Lisbon is one of the best cities we have ever visited! I know I know, big call, but I’m sticking by it, it is certainly the nicest European city that we have been to. We stayed in the Baixa District which is part of the historical downtown area. I recommend this area as a place to stay as it is really central and you can walk or catch public transport to most places you want to visit. We stayed at LeL Madalena Guesthouse, which was absolutely delightful and I highly recommend it. There is such a great vibe in Lisbon and so much to do, our 3 nights in the city didn’t really seem like long enough. It’s hard to know where to start with this blog post but I think the first thing to do in Lisbon is just go for a walk around the area you are staying. Heads up – there are ALOT of hills. We strolled through Biaxa and the nearby Barrio Alto area, both buzzing and full of places to eat and drink. We loved gazing down the narrow streets and admiring the tiles that bedecked all the buildings. All the bougainvillea vines on the buildings added so much colour and beauty to the streets.
The public transport in Lisbon is really great. When you arrive at the airport simply hop onto the Metro to get you into town. You can buy cards called Viva Viagem that you can top up. We bought one each from a kiosk and put E10 on each one. This was perfect for 3 days in Lisbon, and you can use it on the Metro, trams and buses. A fun thing to do in order to take in a bunch of the sites is to hop on the famous yellow #28 tram. You need to get on it where it first stops at Martim Moniz in order to get a seat. You definitely want a seat so let people ahead of you and wait for the next one if you miss out. Don’t sit at the very front in the red seats as you will need to get up to let older locals sit down if they get on. We found this blog really useful in giving information on the #28 tram – https://www.tripsavvy.com/
You can combine your #28 tram trip with visiting a few other sites at the end. We started with Cemitério dos Prazeres, this is a big cemetery with mausoleums and is an interesting place to walk around. You can then head down to the LX Factory which is also out in that direction. It is basically a big art centre with places to eat and drink as well. It is a nice funky place to check out but I wouldn’t necessarily go out of your way to visit. On the way to LX Factory definitely stop for a stroll through Park of Necessidades. This park is gorgeous and we really loved it’s farm-like oasis in the middle of the city.
We found that the nicest places to relax in Lisbon were at the various miradouros (viewpoints) scattered around the city. They are signposted and there is always a place selling drinks along with some benches to sit on. The views over the city are spectacular and they are the perfect places to catch your breath (literally and figuratively). You can get nice views of Castelo de São Jorge from the miradouros especially from Miradouro do Castelo de São Jorge which is nearby. We would argue that it is not worth the entry fee into the castle (E25pp!) so we simply walked around the castle walls and saw many peacocks, then headed to the miradouro. Perfect!
In our opinion the waterfront in Lisbon was not really something to write home about. We did enjoy a brief stop there (but there are hawkers trying to sell you things i.e. marijuana which is apparently just shredded bay leaves!) and the Praça do Comércio is nice to look at. While you’re in the area you can also visit the Lisbon Cathedral. It is a nice building but you do have to pay to go inside, we didn’t bother.
As mentioned before, Lisbon is full of hills, so they have inserted elevators to help you get around. I know it’s crazy right! We loved them. There are a bunch of modern ones to use so keep an eye out. There are also some old historical ones like the Santa Justa which is lovely to look at. There is a nice rooftop bar near Elevador de Santa Justa called Topo Chiado which is a good place to go for some drinks and the view of course.
Lisbon is a real cultural hub and there are plenty of museums to visit. We tend to get a bit of museum fatigue so chose a small one to visit. Museu Calouste Gulbenkian had some pretty good reviews so we popped in there (E10pp). It was a small collection of European art and other antiquities which were lovely to look at but we much preferred exploring their extensive grounds, it was really beautiful. Afterwards we visited the nearby Parque Eduardo VII which I wouldn’t bother with as it wasn’t particularly nice.
The food in Lisbon was truly spectacular. A good introduction to it all is to take a food tour. We went with Inside Lisbon where a guide took us around various places near Rossio Square. It was very reasonably priced, with all food and drink included, and we even learned a bit of Portuguese history. We particularly enjoyed sampling the famous Portuguese vinho verde (green wine) accompanied with the equally famous pasteis de bacalhau (fish cod cakes). Both were absolutely delicious. Salted cod is literally everywhere in Portugal and a huge favourite with the locals.
Our culinary highlight in Lisbon was probably the sardines. We ate sardinhas assadas at a few different spots in Lisbon, many places served them so you can just pick a curbside spot and order away! It is the perfect lunch served with a 20cl glass of beer (Sagres or Super Bock).
As you can imagine, seafood is everywhere in Lisbon. We treated ourselves with a visit to Ramiro. Ramiro is featured on Anthony Bourdain’s show ‘No Reservations’ so is now, predictably, very busy. You can’t make a reservation, you just turn up and get a ticket from a machine and wait for your number to be called for a table while enjoying a beer. Warning – the system is a bit flawed and they didn’t end up calling our number (although they claimed they did), so be alert! As you would expect the place is a bit overrated and overpriced but the food was very good and the service fantastic. You will be tempted to order a lot but try to be reasonable, we ordered the garlic prawns (it comes with lots of bread), one giant tiger prawn to share (it’s massive!) and a couple of steak sandwiches for ‘dessert’ (this is tradition). We found this to be more than enough food for two people.
We also went in search of the best pastel de nata (Portuguese custard tart) and ate at least four everyday. We thought that the best ones were from a place called Manteigaria, but you’ve really got to try as many different ones as you can! These morsels are seriously delicious.
There are also plenty of modern places to eat, such as the Timeout Market. We really enjoyed this spot as we were able to sample lots of small dishes (including an Octopus hotdog). There are also plenty of delicious brunch spots that we went to each day such as Seagull Method cafe (highly recommend).
Andy’s favourite lunchtime meal was the bifanas. These are really simple portuguese pork sandwiches and can be bought from little hole in the wall places to eat on the go. They are delicious and incredibly cheap, a perfect lunch time meal if you don’t feel like sitting down at a cafe or restaurant.
Lisbon is a fun mix of old and new. It is a historical city yet also incredibly modern and trendy. It is truly a wonderful place to visit and we had such a fun time. Cost wise I would say that it is rather pricey, but this depends on what you want to do and you can make it a lot cheaper than us by eating at small hole in the wall places rather than at sit down restaurants.
Here is a breakdown of our costs for 2 people for 3 days:
Accommodation – E180 (NZ$308)
Food/Drink – E262 (NZ$448)
Transport – E21 (NZ$36)
Activities – E160 (NZ$274)
Miscellaneous – E63 (NZ$108)
Total spent – E686 (NZ$1174)
