Where to board a Tagus cruise in Lisbon

1Estação Fluvial Sul e Sueste, Terreiro do Paço

This is the river station next to Praça do Comércio. Its address in the listings is Av. Infante Dom Henrique 1B. The FRS Portugal boat tour and sunset cruise both board at Pontoon A, and the operator's site gives the same pontoon. The listing says one of the entrances to Terreiro do Paço metro station, on the blue line, is beside the meeting point.

Arrive 20 minutes before your slot. For the sunset cruise you board with a QR code sent by email after booking, which the listing says may take a few minutes to arrive, so do not book from the quay at the last moment.

The Yellow Boat uses the same river station, which its operator calls the Terreiro do Paço stop. The listing does not give a pontoon for it. Two different companies board here, so read the name on the boat as well as the name on the building.

2Doca do Bom Sucesso, Belém

The sailboat ride, the sunset sail and the private yacht charter all start at this marina, which the operator places between the Altis Belém Hotel and the Belém Tower. There is no desk. The meeting point is a van flying Taguscruises flags, parked between the Vela Latina restaurant at marina Gate 1 and the BP petrol station.

The listings recommend arriving 10 to 15 minutes early, and the operator asks for 15 minutes for registration. It lists tram 15E, the train to Belém station and the hop-on hop-off buses as ways to get there, and estimates 15 to 20 minutes by car from Cais do Sodré or Terreiro do Paço. Allow more than that if you are coming by tram.

3Getting on or off in Belém with the big boats

Belém has more than one landing, and this is where it gets confusing. The Yellow Boat stops at what its operator calls the Terminal Fluvial de Belém, and only on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

The FRS Portugal boat tour has an option that ends in Belém, with listed departures from Belém at 11 am, 3 pm and 5 pm. The listing does not name the dock it uses there. Neither of these is Doca do Bom Sucesso, where the sailboats leave from, so do not assume a boat that drops you in Belém leaves you at the door of your sailing trip.

4Docks that are not yours

None of the six cruises compared here boards at Doca de Santo Amaro, whatever a general search for Lisbon boat trips may suggest. If a map app offers it, it is wrong for these tickets.

Cais do Sodré is the other trap. A different company, Lisboat, lists Cais da Ribeira das Naus at Cais do Sodré and Cais da Princesa in Belém among its piers, and it also uses the Sul e Sueste station. Its tickets are not the ones compared here, so do not follow its signs or its staff unless Lisboat is the name on your voucher.

5What goes wrong, and how to avoid it

The commonest mistake is the first one: booking a sailboat and heading for the centre, or the reverse. Check the operator's name on the voucher. FRS Portugal and Yellow Boat mean Terreiro do Paço. Taguscruises means Belém.

Timetables are the second. The listings for both big boats say their schedules are flexible and subject to change, and the Yellow Boat does not stop at Belém three days a week. The private charter can come back with a different time from the one you asked for.

Last, drinks on the sailboats. Red wine and glass beer bottles are not allowed, and bringing and drinking your own alcohol costs €50, paid at check-in. Turning up with a bottle for the sunset is an expensive surprise.

Boarding points at a glance