Free self-guided walking tour of Lisbon: Podtour's free audio route

What Podtour's free route is

It isn't a teaser or a summary. It's a whole route, with a beginning, a build-up and an ending:

• Free, with no tip and no "pay what you like".
• No group, no start time. You begin when you reach the starting point and stop whenever you want.
• One voice talking to you, like a good guide with only you to tell the story to, in stops of about three minutes each.
• In British English and in Spanish.
• Works offline: download it before you set out and you won't need data.

The route: Lisbon's Baixa, from Terreiro do Paço to the Rossio

Eleven stops, about 1.4 km, about 33 minutes of audio and about 20 minutes' walking (approximate figures). It's mostly flat, with the odd gentle slope, and entirely in the open air. It starts beside the Tagus at the Cais das Colunas and ends in the Rossio. The question running through it: what fell down here in 1755, and what city was built on top?

1. Cais das Colunas. The morning of the earthquake, told by an English witness, including the part he admits he didn't see.
2. The equestrian statue of King José I. Why the decision was taken to clear the Baixa and lay it out again, and who the king on horseback is.
3. The corner of Rua do Arsenal. One square, two dates: the shots of 1908, and the morning in 1974 when nobody would fire.
4. Martinho da Arcada. A café that started out selling ice brought down from the mountains, and the poet it still keeps a table for.
5. The Rua Augusta arch. Designed after the earthquake and only completed over a hundred years later, with a very familiar face among its statues.
6. The hatch to the Roman Galleries. Under the road, Roman galleries that spend most of the year under water.
7. The bank above the necropolis. Romans beneath a bank: a fish-sauce factory and burials that call for a gentle touch.
8. The Baixa's wooden cage. What the walls in front of you are hiding to help them ride out the next tremor.
9. The Santa Justa Lift. Iron, steam and a supposed pupil of Eiffel, with no evidence to back the story.
10. A sea in the Rossio. The stone waves underfoot: who designed them, who laid them and how they crossed the Atlantic.
11. Pedro IV in the Rossio. Is that really a Mexican emperor at the top of the column? The answer is in his hand.

What free walking tours in Lisbon usually cover

Lisbon has a huge range of free walking tours, mostly in Spanish and English; in Portuguese there are far fewer. Broadly speaking:

• The most common is the "essential Lisbon" tour: the Baixa, Chiado and Bairro Alto, with stops such as Praça do Comércio, the Pombaline Baixa, São Domingos and the 1506 memorial, the Santa Justa Lift, the Rossio and the Carmo. Some add the 1755 earthquake, the Age of Discovery, the Inquisition, the Estado Novo dictatorship or the Carnation Revolution.
• Other very common options: Alfama, sometimes combined with Mouraria; Belém; "four neighbourhoods" walks; mysteries and legends, often in the late afternoon; and night walks.
• The format: they usually last between two and three hours, with a guide and a group, advance booking and a tip at the end.

If what you want is a first walk round the Baixa, Podtour's free route covers the same ground, with its own choice of stories and a clear line between what's documented and what's merely repeated.

Where free walking tours rarely go

From what we've looked at, some parts of Lisbon and some subjects get very little walking-tour coverage. That's where Podtour has put its other routes:

• Cais do Sodré and the Bica: the quay, the sailors, a spies' café and Camões's giant at the top. What we found in this area was almost entirely night-time outings.
• Príncipe Real and Rua do Século: printing presses, fires and newspapers on a hill where we found hardly any guided walks.
• Chiado and Bairro Alto: the neighbourhood itself is on the free tours, but the afternoon of 25 April 1974 told in the very streets where it happened much less so, and Pessoa is usually left to museum visits or private tours.
• From the Rossio to the Mouraria: the Inquisition and the 1506 massacre, a subject mostly left to private tours.
• Lower Alfama: from the river to fado: fado as social history rather than as dinner and a show.

The free one is the Baixa route; the others are part of the app's catalogue.

What a free walking tour does better (and when each one suits you)

Let's be fair: a good free walking tour gives you things an audio route can't. A guide in person answers your questions on the spot, adapts the walk to the group, tells you where to eat that day and gives you company if you're travelling alone. For a first look at the city in a group, it's a great choice.

An audio route suits you better when you want to:

• choose your own time, even if that's dusk or after a long lunch;
• go at your own pace, stop in the shade, replay a stop or save it for tomorrow;
• bring children, who set their own rhythm;
• dig deeper afterwards, into areas or subjects the free tour didn't cover.

And it needn't be one or the other: you can do a free walking tour on your first morning and Podtour's free route in the afternoon, or the other way round.

Frequently asked questions

Does the free route cost anything, or expect a tip? No. It's free, complete and there's no tip.

How long does it take, and how far do you walk? About 33 minutes of audio and about 20 minutes' walking, over roughly 1.4 km. Since you go at your own pace, the total time is up to you.

Do I need an internet connection? No. Download the route before you head out: Podtour works offline.

Is it available in English? Yes. The route is in British English and in Spanish.

Do I need to know any history? Not at all. It's designed for first-time visitors and for anyone, families included. Each stop tells a complete story and tells you what to look at.

Can I combine it with a free walking tour? Of course. They work well together: the guide in person for your questions, the audio route for going back on your own terms.

Plan your trip

Our Lisbon guide has everything worth knowing before you go.

Further reading

• Charles Davy, 'The Earthquake at Lisbon, 1755', a letter published in his Letters (1787); Eva March Tappan's edition (1914) in the Internet History Sourcebooks, Fordham University. https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1755lisbonquake.asp
• Património Cultural (DGPC), inventory record for Praça do Comércio (in Portuguese). https://imovel.patrimoniocultural.gov.pt/detalhes.php?code=70275
• Fundação Millennium bcp, Rua dos Correeiros Archaeological Site (NARC). https://fundacaomillenniumbcp.pt/en/nucleo-arqueologico/