di2315

DH & I will be staying for several days in Lisbon and Barcelona this August / September.
If possible, we would prefer an apartment over a hotel; studio or one bedroom, shower, maybe air con, and with an elevator in the building if the apartment is more than a couple of levels above ground. Nothing fancy needed, but must be clean!

Neither of us has travelled to Portugal or Spain before, and have absolutely no idea of where in each city would be a good area to be based for sight seeing.

Lisbon we will be arriving and leaving by plane; Barcelona we will arrive by train and leave by plane - don't know if this will make any difference to which area we should choose for convenience.

We are looking for advice from anyone with experience in apartment rental in these cities - either from private arrangements or reputable agencies. At this stage we can't give an estimate of how much we are prepared to pay - hopefully that will become clearer once we can establish where we should be.

Many thanks, Di

thursdaysd

"maybe air con"

You will need AC in both cities in August/Septemnber.

Lisbon airport is a short bus or taxi ride from the center of town. Lisbon has excellent public transport and cheap taxis, that said, I like to stay in the Baixa/Rossio area. Can't help with apartments.

fourfortravel

Last October our daughter and I stayed in this apartment. The apartment has AC, Internet, and a lift. It also has a balcony, and the weather was so pleasant in October that we slept with the balcony doors open at night. Though not as central as other preferred locations, the apartment is a three block walk from Sagrada Familia (and Metro), and we found it to be an ideal base for our first-time Barcelona exploration.

For whatever it may be worth, we have also rented in Paris with the "Go with Oh" group, "All Paris Apartments" and enjoyed working with them, as well.

http://www.oh-barcelona.com/en/barce...nts/ref_17568/

di2315

Thanks to both of you for those comments - just the sort of information I'm looking for.
That apartment would suit us perfectly! Di

opaldog

We stayed in a lovely apartment in Lisbon in October. They did not have air conditioning, but did have fans. They had many floor to ceiling windows and overlooked the river in Alfama. I don't have experience with staying there in summer so I couldn't say whether or not it would get hot, but otherwise I highly recommend the apartment. Here is a link:
http://casadalfama.com/Casa_dAlfama/welcome.html

For Barcelona we used habitatapartments.com who appear to have many air conditioned apartments. We traveled in the fall and didn't need air conditioning so I don't remember if either of our apartments had it.

Alan_CT

An apartment without A/C in Barcelona would probably be lacking in many other ways - it's almost universal. You don't say how long you plan to be there, or if you prefer being near nightlife of having quiet. We've rented apartments in BCN many times, but can't recommend without more information.
You'll likely arrive at the Sants train station, which is right in the city, with Metro, bus and taxi connections. The airport is only 30 minutes from the city by taxi.

di2315

Thanks, Alan for your comments.

We plan to stay in Lisbon for 6 nights, and Barcelona for 4.
We prefer quiet - are not big on nightlife at all! We don't eat out often (food allergies), preferring to shop locally, walk plenty and sight see.

We are arriving by train from Toulouse into Barcelona, and leaving by air. Lisbon is in and out by air.

Any advice you can offer is greatly appreciated, Di

opaldog

The train from the Barcelona airport was easy and cheap. In Lisbon we used a taxi as we were staying in the Alfama area which is not near to the trains, just the trams. For our first visit it was easier to use a taxi which is inexpensive. However, that said our taxi driver from the airport got totally lost as he didn't want to use the very detailed map provided to us by the apartment owner. If he had it would have been easy. For some reason he chose not to. I could tell we were in trouble almost immediately, but it made for a bit of an adventure and a story to tell afterwards. Returning to the airport, the apartment owner arranged for a taxi to pick us up and he brought us quickly and directly to the airport with no problems.