Just back from Lisbon
 

Just returned from LIsbon last night. Enjoyed our trip VERY much! The food was excellent. We took our kids and they had a great time. I hope to have a trip report soon. If anyone has any questions, just email me. We drove in Lisbon abd visited the Costa de Capricia (sp).
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I'll be in Lisbon in December. WIll have a car (from prior exploration of Algarve area). Is a car a real problem in Lisbon? Where did you stay?

Any advice would be welcomed!

Can't wait to hear your report! We were in Lisbon in May and really enjoyed the city. Was there smoke in the air due to all the fires close to the city? When we were there the sky was very blue.

Travlbug-
It's funny you should mention a car...We rented a car, and my husband drove and found parking places all over Lisbon. If you're a good driver, and like to drive, it shouldn't be a problem. The only negatives are the narrow streets and the one way streets. Also, in Lison there aren't many left turn lanes. If you miss your turn it could take you several streets and intersections before you can get back on track. One note, I'm from a small town in west Texas so I had never encountered this, it may be the way it's done in larger cities. When you go into parking garages, you get a ticket as you drive in. Then before you drive out, you either go to an attendant or a machine and pay your euros for a ticket. The when you exit the parking garage, you just slip the ticket inside a machine to exit. We didn't know this, and we felt really stupid whenever we had to stop with 5/6 cars behind us in the exit line in order to run over to the attendant and pay for our exit ticket!
We stayed at the Lapa Palace. It was wonderful. They have a great breakfast plan. It's included in the price of the room and if you don't want to go down to eat, you can order exactly what you want and it's wheeled on a tray to your room. You can have pastries, eggs, yogurt, bread, honey, bacon....All complimentary! The location was a bit hard to get in and out of. The tram stop was somewhat far from the hotel; but I wish we would have walked to it and ridden on the trams. We had our kids with us and they got really hot. Having the car, with its air conditioning was a nice respite from the heat. I have a lot to post. I'm in the process of the trip report for the first stop of our travels. As soon as I'm done I'll post about Lisbon. Where are you staying? Lisbon is really large. If you're a good driver, the car will be welcome. We rented from Budget and it was just about $40 a day. They even delivered the car to our hotel. We had to drop it off at their office, but that was a fun challenge finding the Budget Rental office in downtown Lisbon with only a map as our guide!
Aj-
No there wasn't any smoke around the city while we were there. As a matter of fact, had it not been for CNN, I wouldn't have known that there were fires. It was quite hot though. I agree with you, Lisbon is wonderful!

You are brave. I thought driving in Portugal was a challenge...never even would have considered it in Lisbon! Did you go anywhere other than Lisbon?

I was just the navigator actually...My husband was the driver. But, I am one heck of a navigator! We also drove to Estoril, Cascais, Guincho, Sintra, and we went across the big bridge (remember I'm in dry west texas so this was a big deal!) to the Costa da Caparica. I wish we would have had more time to explore!

The bridge from Lisbon to Almada (where the Cristo Rey statue, a copy of the one in Rio de Janeiro, is) was formerly the Salazar Bridge - now it's the 25 de Avril bridge. That's the high one. Up the Tagus, past Oriente (Expo'98 site) is the Vasco da Gama bridge, which is much longer than the former.

My last visit I came across the 25 de Avril bridge on a bus from Sevilla via Setubal around 9PM. The views from the bridge were really great.

elaine123,
I'm also from West Texas and loveeee Portugal! I live South of San Angelo,
Southeast of Midland! My VERY favorite spot in the world is Funchal, Madeira!
Truly a Garen od Eden!
Where do you live?
MB

Hi Elaine, I'm glad you had a great time and enjoyed my hometown. You really chose a wonderful place to stay, the Hotel da Lapa.

But I must advise you and other travellers who go to Lisbon that you found it easy to drive in Lisbon and finding places to park because you were here in August, a month where everybody is on holidays and it gets easy to drive in Lisbon. I think renting a car is very helpful when you stay outside the center, like you did and use it to go to Cascais, Sintra and neighbouring places. But to the city center in other months I sugest that people don't take the car. Too much traffic and hard to park. Did you go to Evora?

Martita, I'm over here in Seminole, right next to New Mexico! Glad to hear from a fellow traveler!
Tere, we did not go Evora. Our time seemed to vanish. I loved Portugal.

Question for Tere:
I'll be disembarking a cruise ship in Lisbon going to the airport. Last March, when we disembarked our ship, the guide informed us we needed Portugese money in order to get a baggage cart outside the airport. Had it not been for the kind Taxi driver's exchanging dollars for Portugal change, we'd have been in a "mess!" What would be an easy way to get the correct change before we arrive at the airport to get the luggage cart?
Thanks so much! I, too loveeee your country!
MB West Texas

Martita - Portugal's currency is the Euro-assuming you're disembarking your ship from another country (or have visited a country)using the Euro, you shouldn't have any problems or need to exchange currencies.

Just love reading this thread ... we visited Portugal in June and found both Lisbon and Funchal to be spectacular cities - each very different in flavor, but quite unique. We relied on public transportation, but it would have been nice to have a car to explore more of mainland Portugal, although I found the drivers to be in training for the Indy 500 !

When in Lisbon, and as previously mentioned, visit Sintra and Cascais, but you might also want to include a stop at Cabo da Roca (spectacular views of the Atlantic), and Belem.

Can't say enough about all the good food we ate. The citizens of Portugal were some of the friendliest we've encountered on our travels.

Martita, Debs just answered your question. I think it's a 1 euro or a 50 cents coin you need to get a baggage car at the airport ( the most stupid thing I have ever seen, really, because people who don't come from countries in the Euro currency don't have it usually and if they already have euros they usually have notes, not coins). But you can ask in the ship to get you some coins, I'm sure they will do it. Or , if you come from other countries with euro currency be sure to save a 1 euro and a 50 cent coin for it.

I'll be sailing on the Seabourn Pride, Translantic, BUT a day in Funchal (also my favorite spot on earth!!) soooo, I'll get plenty of change before Lisbon!
A 1,000 thank you's!
MB

Enjoyed Lisbon very much. No problem with a car. You can now drive to the Algare in about 3 hours on a new super highway. We are planning another trip in January and plan on staying in Evora for a couple of days. Any suggestions on Hotels?

allovereurope, I went to www.ticketpro.cz. There is an option for English on this website! Then, I chose the month we were going to be there and I searched all of the muscial options. I knew that there wasn't going to be much opera in August. I can't remember exactly how much the tickets were, but the site gives prices as well as seat locations.
Elaine, I ordered the tickets in June and I charged them to my credit card. Now, our seats weren't the best, but we were able to move once we saw that seating wasn't full. I did all of this over the internet. We had to go to Ticketpro to pick up the tickets, but the walk wasn't bad. I believe we could have had the tickets mailed, but we decided we didn't want to risk misplacing them. Hope this helps. The concert was great!

Glad to hear the food was excellent, the hotel breckfast was great, the rental car was great, etc. Were there any Portugesse people in Portugal? Sounds like you went to Disney World or something.

Dperag, the best place to stay in Evora is the Pousada dos Loios. It's very nice, historical and with good service. You can check it in www.pousadas.pt

Martita, have a great tip.

Jor, what's your problem???

Well, I wondered where that post went...I meant to post my above response on the Czeh board, as we were also in Prague....No, we weren't in Disneyworld, been there, done that, now I'm opting for the real thing!
P.S. We found the Portugese people to be very accommodating.