Lisbon - Where to stay
 

Staying in Lisbon for about 4 nights. We were looking at the Dom Pedro Palace. Looks nice and has a great rate. Does anyone know anything about the hotel, location? Or do you have any recommendations? Thanks!

The Dom Pedro Palace is in the center of the city, and not a bad location, but as far as a 5-star destination in Lisbon, I would look more toward the far more elegant Lapa Palace (www.olissippohotels.com). The problem is that as far as 5-star properties go, they are not in the same price bracket, nor are they anywhere near the same level of quality. I guess you just have to realize that not all 5-star, or 4-star hotels are born equal.

If you want a good 4-star star, then you can check out the Hotel Lisboa, Hotel Lisboa Plaza or the highly acclaimed Hotel Britania (www.hotel-britania.com). All are well located properties.

Thanks so much Robert. We're not really looking for 5 star place. Really looking for location/price balance. We don't want a dive, but doesn't need to be any thing beautiful. For us, its just a place to sleep. Dom Pedro was about $100, and it looked nice, so that seemed like a good deal. Just couldn't tell if it was great location.

Other place I just found was the Brown's Downtown. Also, about $100, but close to the water. Thoughts? Thanks everyone.

In terms of transportation and getting around, Brown's Downtown is well-situated, but you will be right in the heart of the touristic district -- or I should say one of them. But I enjoyed staying near the river while in Lisbon (I rented an apartment closer to the Cais do Sodre).

I think the Dom Pedro Palace is a poor location.

Are you using booking.com to search for hotels? You can search by price, your travel dates, your desired amenities (wi-fi, air con), and read up-to-date user reviews. It's really a great resource for evaluating hotels. The reviews are very specific about things like noise, or whether the wi-fi works, or whether it is easy to get around sightseeing from the hotel.

http://www.booking.com/city/pt/lisbon.en.html

A couple of years ago we stayed at 56 Rue Garrett (then VRBO#136986) in the Chiado District. It was superb. Ideally located for shopping, eating and drinking, and catching a trolley. We would stay there again for sure.

Have a good trip.

We prefer the Bairro Alto, in the Chiado section. It's one of the most popular districts with a number of excellent restaurants within an easy walk. We rented an apartment the last time, but if you stay at one of the Heritage hotels on either side of Avenida da Liberdade, you'll have easy access to everywhere in the city (www.hotel-britania.com/en/heritage-lisbon-hotels). Much nicer than staying down by the river.

Of course there is a rather nice small hotel on Rua do Alecrim, Lx Boutique Hotel (www.lxboutiquehotel.com) that may interest you.

I stayed right up the street from the Lx Boutique Hotel and what I liked about the location was the proximity to the river (and some lovely restaurants along there) and all the great transportation options within a 5 minute walk -- yet it mostly out of the areas that are, in my view, just plain touristy.

There is a kind of Hotel Gulch along the Avenida da Liberdade, and I would find the Britania inconvenient to many things that interest me in Lisbon.

But it's just a preference of mine not to stay in the tourist zone of a city if possible. Taxis in Lisbon are so cheap, public transportation is so extensive, and all of the city is so safe, there are good restaurants all over the city, I really don't think you can wrong if you a find a hotel convenient to the kind of stay you personally want to have.