbon? Is it as affordable as you thought it was? Feel free to share your experience and ask questions by leaving a comment below.