LISBON, PORTUGAL
We spent 3 nights in Lisbon in June 2005, our first time in Portugal.
Lisbon is a nice city, situated on the banks of the River Tagus, and
is an ideal place for a weekend city break.
The airport bus, Aerobus 91 runs every 20 minutes from 7am - 9pm from outside the airport into the city centre. You buy tickets from the driver and they cost €2.65*. The bus stops close to all the major hotels and the driver will ask your hotel as you board the bus and call you when it's your stop.
If you're going to do a lot of exploring, it' s worth getting a Lisboa card which costs €14.85 a day for adults and €7.50 for kids or €25.50 (€12.75) for 2 days, and gives you unlimited travel on the trains, buses and underground, as well as free admission to some tourist attractions.
Hotel VIP Eden
We stayed at the Hotel VIP Eden,
in the centre of Lisbon in the area known as Restauradores. It is easy to
get anywhere from the hotel and Restauradores metro station is straight in
front of the hotel. The hotel itself was fine and although the rooms were
clean, we found them a bit disappointing for a 4* hotel, and possibly in
need of refurbishment. Breakfasts were served on the roof top area, next
to the pool, with fabulous views over the city, and were the usual cold buffet
selection. It would be hard to get a hotel in Lisbon with a better location.
In the evenings the main area, Barrio Alto, can be accessed on foot or by
taking the short Glória Funicular journey
up the hill from the station just along from the hotel. Visit Hotel
VIP Eden's website. If you book a room at Hotel VIP Eden after reading
this review, we'd appreciate if you'd let them know that you found them on
TravelJimmy.com - thanks!
|
 |
 |
 |
|
Main
shopping street in Baixa, Lisbon |
Room
at VIP Hotel Eden |
VIP Hotel Eden |
||
 |
 |
 |
||
View from hotel
|
Funicular Gloria
to Barrio Alto |
A colourful procession
in Barrio Alto |
||
 |
 |
 |
||
Tram
on a narrow winding street in Graça |
View from Graça |
View from Graça |
||
 |
 |
 |
||
The castle in Sintra
|
The
castle in Sintra |
View
from the castle |
||
 |
 |
 |
||
Lunch at Cafe Paris in Sintra |
Square
in Cascais |
Street
in Cascais |
Things to see and do in Lisbon
Take tram No 28 up steep winding road from the business district of Baixa up to the crumbling neighbourhood of Graça and admire the view from one of the many look-out points.
Take the train to the picturesque village of Sintra and wander around the remains of the old moorish castle, with fabulous views. The castle is quite high up and it's a serious climb and good workout to get there from town, specially in the heat, although it is cooler here than in Lisbon. If you don't feel like the walk (make sure you have water!) you can take a taxi, or a bus. The bus can't be too frequent as we only saw one when we were climbing up to the castle, and that was when we were nearly there! Back in the village, there are lots of restaurants and cafes to have lunch. We sat and chilled out in a nice little restaurant on the square called Cafe Paris Cafeteria, with a very tasty quiche and tuna salad and a most refreshing large beer and Sangria! There are some nice little winding streets to explore, with a variety of shops. Highly recommended and a really nice way to spend a day.
The seaside towns of Estoril and Cascais are also just a short train journey south of Lisbon. If you feel like a day at the beach or just some sea air, you can walk between the two places and there are some shops, cafes, beachfront restaurants, etc to visit. We wouldn't have liked to have been based there for our holiday, but it was nice to visit.
Don't leave Lisbon without sampling their speciality, the delicious pastéis de nata . These light, flaky custard tarts can be found in pastelerias all over the city - we enjoyed one with a coffee in Cafe Chave D'Ouro not far from Hotel VIP Eden.
Bars and Restaurants in Lisbon
The main area in Lisbon for bars and restaurants is the Bairro Alto area. The day we arrived we went for a long walk around the city and landed up there, knowing it was meant to be the centre of nightlife. It was deserted with boarded up buildings and hardly a soul about. We thought we must have got it wrong, but couldn't believe the transformation when we went back there at night. Don't go there during the day as everywhere is closed and there's nothing to see, and a tip for all the female visitors to Bairro Alto - don't wear heels, or you'll find it impossible to walk on the cobbled streets!
The other main area for bars is the Docas district (Docks) where there are rows of converted warehouses at the Doca de Santo Amaro.
We had a delicious meal at Cravo e Canela (Rua da Barroca) a restaurant in the Bairro Alto area with a nice ambiance and excellent food. Our Thai Chicken was delicious and had very authentic flavours.
We liked the small Portas Largas bar on Rua da Atalaia in Bairro Alto - they had very friendly staff, tasty peanuts and delicious Sangria and Caipirinhas!
Some useful sites about Lisbon:
Ask Me Lisboa Useful
site with lots of information about Lisbon
Time Out Lisbon -
Lots of stuff about Lisbon, including shopping, restaurants and bars
and tourist information
Trip
Advisor - Reviews from other travellers and a useful forum
Hotels
in Lisbon - Book hotels in Lisbon, read travellers reviews of those
hotels and earn rewards worth 5% of your booking to use against other reservations.
*Note: Prices quoted above were
accurate in 2005