A Lisbon weekend under $500.

Book a small guesthouse (pousada) in Príncipe Real or Graça instead of a hotel in the Baixa or Chiado. The difference in rate — often $40 to $80 a night less — buys you the better part of the trip: a street you actually want to walk home through, a hilltop viewpoint at the end of the block, and the kind of breakfast (pastel de nata, freshly squeezed orange juice, strong bica coffee) that’s already part of why you came.

Midweek rates are meaningfully lower than weekend rates. If you have any flexibility, fly in Thursday and fly out Monday — three nights at weekday pricing is often cheaper than two nights at the weekend rate, and you get the city at its quietest. Walkability matters more than star ratings: every neighborhood in central Lisbon is built on a hill, so the lodging that lets you walk to dinner is the lodging that lets you skip taxis home.

Skip the airport taxi. The metro runs from the airport into the city center in under twenty minutes for a fraction of the cab fare. Once you arrive, buy a 24-hour transit pass from any metro station — it covers the metro, the funiculars, and most city buses, and the math works out in your favor by the second ride.

The tram 28 is the tourist tram and worth doing once, but it’s not your transit: walk the hill neighborhoods instead. Lisbon is built for walking in a way that most European capitals aren’t — the climbs are short, the miradouros at the top of each reward you, and the side streets between the main sights are where the city actually lives. Save the tram for the experience, the metro for the distance, and your feet for everything in between.

Lunch is the meal to spend on in Lisbon, and the cheapest way to eat well. Tascas — small, family-run, no-frills counters — serve a full lunch (prato do dia) for a fraction of what dinner would cost anywhere else. Order what the table next to you is ordering, drink the house wine (vinho da casa), and you’ll eat better than you would at a restaurant three times the price.

Dinner is where you spend. Pick one splurge — a seafood place in Cais do Sodré, a modern Portuguese kitchen in Príncipe Real — and let the rest of your dinners be lighter walks home with a stop along the way. Pastel de nata runs cheap; the difference between the famous one and the one your guesthouse serves at breakfast is smaller than the guidebook wants you to believe. Save the pilgrimage for an afternoon, not a morning queue.