Museu de Marinha (Maritime Museum)

The Museu de Marinha is the natural second stop in Belém once you have seen the Jerónimos Monastery, because it occupies the monastery's west wing, with its own entrance at the western end of the building. It is about 7.5 km from the Jardim do Tabaco terminal: a taxi takes 15 to 20 minutes, tram 15E runs from Praça do Comércio to the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos stop, and the Cascais-line train from Cais do Sodré stops at Belém station. Plan on 60 to 90 minutes inside. If you are short of time, go straight to the Discoveries rooms near the entrance (ship models, astrolabes and the carved figure of the Archangel Raphael said to have sailed with Vasco da Gama), then cross to the Barge Pavilion. That hall holds six royal barges, five of them 18th-century, the largest built in 1780, plus traditional working boats and three naval seaplanes, including the Santa Cruz that made the first aerial crossing of the South Atlantic in 1922. The later rooms on the merchant fleet and the modern Navy are the ones to skip if you are pressed. Opening times catch people out. From 1 October to 31 May the museum is closed on Monday mornings and opens at 13:00, and the monastery next door is closed all day on Mondays, so a Monday call in winter or spring leaves Belém thin in the morning. Otherwise it opens at 10:00 daily, closing at 17:00 (last entry 16:30) from October to April and at 18:00 (last entry 17:30) from May to September. At €8 for adults it costs less than half the Jerónimos cloister, and it is far quieter: mid-morning, when tour groups fill the monastery, is a good time to come here instead. Entry is free on the first Sunday of each month until 14:00, which brings more local families. Tripods and artificial lighting are not allowed.