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Lisbon Airport Luggage Storage: What Didn’t Work & What Did
Trying to figure out luggage storage at Lisbon Airport—especially for multiple bags or longer trips—isn’t as simple as it sounds.
We were travelling across Portugal for 24 days as a family, carrying two trolley bags, a backpack, and a stroller.
That worked fine for a long trip, but things got complicated when we planned a short 5-day getaway to Madeira.
Flights to Madeira are much cheaper with just hand luggage.
Adding check-in bags would have increased our costs significantly, and carrying everything for a short island trip did not make sense.
So we started looking for luggage storage at Lisbon Airport to dump one of the trolleys and a rucksack.
What seemed simple quickly turned into a headache, especially when we realised airport lockers are not designed for longer storage or multiple bags.
Since airport lockers did not fit our plan, we looked for an option we could book in advance and rely on. That decision ended up saving us money, time, and a lot of stress.
If you’re traveling with family, multiple bags, or trying to keep costs down, this guide will help.
I’ll show you how Lisbon Airport luggage lockers work, their limitations, and the exact option we used to save money and make our Madeira trip much smoother and cheaper.
Why should you store luggage in Lisbon?
There are a few situations where storing luggage in Lisbon is not just convenient, but necessary.
Long layovers where you want to explore
While we were at the airport, we met a traveller on a 9-hour layover on his way to Marrakech in Morocco.
He told us he didn’t want to carry his backpack around Lisbon’s hills for 9 hours — especially since he planned to use trams and walk around Alfama instead of waiting at the airport.
Many travellers do this – Lisbon airport isn’t bad for a layover – it got plenty of food and shopping places.
But if it is long like 9hrs, going out makes sense – you can see a lot of Lisbon in that time.
For a long layover, a 24-hour Navegante pass is usually the smarter option. In fact, after comparing both, I found the Lisboa Card rarely makes sense for short visits.
Between hotel check-out and departure
If your flight is later in the day, carrying luggage around Lisbon’s streets or on public transport can quickly become tiring after you check out of your accommodation in Lisbon.
Lisbon’s hills and cobbled streets make dragging trolley bags exhausting.
One mistake many tourists make is assuming a 500 m walk in Lisbontakes just 5 minutes, when in reality it can easily turn into a steep 15-minute uphill hike. With trolley, it takes even more time.
We noticed this even on short walks near our hotel.
Short trips where you do not need all your luggage
If you are heading to places like Madeira or the Azores for a few days, flying is the only option.
Or if you decide to visit a nearby town like Sintra for the day and return to Lisbon later in the evening to catch your flight home or a train to your next destination, you may need to store your luggage.
Carrying full luggage just for 4 -5 days doesn’t make sense, when flights are cheaper with just hand baggage – this was our situation
Where can you store luggage in Lisbon?
There are two main options for luggage storage in Lisbon, depending on your plans.
At Lisbon airport
If you’re specifically looking to store luggage at Lisbon Airport, lockers are available in Terminal 1. Once stored, you are free to leave the airport and explore the city.
These are useful if:
However, these lockers are better suited for a few hours or up to a day, not longer durations.
In the city (Lisbon Center, Oriente, etc.)
You will also find luggage storage options across Lisbon, especially in:
When we were checking options, we found most city locations allowed advance booking — which felt much more reliable compared to airport lockers where you just have to show up and hope for availability.
How to choose between airport and city luggage storage in Lisbon?
Where you store your luggage in Lisbon should depend on what you plan to do next, not just what is closest.
If you are travelling onward by train or bus, storing your luggage near a major hub like Oriente or the city centre is more practical.
If you are flying again after collecting your luggage, storing it at the airport is the easiest option – provided you store it for shorter period.
If you are renting a car and leaving Lisbon directly from the airport, storing your luggage nearby airport avoids an unnecessary trip into the city.
For us, we picked a location near the airport since we rented a car after returning from Funchal and continued to Nazaré and Sintra.
It saved us both time and effort.
If we had stored our luggage in the city, we would have had to drive into Lisbon again just to pick it up — which could have easily added 1–2 extra hours with traffic.
Lisbon airport luggage lockers : What you need to know?
How the airport lockers work
Lisbon airport has about 230+ lockers and must be booked on spot, not online. You must do it before entering the airport- Before Security outside departures.
You choose a locker based on size, place your luggage inside, and pay for the duration. Pricing starts from a minimum of 3 hours and increases based on both time and locker size.
Lockers range from small compartments for backpacks to larger ones that can fit trolley suitcases or even surfboards.
For example, an XL locker (suitable for a trolley suitcase) costs around €12 for up to 3 hours and can go up to about €56 for 72 hours.
The lockers are available 24 hours, so you can collect your luggage at any time.
This setup works well for short-term storage.
When we checked the lockers in person, they did look convenient for a few hours — but for multiple bags and longer storage, it didn’t feel practical.
Limitations of Lisbon airport luggage lockers (Our Experience)
The main limitation is that the lockers are meant for short-term use.
For short-term use, airport lockers are fine. But for longer storage, they simply do not work.
There is a strict 72-hour limit. After that, it is considered misuse.
The locker can be opened, and your luggage may be removed by the staff and stored separately with additional charges after 72hr.
You also cannot check availability in advance. This means you are relying completely on luck when you arrive, especially if you need larger lockers.
On top of that, pricing keeps increasing with duration. With multiple bags, the cost adds up very quickly.
With 1 trolley bags, a backpack, we would have needed multiple lockers — which would have increased both the cost and the risk of not finding enough space together.
For us, this combination of limited duration, uncertain availability, and rising cost made airport lockers impractical.
Best alternative to Lisbon airport luggage storage
What we used instead of Lisbon airport lockers
Since airport lockers did not fit our plan, we started looking for luggage storage near Lisbon Airport that we could book in advance and rely on.
We wanted something simple, where we could reserve a spot, pay online, and not worry about availability on the day.
That is when we came across Bounce and chose their storage partner about 2 km from the airport.
Why we chose Bounce over other luggage storage options
Once we decided against airport lockers, we compared a few other luggage storage options in Lisbon.
One option was “Left Luggage” by City Lockers. These are self-service lockers across the city, but they are not staffed.
For us, this did not feel convenient, especially with multiple bags. Since lockers are first-come, first-served, there is no way to check availability in advance.
We also looked at Radical Storage. It seemed like a decent option with online booking, but for our dates, the total cost came to around €60.
With Bounce, we paid about €48.10 for the same duration ( with first user discount, else it would have been 52), and we could book everything in advance easily on their app.
That combination — ease of booking, lower cost, and no uncertainty — made it the better choice for us.
The biggest relief was knowing everything was confirmed before our travel day — especially with a child, we didn’t want any last-minute surprises.
How much is Bounce luggage storage in Lisbon
Pricing depends on location and duration. In our case, Bounce luggage storage cost about €9.6 per day for a trolley bag and a rucksack,.
The same would have cost roughly €30 per day at Lisbon Airport lockers for similar-sized luggage.
How to use Bounce luggage storage in Lisbon
The entire process was much simpler than we expected — especially compared to figuring things out at the airport.
We booked our luggage storage in Lisbon about 2 days in advance. Even in late October, which is not peak tourist season, we did not want to rely on last-minute availability.
You can book Bounce luggage storage through the website or the app.
Both work well, but the app is more convenient as you can easily contact the store or customer support if needed.
If your plans change, you can cancel before the drop-off time for a full refund on Bounce.
Our experience using Bounce luggage storage in Lisbon
Lisbon Airport lockers would have cost us over €150 for 5 days. We paid just €52 with Bounce and booked it in advance.
For us, the biggest advantage, apart from the lower cost, was being able to confirm everything in advance instead of figuring things out at the airport.
The location we chose was a small supermarket called Fatias de Cristal, on Rua Cidade da Beira.
When we arrived, they asked for our booking code and completed the process in just a couple of minutes.
We dropped off a trolley bag, a rucksack, and a few smaller items.
Everything was exactly as we left it when we returned at our Bounce outlet, so it felt completely safe.
We even picked up coffee and snacks while collecting our bags.
This was my second time using Bounce. I had used it earlier in London during a short trip to Edinburgh, and it was just as smooth there.
Since we stored part of our luggage, we also saved around €40 on TAP air Portugal flight costs by avoiding extra baggage.
If we had relied on airport lockers instead, we would have constantly had to think about the 72-hour limit and whether our luggage was still secure — which would have added unnecessary stress to the trip.
