Lisbon Viva Viagem and Navegante Card: Fares and How-To (2026)

What Is the Navegante Occasional Card?

The navegante occasional card is a reusable electronic smart card designed for non-frequent or tourist use. It replaced the Viva Viagem brand as part of a wider rebranding of Lisbon's public transport ticketing system, but the physical card looks and works the same way: a green rectangular card with a contactless chip inside.

You validate it by touching it against the orange or green contactless readers at metro turnstiles, tram stops, and bus doors. The system reads the card instantly and deducts the correct fare or counts down a pass. There is no need to swipe or insert the card anywhere.

One important rule: the card is personal. Even if you load multiple journeys onto it, only one person can use it per trip. You cannot pass it back through the gate for a travel companion — each traveller needs their own card.

The card costs €0.50 to buy and remains valid for one year from the date of purchase. During that year, you can top it up as many times as you like. Once it expires, you can no longer reload it, but any remaining loaded tickets are still usable until they run out.

Where to Buy the Card in Lisbon

The fastest place to buy a navegante card is at any Lisbon Metro station. Every station has yellow ticket vending machines (TMAs) that sell and load the card, and larger stations also have staffed ticket offices for more complex requests. Machines operate in Portuguese, English, Spanish, and French. For full details on card options, see the Metropolitano de Lisboa official guide.

You can also buy the card at many newsagents, tabacarias, and convenience shops displaying the navegante or Carris logo — useful if you want to pick one up near your accommodation rather than queuing at a metro machine. The Cais do Sodré terminal and Oriente station both have multiple machines across different platforms.

Keep your purchase receipt. The official advice from Metropolitano de Lisboa is to carry it in case your card stops working. If the card malfunctions and staff can verify the original purchase, they will transfer your remaining credit to a new card at no extra charge.

Ticket Types: Zapping, Single Tickets, and Day Passes

Once you have the card, you need to choose what to load onto it. There are three main options, and the card can only hold one type at a time. You cannot have Zapping credit and a 24-hour pass loaded simultaneously — if you load a pass, the Zapping option is locked until the pass expires.

Zapping is the flexible pay-as-you-go option and the one locals and long-stay visitors use most. You load a cash amount between €3 and €40, and each journey is automatically deducted at a discounted rate. A metro ride on Zapping costs approximately €1.61, compared to €2.00 or more for a single paper ticket. Zapping works across all member operators: Carris buses and trams, the Lisbon Metro, CP suburban trains (Cascais and Sintra lines), Transtejo and Soflusa ferries, Fertagus, Metro Sul do Tejo, and several regional bus operators.

Single tickets let you load one or two trips for a specific operator or combined network. The most commonly used is the Carris/Metro single ticket, which covers one trip on any Carris bus, tram, or metro line. These are worth buying only if you are making a very limited number of trips.

Day passes come in several flavours. The Carris/Metro 24-hour pass costs around €6.80 and gives unlimited travel on buses, trams, and the metro. There are also combined 24-hour passes that include Transtejo ferries (for the Cacilhas crossing) or CP suburban trains. If you plan to ride Tram 28, visit Belém by tram, cross the river, and take the metro all in one day, a 24-hour pass typically pays for itself after four trips.

How to Use and Validate the Card

Always validate your card at the start of every journey segment — not just once when you first board. On the metro, tap the card against the reader before passing through the turnstile. On Carris buses and trams, tap the reader near the driver or at the door. On ferries, validate at the terminal gate before boarding.

The card supports free transfers within a time window. On Carris-Metro combined journeys, you typically have 60 to 90 minutes from first validation to make connections without paying again — as long as you validate at each boarding. The exact transfer window depends on the operator combination, but staying within that window keeps your Zapping costs low on multi-leg trips through the historic centre.

One common mistake is holding the card too close to other contactless items — a phone with NFC, another transport card, or a hotel key card. The validator can misread or fail to register. Hold the navegante card flat and alone against the reader for a clean tap.

Viva Viagem vs Navegante: What the Rebrand Means for Tourists

Many travel guides and forum posts still use "Viva Viagem" because the rebrand happened gradually and older articles have not been updated. In practice, if you ask for a Viva Viagem card at the ticket machine in 2026, you are buying the navegante occasional card — the branding changed, the card did not.

There is one distinction worth knowing: the system also offers a navegante mensal (monthly pass) aimed at Lisbon residents with a fixed monthly subscription for unlimited travel. This is not the card tourists buy. The navegante occasional card is what you want — it has no monthly commitment, no personal ID requirement, and works identically to the old Viva Viagem for travel purposes.

A detail that no official signage makes obvious: if your one-year card expires but you still have a 24-hour pass or Zapping credit loaded, you can continue using those loaded tickets. You simply cannot add new credit to an expired card. This matters if you visit Lisbon twice in a year — you can check the remaining balance at any ticket machine and decide whether to reuse the old card or buy a new one for €0.50.

Which Operators Accept the Card

The navegante occasional card covers all member operators in the Lisbon transport network. For day-to-day sightseeing, the most relevant ones are Carris (all city buses and the historic trams including lines 15E, 18E, 25E, and 28E), the Lisbon Metro (all four lines — Blue, Yellow, Green, Red), and CP Urban Trains for the Cascais and Sintra suburban lines.

For river crossings, Transtejo operates the Cacilhas and Montijo ferries from Cais do Sodré terminal, while Soflusa handles routes from Terreiro do Paço (Praça do Comércio) to Barreiro. Both accept Zapping credit and the combined 24-hour ferry pass. The ferry to Cacilhas, from where you can see the Statue of Christ and walk to the famous Ponto Final restaurant, costs under €2 each way on Zapping.

Fertagus and Metro Sul do Tejo serve the south bank of the Tagus, useful if you are staying in Almada or travelling further south. TST and Rodoviária de Lisboa cover outer suburban areas. For typical tourist routes within Lisbon, you will mainly use Carris, Metro, and CP to Sintra or Cascais.

Checking Your Balance and After-Sales Support

You can check the remaining credit or ticket status on any ticket vending machine at metro stations. Insert the card into the chip reader slot or tap it against the contactless reader — the machine displays the balance and loaded ticket type without charging you anything. Ticket office staff can also check this for you during staffed hours.

If your card stops working and you still have credit on it, go to a staffed ticket office at a major metro station (Marquês de Pombal, Oriente, Rossio, or Alameda are all well-staffed). Show the malfunctioning card and your purchase receipt. If the card has no visible physical damage and is within its one-year validity, Metro staff will transfer the credit to a new card free of charge.

If no staff is visible at the station, use the intercoms at Help Points near the access gates or on ticket machines. These connect directly to Metro customer service and are available during network operating hours.

Practical Tips for Using the Card in 2026

Top up at a machine rather than a newsagent if you want to load a specific pass — newsagents can sell the card and add Zapping credit, but some cannot load day passes or combined ferry/train tickets. The metro station machine gives you the full range of options.

Load at least €10 of Zapping if you are staying three or more days. This covers metro rides, buses, and tram 28 without constant top-ups. You can add more at any station without buying a new card. For a short two-day visit with intensive sightseeing, compare the 24-hour pass price (€6.80/day) against your planned trip count — four or more metro and bus rides in a day makes the pass cheaper. For current schedules and route planning, consult Visit Lisboa traveller information.

Avoid touching the card against other contactless items during validation. Keep it separate from your phone, hotel key card, and other bank cards in your wallet. The chip is sensitive to interference, and a failed validation at a tram stop means the fare is not deducted but neither is the gate opened — you will need to tap again.

For trips to Sintra by train from Rossio station, Zapping credit covers the CP fare directly. The Sintra line is outside the Carris/Metro urban zone, so the fare is slightly higher (around €2.25 each way with Zapping) but still deducted automatically from your card balance with no separate ticket needed.

Related Guides for Getting Around Lisbon

If you are arriving by plane, our Lisbon airport guide explains which ticket to buy before you exit arrivals and how to reach the city centre on the Metro Red Line for under €2.

For tram routes through the historic neighbourhoods, the Lisbon trams guide covers every current Carris tram line, including which stops are closest to the main viewpoints and how to avoid the worst of the Tram 28 crowds. Buses and trams combined give you far more coverage than the metro alone across the hilly older districts.

If you plan to explore beyond the city limits, the Lisbon to Sintra train guide details the CP schedule, journey time, and the walking routes between Sintra's palaces once you arrive. All of these journeys use the same navegante card you buy on your first day.