Public Transport in Portugal: Passes for Americans and Britons

In Portugal you buy public transport by metropolitan area: a personalized navegante card with a monthly pass in the Lisbon area, an Andante card with a pass in the Porto area, and a separate CP card with a national rail pass for residents. This guide gives the prices the operators list, who gets a discount, and what we could not confirm.

We read the pages of Carris Metropolitana, Metro de Lisboa, STCP, Metro do Porto and CP on 19 October 2026. This is an overview, not a travel booking service, and fares change, so check the operator before you buy.

Which pass covers which area?

Think of two questions: where do you live, and do you cross municipality lines every day. Moving to a city is covered in where to live in Portugal; the pass you need follows from that choice.

Sources: Carris Metropolitana pass page, Metro de Lisboa purchase page, STCP Andante passes page, CP page. The Lisbon complement page says an extra 20 euros a month is added to the monthly navegante pass to ride Carris Metropolitana inter-regional lines that leave the metropolitan area.

How does the Navegante pass work in Lisbon?

The navegante pass is a monthly pass loaded on a card. Metro de Lisboa describes two card types: the occasional navegante, loaded with tickets and zapping credit and usable by one person per trip, and the personalized navegante, loaded with zapping and passes and “to be used only by the holder”. A pass needs the personalized card.

Rules on the Metro page worth knowing:

• You can buy a pass for the following month only from the 26th of the current month. A pass for the current month can be bought at vending machines and sales points until the 25th.
• Returns are accepted before the month the pass is for starts. After that, the Metro page allows only an exchange of a Municipal pass for a Metropolitano pass, until the 25th of the month.
• A family pass (80 euros metropolitan, 60 euros municipal) needs at least three people with the same tax domicile, living in one of the 18 municipalities and directly related to the holder as parents or children (the page says direct family relation of ascendance or descent), per Carris Metropolitana.

For single trips, the Metro page lists a combined Carris/Metro ticket at 1.90 euros valid for 60 minutes, a 24 hour ticket at 7.25 euros for Carris and Metro, and 11.40 euros if CP urban trains are included. Zapping is prepaid credit usable on several operators, and the Metro trip with it costs 1.72 euros; with a contactless bank card the Metro trip is listed at 1.92 euros. Carris Metropolitana lists on board tickets between 1.30 and 4.65 euros depending on the type of line, and cheaper prepaid fares.

How does Andante work in Porto?

STCP says Andante is valid on the main public transport of the Porto metropolitan area: STCP buses, Metro do Porto, CP urban trains of Porto and UNIR. Its page adds that “the price depends only on the route, not on the mode of transport or the number of boardings”.

Two cards matter:

• Andante Azul (blue): a paper, non-personalized card for occasional trips. Metro do Porto lists the card at 0.60 euros and single trips by zone, from 1.40 euros for two zones to 4.65 euros for nine, valid from 1 January 2026.
• Andante Prateado (silver): the personalized card for monthly passes, 6.00 euros, sold at Andante shops and CP ticket offices. STCP says personalizing it needs the Bilhete de Identidade or the Cartão de Cidadão and a passport-type photo. The page does not say what a foreign resident shows; ask at the shop.

STCP also lists a driver-sold ticket at 2.50 euros, payable in cash, MB WAY or contactless, valid only for that trip. For how MB WAY and cards work, see cards and MB WAY payments.

What discounts exist for young people and seniors?

Both metropolitan areas list free passes for young people. The Lisbon Metro page says the free youth pass is for people from 4 to 23 years old inclusive, and asks for the personalized card, an identity document and a Portuguese NIF. Carris Metropolitana says “all young people up to 23 years, inclusive”, that no declaration is needed but your date of birth may need confirming, and states no NIF and no lower age. STCP lists the Andante Jovem for ages 4 to 23 inclusive. In both areas, higher education students in architecture and urbanism, pharmaceutical sciences, medicine, dentistry and veterinary medicine are covered until age 24 on proof of enrollment. If you are coming as a student, see the student visa guide.

For seniors and low incomes the pages describe different schemes:

The Metro de Lisboa page sets the Circula PT limits against the 2026 social support index (537.13 euros) and lists the documents: the card form, an identity document, the tax number and the papers for the step, with the page listing supporting documents for the step (the “documentação do escalão”) without naming them here. A NIF is the first step either way: see how to get a Portuguese NIF.

Can foreigners buy the national rail pass?

CP’s Passe Ferroviário Verde is the pass most relevant to someone living outside a big city. CP says it is “valid for Portuguese and foreigners resident in Portugal” and can be bought on any day. It lasts 30, 60 or 90 days and costs 20, 40 or 60 euros. CP’s page states that no other discounts apply.

What it covers, per CP:

• Intercidades in second class only, with a compulsory free seat reservation made within 24 hours before the trip
• Regional and InterRegional trains
• Urban trains of Coimbra, Lisbon and Porto

The pass cannot be exchanged or refunded. It is loaded on the CP card, which CP says is for Portuguese citizens and foreigners resident in Portugal and cannot hold other operators’ titles. In Lisbon or Porto, CP tells you to use the navegante or Andante card if you want train plus metro or bus.

To get the card, CP’s page offers an online request through the customer area using the Chave Móvel Digital, or any CP ticket office. For the digital-only card at a ticket office the page asks for the Cartão de Cidadão and does not say what a foreign resident shows instead. To set up the digital key, see the Chave Móvel Digital guide.

How does this fit your first months?

A pass is a fixed monthly cost and belongs in your budget: see the cost of living in Portugal. Many people ride occasionally in the first weeks on a rechargeable card and take a personalized pass once their address and NIF are set, as in the first year checklist. If you plan to drive, our guide to car insurance and tolls covers the insurance and tolls, and exchanging your US or UK licence is a separate process.

What we could not read

The navegante.pt portal and the Andante site (linhandante.com) would not load for us, and we found no CP page we could read on fares for single Alfa Pendular or Intercidades tickets or on CP’s senior and youth discounts. The price of the navegante card, the documents for a plain adult card and Porto’s pass documents are therefore not stated here. Ask at a navegante or Andante point of sale.

Dates of the information

Prices are as the operators’ pages showed them on 19 October 2026. The latest dated item is the Metro do Porto occasional fare table, in force from 1 January 2026, so that is this guide’s update date. The Metro de Lisboa page cites Portaria 322-A/2024/1 of 10 December 2024, valid from 1 January 2025, as the legal framework of the Circula PT discount.

Official pages read for this guide: Carris Metropolitana (pass and ticket pages), Metro de Lisboa (purchase page), STCP (fare page and Andante passes page), Metro do Porto (price page), and CP (Passe Ferroviário Verde and CP card pages). All were read on 19 October 2026.