Belém: Lisbon’s Riverside Treasures Walking Tour
Description
Explore Belém, the riverside district where Portugal’s Age of Discoveries began. Once a fishing village and later home to Portuguese nobility, Belém is filled with iconic monuments, grand architecture, and stories of the world’s first global empire. Your tour begins at Afonso de Albuquerque Square before strolling along the Tagus waterfront. See the Monument to the Discoveries, hear about explorers like Vasco da Gama and Henry the Navigator, and learn how a small country built territories across the globe. Continue to Belém’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites—the Jerónimos Monastery and the Belém Tower—and uncover the events, battles, and remarkable figures that shaped Portuguese history. Tours run rain or shine.
Tour Options
Itinerary
Your Belém Tour starts by the monument at Afonso de Albuquerque Square.
This beautiful and ancient settlement sits on the banks of the River Tagus, and tells the story of the beginning of globalisation, and of history's greatest explorers. Learn about Portugal's "Age of Discoveries" and travel through the monuments of the historic Belém district in Lisbon.
Visit the Empire Square Gardens, which were built for the Portuguese World Exhibition in 1940.
Explore the impressive Padrão dos Descobrimentos - Monument to the Discoveries, which features great explorers like Henry the Navigator, Luís de Camões and Vasco da Gama.
Visit the Jeronimos Monastery, classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Learn about its history and explore its unique Gothic Manueline style.
Highlights
What's included
Traveller Ratings
Important Information
- Public transportation options are available nearby
- Suitable for all physical fitness levels
- The independent guides with whom we work have your best interests in mind; while the tour usually includes the sites and stories above and lasts this long, your tour may vary depending on what your guide thinks is best for your group!
Reviews(163)
Our tour started out not very good. First, there was noone to meet us that had a red umbrella or shirt. If I hadn't have been walking around asking we would have missed the tour. Our tour guide was great and apogized, she is very knowlegable about Portugal and history. The boat ride was very cold and wet because of weather. Our walking and discussion was good. Overall a good experience.
Poorly planned meeting location, was there for over an Hor on Tuesday and could not locate the Representative (Red Umbrella and Red Shirt). Call and was told to go back Thursday, found White Umbrella with Red Emblem and was told that the tour was cancelled for Thursday, Wasted 2 days with no tour, Requested refund and have no received any compensation. Very por service
Excellent tour! Bruno was very knowledgeable and informative and gave us some additional tips of things to see and do in the area. Thank you!
The day we did the tour was extremely hot but our guide Bruno made every effort to ensure our group was comfortable. Showing us frequently where to top up on water and always finding some shade to pass on all of his information.
Extensive walking tour, no stops for shade or to hydrate. Saw much of the sights of Belém, but only from the outside. It would have been more interesting to include at least one tour of either the tower or the monastery. Ending at the infamous Pasteis de Belém (sweets not included) was nice. Getting back to the original meeting point (not included) was frustrating but achievable (Uber).
Jamie was a fountain of historical facts about Portugal and Lisbon in particular. He shared many interesting and amusing historical anecdotes that brought the story of Portugal’s Age of Exploration to life. I recommend this tour to put your visit to Lisbon in a historical context.
A tour lead by local guide Jorge. Who gave interesting insight to Portugal history. We visited free part of Jeronimo Monastery n we stop for some pastel de Belem. Good value tour
Would highly recommend this your to anyone visiting Lisbon. Gui was an amazing guy with loads of knowledge. Willing to help you in any way he can. Overall 10/10 would recommend it
This was a great time to spend a few hours in Lisbon. There were quite a few people on the tour, all gathered around ready to go. Our guide was great and before we set off he really interacted with us and made us chuckle. We were told there would be a lot of walking...there certainly was, so make sure you wear something comfy. There was also a lot of standing around when the guide was talking, which got a bit silly at times when the guide was chatting for about 30 mins, you start to lose interest for a while to be honest. Anyway the guide was so informative we really did learn a lot, all the while taking in the sights of Lisbon. Again, he made it humerous and really engaged with us, taking questions from us all. We were told that we could leave at any point if we wanted to but we must just inform us that you were going, so that he didn't think he had lost anyone. We stopped for the portugese pastries, and a toilet break. It was classed as a walking tour but you are fully expected to give him a tip...everyone put about ten euros in which would soon add up for the guide.
The tour was interesting we learned a lot about portuguese discoveries, however in stead of lasting 2,5h it took 5h!!! It was definitelly too much. Jaume knows a lot about history, however he has to prepared the tour for tourists and not for history students. Finally we wnt back to eat pastel de belem, but after so many hours it wasnt fun any more.
Hi Bas_enka86, Thank you for sharing your experience with us and for joining the tour in Lisbon. We love to hear back from engaged travellers such as yourself, as your feedback helps us to continue making improvements and ensure that tours and experiences promoted by SANDEMANs NEW Europe meet the high standards that travellers expect of us. We are sorry to hear that your expectations were not met on this occasion. Whilst the tour’s route and content are listed on our website, the independent guides we work with may alter the tour in order to suit their own style and each group’s dynamic. We feel this adds a personal touch that makes tours promoted by SANDEMANs fresh and unforgettable, but it may also mean that the tour’s stories and sites are not in line with every guests’ preferences which, unfortunately, can be a difficult situation to avoid. While on the whole, the vast majority of guests are extremely satisfied, we do state on our promotional material that all the tours do differentiate from one another due to the individual nature of the guides we work with. Please be sure that we will be addressed your to the local Operations Team so that they can bring it to Jaume's attention. Thank you once again for taking the time to share your thoughts with us. We hope this experience will not prevent you from joining us again in the future. All the best, The SANDEMANs Team
