After another European Covid rise over Christmas 2021, including a cancelled trip to Gdansk, I was very pleased to set off for the first trip of 2022!
(Note I started this blog in March 2022 but didn’t finish it off until May 2023!)
Overview
Lisbon is the capital city of Portugal. I have visited Portugal before for a brief trip to Porto to watch Manchester United play way back in 2009 (yes THAT Ronaldo goal) – most of which was spent in a pub – so it did feel as though I was visiting a new country. We chose Portugal for the nice weather in February and interesting things to see both in Lisbon itself and a few nearby excursions.
The direct flight from Bristol took less than two hours and the airport is quite central. Our hotel “Lisbon 5” was a little smaller than expected but really well located being a 15 minute walk to the main square(s) and a few minutes from the nearest metro station. The breakfast was limited even for a continental offering but worth the minimal additional cost.
Getting around
The city centre is easily accessible from the airport as it is part of the metro line. There are loads of travel options to get around the centre of Lisbon. Trams (including the apparently famous #28), trains, metro, buses all run on a very frequent basis and Google Maps worked well to plan your journey.
The centre is surrounded by hills, which was a bit of a concern (being fat and lazy) but there is so much to see walking around it won’t feel strenuous. Some locations even have escalators, lifts and funiculars!
Our two excursions to Cascais and Sintra really added something extra to our trip, and although each around an hour train ride away, is included in a 24-hour travel pass that works on all public transport. The daily €10 fee added up but well worth it.
Things to do
I will cover a lot of the sights in the itinerary below. If you want just a city break I reckon 2-3 days will be enough – like many European capitals in my opinion. We don’t tend to stay long in restaurants or have drinks in the evening, although most days we had a few hours ‘siesta’ back in the hotel and still comfortably seen everything we wanted to in our 3 full days and-a-bit, this including two half-days seeing places outside of the City.
As usual, I tend to avoid churches and museums in favour of panoramic views and football stadiums, so please look around for the endless offerings the City has to offer. You could be a proper tourist and get a guide book, my personal preference being the Marco Polo ones, but nearly everywhere I go I plan using various websites and other blogs (the lesser known / harder to find ones tend to be more fruitful). Everywhere is so accessible I wouldn’t worry too much about not seeing everything you want to see.
Costs
It has been over a month since I’ve returned home so I’m already a bit rusty on prices. Easyjet flights from Bristol and four nights in a 3* hotel cost around £500, but I’ve noticed the cost of flights have jumped a bit going in to 2022. Spending also worked out to be around £500 for both of us. £50 each per day isn’t bad is it?
A tenner should look after your travel per day – a bargain if you use it a lot. Food was cheaper than I expected, similar to UK prices. The busy but basic centrally-located outside café bars were around £10 each for food and a drink, but there’s a big choice of dinner restaurants that were really nice and great value. I’m sure you could pay a lot more if you decide to and chuck a couple of cocktails on to the bill.
Itinerary – What we did
Day One
Our flight didn’t land until 6pm so this took up most of the day, I think we left the hotel to go out around 8:30pm.
We walked to towards the centre ending up in the biggest square/plaza in Lisbon “Praça do Comércio”. First impressions weren’t brilliant as to get here through the streets we lost count of how many times we were offered marijuana variants or stronger, although it was busy enough to feel safe.
From the plaza you get a first look at the huge Golden Gate-style bridge spanning the river Tagus, with a Rio-style Christ the Redeemer statue lit up looking over the city. Copyright laws may not exist in Portugal.
We walked along the harbour scattered with the odd beach until we found our dinner destination. Time Out food markets are popping up all over the place in major cities and this was our first experience. An old converted marked space with 50+ food stalls offering octopus to foie gras (no taa) to chicken biryani to burgers! A bit pricey but a good atmosphere and literally too much choice! Since my visit, Newport market has also opened with something similar and (looking at my socials) the feedback has been bloody fantastic.
Following food we walked to the nearest metro station (literally outside) and started to get familiar with the four lines, making our way back to the hotel. A very good use of our first two hours.
Day Two
With not having any concrete plan for the day we weighed up our options for the day and decided to visit the Castle of St George. Not only did this tick the box of panoramic views to get our bearings, we could also catch the tram uphill most of the way. You may not know about the Lisbon tram system if you haven’t been before, but you soon realise it’s a tourist magnet. I knew to avoid peak times and we thought we were early enough to avoid large queues at stop one near our hotel, but still had to wait for 2 to go by before squeezing on to the third. The trams – also a nod to San Francisco alongside the bridge – is tiny considering the demand, but with good reason as if it was any wider or longer it simply would not creep up the steep, narrow meandering streets that give access to the old town. It was comparable to a rollercoaster with the uncomfortable sudden jolts and how it defies fitting through seemingly impossible tight corners and streets.
We left the tram about half way up the hill leading to the castle and hoped to find the smoothest route possible uphill to reach our destination. This ultimately involved a lot of steps but with the scenery and culture evident the walk was enjoyable. The castle entry cost around €10 and you are immediately treated to what I consider to be the best view of the city – as it’s likely to be the highest and most open.
Taking in the scenery, and 100 photo’s later we walked through the castle grounds, delightfully perambulated by peacocks! The birds were free to roam wherever and continuously opened their feathers to show off to their fans snapping pictures (apart from the time I tried to take one obviously…). The castle ruins were cool to have a wander and climb around and there is an exhibition you can enter.
Moving on from the castle, we caught the bus down in to the flat central area (how the bus got down there I’m not sure). It was a bit early for lunch so we visited the Santa Justa lift. The purpose of the lift, located near the posh-but-not-poshest shopping arears is to transport people up some 45 meters instead of having to walk up one of the steeper hills. Perhaps overkill compared to an escalator, but the 19th century industrial age piece is rather unique.
The queue was short but it did take an age to get up to the top and the €5 fee was a bit “steep”. All in all I thought it was underwhelming as a tourist attraction, but something that one should tick off during a trip, not forgetting the fact that I didn’t have to walk up a bloody hill! Once disembarking at the top over the raised walkway we passed the ‘Carmo Convent’ housing medieval ruins and archaeology museum, but chose to walk through the quieter area winding down to the increasingly busy shopping streets back to the lift base. Time for lunch.
I can’t quite get my head around the fact we did so much during this day, but after a quick rest stop in the hotel and to ‘borrow’ a towel, we headed back out to visit Cascais, a seaside resort an hour to the east of Lisbon. A swim in the sea mid February? Yes please.
We weren’t the only ones with that idea and the populated train took us to a bustling village area that led to a handful of beachy areas. Not wanting to miss out, I stripped off and spent 30 minutes having a float. Maybe I like the sea/swimming as it’s a place of tranquility away from your mobile phone and (even better) people.
Another little ramble around the village took us to a bus stop where we were able to visit Boca do Inferno “Hell’s mouth”. Not really as terrifying as the name suggests… it was a wonderful cliff top view overlooking the coast, but the crashing waves against the rocks raising 20+ meters in the air was a sight to behold.
We grabbed the public bus back to the station, choosing to have food in the nearby shopping mall during sunset before making our way back to Lisbon. That was enough for one day? Not quite.
I checked the Benfica website numerous times before our visit in the hope of getting tickets to Benfica v Ajax in the Champions League on day three, but website purchases were only available if you had Portuguese ID. Any excuse to visit the stadium.
The stadium looks really easy to access but both metro stations nearby involve a ridiculous amount of guessing how and where to cross the fenced highway. We managed to find a subway through a closed but unlocked gate and finally accessed the perimeter of the stadium. No shock to find the ticket office was completely the other side of the 65,000 seater arena.
We didn’t hold much hope being able to buy tickets once we finally asked, but surprisingly the chap had a look at his computer and stated there were only TWO tickets left in the whole bloody stadium, €75 each and although in the same section, not next to each other, which was unfortunately the deal breaker. It would have been a great experience (it ended 2-2) but I was over it quickly.
Finally, our next destination was back to the hotel.
Day Three
Mikayla tells me I was rather difficult to wake up this morning, not surprising after yesterdays adventures. We were pleased to stay more local today, firstly visiting the aforementioned Golden Gate style “25th April” bridge connecting Lisbon to…. um… the place south of Lisbon over the river. Why the name you ask? It was named after the Carnation Revolution that took place on the 25 April 1974 and dictator Salazar’s regime was overturned. There ya go.
A recent little hobby of mine around the streets of European cities has been to hire the odd eScooter (not always sober) but until today never convinced Mikayla to have a go. There was no better time than when we departed the nearest train station to the bridge, as there was a flat, quiet promenade all the way to the bridge, perfect scooting atmosphere bar the cobbled terrain. Saving about 19 hours instead of walking to the bridge we both sailed along the shore and only approaching the bridge do you realise its stature, it’s f***ing massive!
Bizarrely, you couldn’t tell from the photos it’s painted bright red!
Back past the way we came there is also a monument dedicated to Portuguese explorers “Padrão dos Descobrimentos”, and there’s quite a few of them. Located along the river where ships departed to explore and trade with the wider world, the monument celebrates the Portuguese Age of Discovery.
We could have visited the Belem tower at this point, which we should have, but luckily squeezed it in the next night.
That was pretty much it for the morning. I recall my feet struggling so we probably had a few hours in the hotel, whilst trying to find out what else to do. That choice was to visit the 25th April monument this time, with its not quite park, not quite field, not quite garden area leading down to the Avenue de Liberdade, a leafy boulevard including the who’s who’s of fashion. Gucci, Prada, Versace, and lots of others I have never heard of . How the other half live eh?
Back to central civilization (i.e. a McDonalds in view) and thinking about tea, we had somewhat of a lightbulb movement and chose to ride the #28 tram to pass half and hour (which turned out to be 90 minutes).
This was a great time filler for the evening. The route started uphill visiting the steep east side of the City central area before going out a few miles west, and back. I should really provide more information on the places we saw on the route but I’ve only got to writing this section in May 2023, 15 months later! One sight I can recall was the Estrela Basilica, the first church in the world dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Lovely.
Once back in the centre I recall having a quite extravagant Indian/kebab platter of food that was really good value based on location and with the footy on the tele. Thinking back to it now, it’s actually bloody worth a mention… a quick Google confirms it was the Aagan restaurant on the western side of Martim Moniz square, just over the road from the Tram 28 start point. Very full, we bounced the short distance back to the hotel to plan our final day.
Day four
A day trip away from the main destination can be a bit risky sometimes on a last day, especially if you come across something smack bang in the middle of Lisbon you didn’t already do, but I must say our decision to visit the village of Sintra, specifically the Park and National Palace of Pena was a bit of a master stroke.
Sintra is about an hour away on the train and still included in the Lisbon area travel pass. It is a very remote village, quickly swelling with tourists to see a colourful castle that wouldn’t look out of place in a Disney Movie. Add to this, it sits on top of a cliff so the views from the castle are outstanding.
Various independent tour guides and buses are impossible to miss when leaving the train station. I recall them not exactly being cheap, but your options to explore the various buildings and ruins are limited, along the narrow, hilly roads. We chose to get off at the stop before Pena castle and have a forestry walk from there. This sounded nice, but we didn’t take in to account that once we were at the castle entrance, there is a significant bloody hill to climb before seeing the good stuff.
It was worth it. Again I’ll remind you I’m writing this 15 months after our visit, so the internal aspects of the building have since been nearly forgotten, but the views and narrow walk along the outside of the towers were cool, albeit a bit discomforting for the larger gentleman.
Returning back to the village, there wasn’t a lot here apart from the odd cafe so we headed back to Lisbon for food and a banging ice cream, planning on one last thing to do before our early flight home the next morning.
It was an easy decision to visit the Belem Tower (Torre de Belem) in the evening. We caught a bus here simply to have a more relaxed journey.
The tower is a Portuguese national monument and a UNESCO World Heritage sight. Although a ‘fortified’ structure, of little use given the location and the vast shore of the river, it was better used as a ceremonial gateway to Lisbon, a spot to see off or welcome back explorers of past times.
The building itself was closed for exploration, being the evening, but it was an impressive structure and worth a visit even though it’s a little out from the centre.
We really should have squeezed in a trip to the Sporting Lisbon stadium this evening too, but hopefully I’ll have an opportunity to visit again – would be a great Wales football away trip.
A final note of an unfortunate memory from our journey back from the tower was that it coincided with Russia’s first attacks and intended invasion on Ukraine. Recalling happy memories from this trip has been difficult given the time that has since passed, but it is impossible to imagine what these 15 months has been like for anyone affected by the conflict.
How Not 2 Life 