I love the Lisbon trams.

Lisbon has some wonderful old trams that are really nice to ride. There is also a little problem with pickpockets though. So here is how they work and how to avoid them.

Lisbon is one of the most charming cities in europe. But it kinda sucks if you get your holiday partly ruined because you have things stolen by pickpockets. I recent years, the pickpockets have been hitting hard on the trams that are often very crowded. And they mainly target tourists.

What do the pickpockets look like?

Lisbon pickpockets are really hard to spot. They tend to look like little grey guys on the way home from work. They almost always work 3 guys together and they tend to be smallish guys in very regular working class clothes. These guys always enter the tram through the backdoor and generally try to stay in the back of the tram, to avoid contact with the tram driver.

How to avoid the pickpockets.

First of all, make sure that you sit down in the tram. They always try to target people who stand up, by pushing them. Then they pretend to fall because the tram is shaking as it turns corners in the old town. But it’s all a trick. Two guys will suddenly “fall” in to the back of a tourist who is standing up in the tram and while the person uses his/her hands to grab on to something, the third guy get’s in to their pockets. They know how to get in to money belts under your shirt too, by the way. Tourists in the back of the tram is their main target, so that they are not confronted with the tram driver and they only target people who stand up. People who sit down are hard to push around, so try to make sure that you get a seat when you take the tram. My advice is that if a tram stops that is packed with people and all seats are taken, then wait for the next one to come.

This blogpost here should not give you paranoia though. I have never lost anything in the tram myself and I have ridden them many times. But I have just noticed these pickpockets several times and paid attention to how they work and I thought I would share what I have learned. This way, there might be less visitors to Lisbon who lose their stuff in the tram.

Have a nice trip to Lisbon.

It’s an absolutely fantastic city.

Claus.

Lisbon is a wonderful city.