Livin' it up in Lisbon

Portugal is an extraordinary country on the western coast of Europe that neighbors France and Spain. It meets the Atlantic Ocean on the west and the Mediterranean Sea on the south.

In order to even get a glimpse of my favorite parts of Portugal, you really need about a week although 7-14 days would be ideal.

Getting There

Portugal’s capital, Lisbon (Lisboa) offers an international airport that offers flights from all over the world. I found that it was easiest to fly in and out of it for convenience. There is so much to see in Portugal and I would only spend a few days in each city- I would highly recommend Lisbon, Porto and the southern Algarve region.

Rest Your Head

We loved our hotel in Lisbon. Hotel Portugal is nicely situated in Lisbon's city center. It is just blocks from the St. George castle, Santa Justa elevator and just a short block from the Praca de Figueira square, metro stop and taxi queue. The staff is among the nicest I have encountered while traveling. They are highly responsive to emails before arriving and go out of their way to meet the guests needs. They made dinner reservations for us, loaned us towels for the beach and gave us a map to navigate the city.

Hotel Portugal is conveniently sister properties with the Hotel Mundial. This hotel is directly behind the hotel and only a 2 minute walk. Hotel Mundial has a roof top bar with an excellent view of Lisbon, the castle, and the river!

Getting Around

There are a wide variety of options in Portugal to get around, but the Lisbon city-center is definitely manageable by foot.

Adventure

Fado is quite popular in Lisbon and came highly recommended. The style reminds me of the blues music with guitars. The hotel recommended O Faia which is in the Barrio Alto district. It's a long walk or very short taxi. Reservations are highly recommended and the show begins between 9:30-10:00pm. Our show was approximately 2 hours. The music was lovely and the food was excellent!

Walk down the Rua Augusta toward the river. It's a lovely walk through their arch that symbolizes their triumph over the earthquake that nearly destroyed their whole city in 1855.

Then stroll over to the St. George castle. There are many charming shops to stop in along the way and the castle has stunning views of the city (8,50€).

I also booked a day tour through Viator with Inside Lisbon tours to Sintra and Caiscas ($65) for a trip that lasts 9:00am-5:30pm. We had a semi-private guide that we shared with 6 other people.

Touring the Pena castle above Sintra was wild. The castle only stopped being active when the last royal lived there in 1910. Sintra itself is a charming little town half way up the mountain.

We stumbled upon the cutest little restaurant in Sintra called Restaurante Tacho Real. It was set back among the shops, but not right along the incredibly busy main street, and was a great spot for lunch after touring the National Palace of Sintra- Pena Palace (yellow and red palace). Their were many great options, including seafood, salads, soups and various entrees. We had soup and salad. All of the food was excellent. Their was even a gentleman playing the guitar and service was great.

Plan to stay in Caiscas if possible. There are shops, cafés and restaurants galore. Palm trees line the Main Street into town that weaves around a merry go round. Their is a public beach that's clean but beware that the water here comes from the Atlantic so is quite chilly.

Between Sintra and Caiscas is the Western most point of Europe called Cabo da Roca. It's quite windy here and has a lovely view.

Culinary Delights

Lisbon

Restaurant Terra is vegetarian buffet where you can choose a table inside or outside on the patio in their "garden." Their were about 25 dishes to choose from that were all flavorful and delicious. They even have organic wine from around Europe to choose from.

Sintra

Restaurante Tacho Real