The Tagus is the whole point of this race. The EDP Lisbon Marathon starts on the N6-7 at Carcavelos, comes east with the water on your right, and finishes in Praça do Comércio. Almost everything worth doing in the days around it sits within a few hundred metres of that same line. Stay on the riverfront and the ground stays flat; walk two streets inland and the city starts climbing, which is not what you want on tired legs.
The marathon runs on Saturday 10 October 2026 from 08:00. The half marathon follows on Sunday 11 October from 09:20. Both end at the same address, which makes planning simple: build the weekend from west to east along the water, and keep the hills for another trip.
Bib collection is the one fixed point
Everything else on the weekend can move. This cannot. Kits are handed out only at the EDP Lisbon Marathon Sport Expo at FIL, the exhibition halls in Parque das Nações at the eastern end of the riverfront, on 8-9 October if you are running the marathon and 8-10 October for the half, 10:00 to 20:00 each day. There is no race-morning collection, so the Thursday or the Friday has to be built around this trip rather than the other way round. Metro and mainline trains both stop at Oriente, a few minutes' walk from the halls.
The expo floor is free and needs no ticket, so supporters and children can come along and browse without anyone checking anything. Better still for a group: a nominee can collect a bib for a friend if they carry that person's registration document. One person with a folder of paperwork can do the whole squad's collection in a single round trip, which is worth arranging in advance if half your party is arriving late on the Friday.
Entry itself is tiered and rises as the field fills: €70, €95 or €130 for the marathon plus a €4 fee, and €35, €55 or €70 for the half plus €3. If you are still deciding, the price is the argument for deciding early.
Since you are out east anyway, Musa de Marvila (Marvila, the old warehouse district on the eastern riverfront) is a short hop back toward the centre and the easiest place to park a group after the expo. It is a big warehouse floor with house-brewed lager and IPA, beers around €4-6 and petiscos or pizza €6-14, and it swallows walk-in groups without a reservation. Doors are 17:00-24:00 Tuesday to Thursday, 17:00-03:00 Friday, 13:00-03:00 Saturday and 13:00-24:00 Sunday. If you are racing, treat it as one beer and an early exit, or save it for the Sunday, when it opens at lunchtime. Larger parties can write ahead to [email protected].
A Friday look at the start
The race begins on the N6-7 at Praia de Carcavelos (the coast west of the city), in front of the NOVA School of Business & Economics campus. The train from Cais do Sodré takes about 26 minutes and runs along the water most of the way, so a recce of the start costs you an afternoon and no effort. Carcavelos is a free public Blue Flag beach with restaurants and bars strung along the sand, no limits on group size, and food and drink at mid-range prices.
Go for the orientation rather than the exercise. Walk the first few hundred metres of the course, work out where you will stand at 07:30 in the dark and where the bag drop and the toilets are, then get off the sand. Loose sand is heavy walking, and an hour of it the day before a marathon is an hour your calves will remember. Coffee, a look at the sea, then the train back.
Belém at walking pace
The stretch through Belém is the part of the course most runners remember, and it is worth seeing slowly before you see it at race pace.
MAAT — Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (Belém, on the water) sits directly on the route. Tickets are timed entry at €11 for adults, 15% off with a Lisboa Card, and it is closed on Tuesdays. For a race weekend the useful part is that the roof ramp and the riverfront terrace are free and need no ticket at all: a flat, shaded, no-stairs place to sit with a view of the river, which is the profile you want the day after 42km.
Mosteiro dos Jerónimos (Belém, a few minutes inland from the water) is the opposite proposition and belongs on the Friday, not the recovery day. Adult entry is €18, timed tickets online are strongly advised because queues can run to two hours in peak season, and last entry in October is 17:00. It is closed on Mondays. The church itself is free and takes groups without a booking, so if the cloister queue looks grim you can still walk in, stand under the vaulting for ten minutes and leave.
Pastéis de Belém (Belém, a few hundred metres off the course at roughly the 33km mark) has been baking to the Jerónimos recipe since 1837 and is open every day 08:00-21:00, to 22:00 in July to September. The back rooms seat hundreds and take no bookings; the queue you see from the street is the seated queue. The takeaway counter on the left moves far faster, which is how a group of runners should play it. Tarts are about €1.50-2, you buy six, you eat them standing in the square. It is a good pre-race walk and a very good Sunday-morning one.
Further east, where the bridge crosses the water, Pilar 7 Bridge Experience (Alcântara, directly under the bridge) gives you the clearest look at the river the marathon runs along. It is open daily 10:00-18:00 with last entry at 17:00, around €5-7 for an adult, and it takes both walk-ins and pre-booked groups, though the terrace is small, so a large party goes up in waves. One warning: the lift has spent periods out of service, with access instead by the 372 stairs at a reduced ticket price. Check before you go. Those stairs are a poor idea the day after a marathon and not much fun the day before one.
Dinner the night before
Two places solve the pre-race meal without drama, and neither takes a booking, which is the point.
Pizzeria Casanova (on the waterfront east of the centre) is Naples-standard dough in a warehouse on the water, open 12:30 to 01:30 daily, with pizzas around €9-14. There are no reservations, first come first served, with a bar to wait at. Larger groups get split across separate tables, so if there are eight of you, arrive before 20:00 or accept sitting in twos. For serious carbohydrate with no negotiation and no bill-splitting argument, it is hard to beat.
Time Out Market Lisboa (Cais do Sodré, four minutes' walk from the finish line) is the other answer, especially for a group with mixed appetites and one person who wants steak while another wants a bowl of pasta. There are no reservations at all; communal tables seat groups as they arrive, and most plates run €8-20. Pre-loaded market cards make splitting the bill across a squad painless. It opens 10:00 to midnight Sunday to Wednesday and to 02:00 Thursday to Saturday, so it also works as the post-race feed when nothing else has a table. Couples will find it loud and busy; groups will find it the path of least resistance.
The finish, and the hour after it
Praça do Comércio (Baixa, on the riverfront) is the one address a support crew needs memorised. Both races end here, and the square is wide open with room for thousands. Do not try to meet at the finish funnel. Arrange to meet by the Cais das Colunas steps at the water's edge instead, where there is space to stand and a clear sightline. Add your target time to the 08:00 start and that is roughly the hour to be there; ask supporters to arrive twenty minutes early rather than sprint down at the last minute, because the riverside roads are closed to traffic on both race mornings and a taxi will not help.
Two minutes west, Ribeira das Naus (Baixa, the promenade between the square and Cais do Sodré) is where to put your legs up. It is free public waterfront with kiosk service and lounge seating, kiosk beers and coffees at about €2-5, and steps that groups sprawl on without anyone minding. The final straight of both races runs right along it, so supporters can watch there and then stay put while the runners come to them.
The reward table on Saturday night
Cervejaria Ramiro (up on Avenida Almirante Reis, inland and uphill from the river) is the country's great garlic-butter shellfish hall and the obvious reward dinner, but it takes planning. Reservations go through the website or The Fork; parties of more than six must email [email protected]; and no bookings are taken after 19:30, so a late walk-in means joining a queue that can be long. It is closed on Mondays. Shellfish is by weight and you should budget roughly €35-60 a head with beer. Book a Saturday table the same week you book your flights.
For ten or more, SUD Lisboa (on the Avenida Brasília riverfront) is the easier celebration. It is built for groups: the Terrazza restaurant, the pool lounge and a separate SUD Lisboa Hall all take large bookings and private hire. It sits on the course itself, on the widest riverside terrace in the city, with Mediterranean cooking under Chef Patrick LeFeuvre and mains roughly €22-38. It is a party venue rather than a quiet dinner; a couple looking for a calm evening should go to Ramiro or to the south bank instead.
Sunday, while the half marathon crosses the city
If you are not running the Sunday race, plan around it rather than against it.
LX Factory (Alcântara, directly beneath the bridge) is the least demanding way to spend the morning: more than 50 independent shops and eateries in an old industrial complex, free to enter, open from 08:00 until the early hours, with a Sunday open-air market that absorbs any size of group. Individual restaurants inside take bookings; the site itself does not need one.
A few minutes west, Village Underground Lisboa (Avenida da Índia, on the riverside) is a yard of shipping containers that covers both ends of the weekend. The restaurant opens daily from 11:00, to 20:00 Sunday to Wednesday and 23:00 Thursday to Saturday, with weekend brunch 11:00-16:00 and plates around €10-18. The club runs Thursday to Saturday nights and goes until 06:00, which is a decision for people whose race is already behind them. Corporate and private group bookings are taken.
The best rest-day move, though, is to leave the north bank entirely. Ponto Final (Cacilhas, on the south bank) is a family-run riverside restaurant reached by the Cais do Sodré ferry and a ten-minute walk along the water, with grilled fish and mains roughly €18-30 and tables set out on the quay looking straight back at the race city. It is small and reservations are essential, months ahead for sunset in particular, so book the group table the moment your travel is confirmed. The walk from the ferry is flat and easy, and the ferry itself is the cheapest sightseeing in the city.
Practicalities
Transport. Buy a rechargeable travel card from any metro machine on arrival and top it up; it works on the metro, the buses, the Cais do Sodré train line out to Carcavelos and the ferry across to Cacilhas. Trains to the start take about 26 minutes; the expo at FIL is a straight run out to Oriente. On both race mornings the riverside roads are shut, so walk or take the metro rather than booking a car that cannot reach you.
Money. Cards are accepted almost everywhere, but keep €20-30 in coins and small notes for kiosks on Ribeira das Naus, the takeaway counter at Pastéis de Belém and the market stalls at LX Factory. Ramiro bills by weight, so ask the price per kilo before you order the big prawns.
Timing. Expo 8-9 October for the marathon, 8-10 October for the half, 10:00-20:00. Marathon Saturday 10 October from 08:00; half marathon Sunday 11 October from 09:20; both finish at Praça do Comércio. Jerónimos and MAAT close on Mondays and Tuesdays respectively, so if you are staying on past the weekend, check the day before you walk out there.
Budget. Entry is €70-€130 plus a €4 fee for the marathon, €35-€70 plus €3 for the half. Beyond that a comfortable day runs €50-80 a head: coffee and tarts for a couple of euros, a market lunch around €12-20, museum entry €11-18, dinner €20-35 at Casanova or Ponto Final and €35-60 at Ramiro.
Beds. Sleep on the flat if you can. Baixa, Cais do Sodré and the Belém side keep you level with the finish and out of the climbs. Rooms along the river sell out early for race weekend, so compare what is left on the Lisbon hotel search before you commit to the entry. For everything either side of the running, the wider Lisbon guide covers the rest of the city.
