Visiting Lisbon

Cloister of the Jerónimos Monastery, Lisbon

So many friends have visited Lisbon over the years, but especially last year (and this year... yes, friends have visited in 2015 already), that I've been frequently asked about what to do/see/eat in Lisbon. I am happy to help! Another friend is planning a visit for early summer so here is a copy of the email I sent her, if it can be of use to anyone else.

{Note: I should say I don't make a living on giving tourist tips to Lisbon or Porto or anywhere else; there are people with specific blogs on the matter that I highly recommend, and even link, below}
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First things first --- Airport, cabs & metro

Something you should know about cabs in Lisbon. They are inexpensive and absolutely reliable if you catch them on the street or at the hotel. The only place where you cannot rely on the driver's honesty is at the arrivals section of the airport. You shouldn't have this problem because you're hotel is not super close to the airport, but usually they circulate around with tourists before they drop you at your hotel, or worse, they refuse taking people because the destination is too close.

There's a very easy way out of this trouble: taking a cab at departures instead of arrivals. So here's what you should do: 1) collect your luggage and walk out of the passengers area and into the arrivals hall, there's an automatic door separating these two areas, once you walk through it turn immediately to your right and go down the ramp; 2) keep going straight after the ramp ends, towards an esplanade with tables; 3) once you're close to the esplanade you'll see some long escalators to your right followed by a smaller escalator also on your right, take this second smaller escalator and you're in the departures hall; 4) the doors to the street will be towards your left. There will be plenty of reliable cabs outside who are used to pick up airport staff and not tourists so you can trust them.

The metro system reaches the airport so it's the cheapest and easiest way out. It's very functional and reliable (if they are not on strike) and covers a great part of the city... sadly not the Belém area (where many monuments are, see below) but you can charge your Lisboa card with money and use it on buses, cable cars (including Santa Justa's lift, see below), and trams too. You can transfer across various transportation systems within one hour on the same fare.

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In Lisbon you should definitely see the following: 

- the castle which affords wonderful views of the city (hills and valley) by the river

- the views of the city from Chiado (a charming neighborhood in itself, next to another and very different neighborhood called Bairro Alto... you'll see that walking either's streets is a different experience) on the hill opposed to the castle, you can either walk or take the Santa Justa lift (inaugurated in 1902, the architect is from the school of Gustave Eiffel) or just walk uphill, the streets are charming. If you're tired afterwards, there are plenty of open air coffee shops to sit down, enjoy the view and have a lemonade... more pleasant in the summer, sure :-)

- the Baixa (or downtown) is the valley neighborhood between the castle and Chiado. It has many squares, the biggest of which is by the river. You should go up the monumental arch and see the view from there (bring your camera with loaded battery!). Walking along the river towards the west, you will find a completely renovated pedestrian waterfront with a wonderful view of the bridge (golden gate like, but smaller)

- the neighborhood of Belém for the architectural gems of the Belém Tower and the Jerónimos monastery; for the view of Padrão dos Descobrimentos, and ESPECIALLY for the custards! If you miss these I'll be personally offended... don't get discouraged by the long queues outside, just enter through the place and find an empty table in one of the many inner rooms and wait to be served the delicious custard tarts... start with two per person, you won't regret! The museum of modern and contemporary art is close by, in case you're interested, and I believe it's still free.

- Lisbon is a hilly city and there are several lifts you can take to go uphill. Santa Justa's is the only vertical one. There's three others that are also worth a note

- because of the hilly terrain you have roof top bars or terraces that afford excellent views of the city down below and from different perspectives. So I'd recommend planning a morning/afternoon walk and then just sit and stop at one of these places and enjoy a drink with a view. Lisbon is one of the few European capitals where you can eat and drink outside all year long (to have more sun hours a year you'd have to go to Tunis... no longer in Europe!) so take advantage of it!

- the #28 tram brings you up and down the beautiful hills and into very narrow streets where you doubt the tram will ever fit :-) It is very pretty, but you should be extremely aware of your belongings inside the tram. Because of the many tourists, there are also many pick-pocketers. Of all the pickpockets on Lisbon's entire transportation system (trams+buses+metro) half of them occur on the 28 tram.

- for going around, I hear the tuk tuk tours of the city are fun but I've never done it. It's supposed to take you through the narrow streets that the cabs won't fit!

- a cool and trendy place to see is the LX Factory, the new place for arts studios and other trendy places with shops with artsy stuff for sale, together with trendy places to eat, a cool bookstore, etc.

- if you're interested in cool, trendy and hip places to eat and drink (and go out at night), I'd recommend the neighborhoods of 1) Principe Real (along Rua da Misericórdia and Rua D. Pedro V -- "rua" means "street") is an up and coming neighborhood where new and trendy bars, restaurants, shops have opened recently and it's just an overall cool place to walk around and explore; 2) Bairro Alto (literally the high neighborhood), next to Chiado, where you'll find quiet narrow (very picturesque) streets during the day, and lively fado houses, restaurants and bars at night; and 3) Cais do Sodré.

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Two charming places to visit outside of Lisbon but close enough (a good afternoon or day trip depending on the time you have):

- Sintra, best reached by train (which you can take at Rossio station, the building of the station is architectonically remarkable) because it will be crowded and parking is notoriously difficult there. The train trip should take no more than an hour and it may be faster if you take one of the faster commuter trains. It's usually a place that foreigners like a lot.

- Cascais (the sister village to Sintra) which I am far more familiar with because it's the head of the district where my parents live. It used to be a humble fishermen village, but in the 1930s and 1940s an incredible amount of foreigners moved there (it still has one of the oldest casinos in Europe and a race track, which attracted the tourists of the early twentieth century and also all sorts of wealthy refugees of the second world war as well as spies from both sides of the conflict... recall that Portugal was neutral) and today the place combines the old traditional buildings with nice houses, pedestrian streets, pleasant restaurants by the water front. It is also known for the beach, but there are nicer places to go if that's what you want to do. I like the combination of Sintra and Cascais because they offer more or less the same thing, but one is on the mountain with the castle and the other by the sea.

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Places to go with children:

- Lisbon's Aquarium, one of the largest in Europe, built in 1998 for the international world fair that celebrated the oceans. It's very much worth it. The gift shop is nice! The aquarium is located in the eastern part of town far from the center but you can reach it by metro, train or bus. It's a very pleasant area to jog or walk by the river, you can also take an aerial tramway and enjoy the view, or shop in the Vasco da Gama mall.

- Lisbon's Planetarium, where you can learn more about the space, stars and galaxies. I haven't been in many years but I recall enjoying it even as an adult. It's the typical visit for school children. They have different shows for different ages.

- The Electricity Museum, I've never been but I've heard very good things, especially for the specific programs for children. Both the Planetarium and the Electricity Museum are located in Belém, the neighborhood that concentrates the highest density of monuments in Lisbon, so this is a must see area, more so if you've never been in Lisbon.

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I know you like churches. Lisbon has an enormous quantity. Many are old and beautiful. Other than the obvious Jerónimos Monastery (the architectural gem of the sixteenth century that no one should miss, also in Belém), I select four:

- in Baixa (the downtown), a minuscule, but old chapel of Nossa Senhora da Oliveira, in Rua de São Julião n. 40, right in Lisbon's historic center. You can miss it easily if you don't pay attention. It's worth it for the tile and ceiling work. I discovered it this October and posted some photos here.

- the cathedral, that you reach by following the tram line when you go from Baixa towards the castle (you can walk it). You'll see the mix of architectural styles on a building that is originally romanic. The cloister is gothic (this part is paid) and the main altar is baroque.

- in Chiado, the church of São Roque. Pay special attention to the chapel of Saint John the Baptist (the last one on the left, pictured here). When I stopped by in November (with some friends who were visiting LIsbon for the first time), the security guy was very nice and noticed I was explaining stuff in English to my friends so he offered to show us the sacristy that has been recently restored and it's very worthwhile for the wood work and the paintings.

- the cathedral of Estrela, on a hill to the west of Baixa (not the immediate one, which is Chiado, but the one after), but still within city limits. It's the largest church in Lisbon with impressive marble sculptures. You should visit the huge nativity scene (by Machado de Castro), in baroque style with an immense number of figures. This is not located inside the church but there's usually a nun that tells about it and asks if people want to see it in a back room. I believe you pay a small fee, but it's worth it. Also worth it is the view from the terrace of the cathedral (also paid but cheap... all of these extras are something like €2 or €3), you just have to walk up the spiral stair case.

40km (25 miles) from Lisbon you can visit the Royal Palace of Mafra, with convent and cathedral. A gigantic palace, built by order of the king who promised to build a monumental palace should God bless him with an heir (details here in Portuguese only, sorry, but there's even a famous novel with the background of the construction of this palace in the eighteenth century). The heir was born and the palace was built, at a time when the crown was flush with cash originating from Brazilian gold. Its magnitude is impressive.

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Here are some general tips on visiting Portugal, some are repeats, sorry). Not sure how much more than Lisbon you're planning (or have time) to visit, but just in case!

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Places to eat change all the time so I leave you with some final food tips:

- if you're in a Portuguese restaurant and they have anything with octopus (it's called "polvo") on the menu you should give it a try!

- one of the most traditional portuguese foods is the salted cod, which the Portuguese claim to make "a thousand different ways"... I think it's hard to go wrong with any of them

- any grilled fish should be very good. In the summer I'd recommend sardines, but the winter is not the season and they won't have them. Any place that happens to have sardines in the winter, got them frozen for a few months so having them will be a huge disappointment... you'll have to come back in summer time to try the real thing ;-)

Enjoy!