HIPPOtrip Lisbon

The HIPPOtrip route, by road and by river

You board at the HIPPOtrip building on Doca de Santo Amaro, on the left of the marina where the restaurants are, and stay on board the whole way. There are no stops.

On land it takes in three areas: Cais do Sodré, by the river where the trains leave from; the Bairro Alto, the old quarter up on the hill; and Belém. Roadworks can change the route for a while.

Then comes the splash. The bus heads down into the river and spends about 25 minutes on the Tagus. One passenger in July 2026 saw the Monument to the Discoveries from the water, “prow-on, exactly how it’s meant to be seen”.

You’re back at the dock about an hour and a half after you left.

The company’s own advice is not to expect a traditional tour with a traditional guide. Its hosts are there to entertain, in Portuguese and English, and the passengers are part of the show.

Some amphibious tours elsewhere run on Second World War “duck boats”. HIPPOtrip’s vehicles were built from scratch, as the Portuguese business site ECO reported in 2023.

HIPPOtrip tickets and departure times

Everyone from age 2 needs a ticket. The Lisboa Card takes 15% off, going by the tourist board’s June 2026 leaflet; HIPPOtrip lists the card as a partner but doesn’t say how the discount works.

Adults pay €30; children aged 2 to 16 and over-65s pay €20. In July and August the operator charges €4 more per ticket. A family of two adults and two children, or a group of ten or more, gets 10% off.

A Lisboa Card, from €31 for 24 hours, doesn’t include the tour, but it covers the tram and train to Alcântara and Pilar 7 close by.

Booking isn’t required, but the operator warns that on holidays, weekends and in summer most tours sell out.

Be at the vehicle before it leaves: a missed tour isn’t refunded, though you can join the waiting list for a later one that day. Departures can also move 15 to 30 minutes either way.

Everyone has to climb a five-step ladder unaided, so the tour can’t take people with very limited mobility, and maritime safety law rules out wheelchairs.

It runs in the rain, and the operator’s own pages disagree on whether the windows close, so dress for the weather. Should the river part be called off for weather, you can ask for half your money back.

Pets can come along in a carrier on the floor. Life jackets are under the seats, though you don’t have to wear one.

Frank Alvarez and the first HIPPOtrip

HIPPOtrip was the idea of Frank Alvarez, a Portuguese-Canadian who grew up in Toronto, the son of emigrants. He came across amphibious tours in Boston.

Getting it onto the road and the river took 53 months of licences and safety tests, and he qualified himself as a boat skipper and as a bus driver.

On the first day, the traffic police pulled the bus over, and it ended up full of officers.

It has sailed the Tagus since 2013. That first year it already left from Doca de Santo Amaro, but only from Friday to Sunday. In 2022, its best year, it carried 96,000 passengers, and by 2023 it had three vehicles, with two more planned.

Near the HIPPOtrip dock in Alcântara

The dock shares Pilar 7’s transport, all included in the Lisboa Card: tram 15E, buses 714, 727, 732 and 751 and the Cascais-line train to Alcântara.