If we’re completely honest, Lisbon was booked on our current European trip purely because we knew nothing about the city. As so often happens in cases such as this, we had an incredible couple of days, and wished we had more time…
Don’t ever fly the national airline, TAP Air Portugal, they were bloody terrible, but everything after that was great. At the airport there are several cheap and easy options into town such as a bus or the metro. Even a taxi was only around 20 Euro.
We opted for a 12 Euro Uber, which can be accessed upstairs from arrivals adjacent to the Kiss and Fly car park. 20 minutes later we were at our Airbnb.
One thing we noticed immediately in Lisbon was the strong café culture. Everywhere we went there was cheap, good quality coffee as far as the eyes could see. Better still, the prices were less than half of popular cities such as Paris.
In a similar vein to Melbourne, there were many laneways with small bars and restaurants. Some were open to traffic in the morning peak but transformed to pedestrian only strip in the afternoon and evening. We found plenty of great places to eat and drink but the only one we went back to a second time was as small Asian place called In Noodle, just around the corner from where we were staying.
Though we were more interested in simply hanging out than hitting the tourist spots, we did manage to get to Castelo de Sao Jorge and Belem Tower.
Our visit was in the winter low season, but experience told me we should get to these sites early. That ended up being correct at both these sites. The Castelo in particular had long queues by 10;30am, so you’d be wise to go early.
The Castel had sweeping views across Lisbon’s old town and into the Rio Tejo below, experienced photographers would know to get there in the golden hours of early morning and late afternoon to fully capture the exquisite scenes below.
We caught a cheap Uber to Belem Tower, which was enough to keep us entertained for an hour or so. More entertaining though, was riding an electric scooter from there back into town. There were many available, but we went for a Lime scooter, purely because we could book it through the Uber app. Cheap and fun.
No trip to a new city would be complete without sampling the local food and wine. Though I wasn’t a massive fan of the local Portuguese wines, Natsasi loved them. Everywhere we went we wanted to try another. If you’re searching for good, atmospheric restaurants, there were many, but we particularly liked some under the massive suspension bridge. Plenty of good options here.
All in all, Natsasi and I had a fantastic time in Lisbon. It’s easy to get around, even on foot. But don’t make the mistake we did and make your trip too short.