Trip Report - 4 Days in Lisbon
Oct 6th, 2017, 04:07 PM
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Trip Report - 4 Days in Lisbon
It seemed as though this trip was planned a long time ago, and then all of a sudden, it was upon us. Last year, we celebrated a milestone birthday of mine in Iceland, and this year, we were celebrating my husband’s birthday. I gave him a couple of choices – Spain or the Galapagos, and he chose Spain.
However, when I was booking the flights, I read that TAP Portugal had introduced direct flights from Toronto to Lisbon, so we decided to spend a few days in that city at the start of the trip. I then booked flights from Lisbon to Malaga and from Sevilla back to Lisbon. The plan was to spend 4 nights in Lisbon, 1 night in Malaga, 3 nights in Granada, and a week in Sevilla.
TAP Portugal was fine. We had a red eye flight, and normally I’m able to sleep on a plane – I’ll fall asleep even on a 1 hour flight between Toronto and Montreal – but I really didn’t sleep this time around, even with some pharmaceutical assistance. Arriving in Lisbon was very easy, and I was surprised that we didn’t have to fill anything out for immigration. We had gone carry on so no issues waiting for luggage. We had asked our AirBnB hosts to arrange a pickup for us, and that was a big help. We met our driver and he zipped us off to our apartment for the next 4 nights. I don’t know if we’d have found it on our own, especially with no sleep!.
General Impressions:
We loved it and would go back anytime. It surprised me – the city seems much younger and more stylish than I was expecting. (Not that we’re young or particularly stylish!) There’s so much to do and see, and I could easily spend more time there. The city is lively – restaurants are bustling and lots of people are out and about. It really does seem like everyone speaks English. Even though Portuguese may look a bit like Spanish, it doesn’t sound at all like Spanish.
Accommodation: The apartment was lovely! It’s in Bairro Alto and it’s impeccably and artistically decorated. I could live there. It’s on the second floor (what North Americans would call the third floor) in an old building, but it’s been totally renovated. Lovely wooden floor, lots of skylights with shades, and great looking art (the owner’s personal photography and art from Brazil). I would stay here again in a heartbeat. The kitchen is well-equipped. The owners ask that you remove your shoes inside the apartment – as a Canadian, that makes sense to me. The neighbourhood is busy, but our street is fairly quiet.
Activities:
After arriving and getting our bearings, we decided to go ahead with our plan to do a free walking tour (https://lisbonfreetour.blogspot.ca/) – better get right into it, right? The tour meets at Plaza Luis de Camões, which is only a block or so from the apartment. There were a lot of people for the afternoon tour, and we were divided into 2 groups. OMG we walked a lot! The tour was about 3 hours and started at 4 PM. Since we hadn’t eaten lunch or gotten any sleep, we were both hungry and tired by the time we finished. (By the time, we got to the final lookout, all I wanted to do was sit down.) It was definitely worth it though – we got a great overview of some of the city and covered a lot of territory. The guide was a young man called Rafael and we gave the guide a good tip – he was excellent and kept us moving.
We definitely wasted some time trying to catch the famous and overcrowded tram 28. The only one that we could have caught (it was virtually empty for some odd reason) went by when we were between stops. Both John and a Toronto friend who was also in Lisbon wanted to do a tuktuk tour instead. Being ‘frugal’, I wasn’t so keen, but I’m really glad we did it. In another coincidence, when we went to the Plaza Luis de Camões, we met the same guide our friend had met before in a totally different part of the city. That settled it. We decided to do the 3 hour tour. It was a lot more money than the tram but it was excellent, and we covered very different areas from the previous day on our walking tour. The guide was a friendly guy from Cape Verde called Pifas, who speaks perfect English. At one point, we ended up in Belem, where Pifas was able to run in, bypassing the long lineup, and pick us up some of the famous tarts. Although we paid for 3 hours, the tour was actually close to 4 hours. We saw the Roman Theatre, Panteao Nacional, Alfama (where Pifas got out and walked with us), Belem and so on. I had a little taste of the sour cherry liqueur in Alfama – it’s sold by women on the street, but I bought it in a small shop that Pifas recommended as being one of the best. We also liked the look of LX, which is an area that we had hoped to go back to visit.
We had already bought tickets to see a fado performance through Real Fado that night, and our friend decided to join us. The restaurant where the show was held is called Gin Lovers (odd name, I know), and the cost was 20 euros each. That included both the show and a huge gin & tonic. Just watching the good looking bartender make the drink was worth the cost of admission – it was a real performance! And it was probably the best gin & tonic I’ve ever had. The fado was good as well. Not sure I’d become an aficionado, but it was enjoyable.
We also did a lot of random wandering in Lisbon. One morning, we had a bit of rain, although it quickly changed to sunshine. During the rain, we were actually in a café in Bertrands book store, which is apparently the world's longest running bookstore. We checked out a small chocolate cafe called Bettina and Nicolo where the chocolate comes from Sao Tome and Principe. Amazing! We did a bit of shopping in the same building where we saw the fado show. The architecture is wonderful. On our final full day, we had a slow start as I didn’t wake up until 10 AM. Our friend had gotten tired of waiting for us to get going, so we were on our own. We had coffee and then headed out to Alfama where I bought a lovely piece of ceramics and then we ended up at their large and busy flea market. I found a necklace that I would have bought, but the colour wasn’t what I wanted. I probably could have done a lot more shopping in Lisbon if I hadn’t been going carry on. I saw some clothing that I really liked, designed and made in Lisbon.
Food:
We definitely had problems finding a restaurant for dinner our first night. We tried 2 or 3 places that were recommended, and either they were already full or they were all reserved. We finally ended up at a little place called Dona Saudade – the food was pleasant, prices were great and we could get a table at 8:30! I ordered a lasagna with cod and spinach – different combination and quite tasty. Dinner for the two of us came to 35 euros.
The next day, we met up with our friend. Coincidentally, our flat was about a 3 minute walk from where he was staying! We started off with an excellent brunch at The Mill which is a very popular Portuguese/Aussie restaurant near us. John had the “the Sydney breakfast” – a sweet corn fritter with poached eggs, avocado and fresh cheese, while I had their take on huevos rancheros – totally delicious. Prices for the dishes are about 7 or 8 euros each for very generous servings. The Mill is extremely popular and I can see why.
Before the fado show, we had a casual dinner in a park across the street from the restaurant where the fado was held. The guys both ordered chicken, and I had a decent tuna carpaccio. We shared an order of fries with truffle oil, garlic, and parmesan. I can’t recall the cost, but it was reasonable and the food was pretty good.
One evening, we had plans to meet our friend at a very popular restaurant, but they don’t take reservations and clearly we weren't early enough so we went with plan B. We ended up at Os Bons Malandros where we shared some fabulous tapas and a bottle of red. It’s also a popular place but we got there before they opened and were able to reserve a table. The menu is all small dishes and I’d say all of them were good. I particularly liked the tuna with the mojito shots (involving molecular cuisine), but we also enjoyed delicious crunchy chicken and pulled pork sandwiches, octopus, quinoa and so on. The bill for the 3 of us (which included a nice bottle of red wine) was 72 euros. It was definitely a lot of food. Service was also very good.
One afternoon, we headed to Time Out Market (Mercado de Ribeiro), which my brother (a chef) had recommended, for a late lunch. Wow! We started out with seafood - John had cuttlefish in black tempura while I ordered seared scallops and mango. The cuttlefish looked weird on the plate, but it was delicious! We then ordered the suckling pig from Henrique Sa Pessoa. He’s a chef who has a Michelin star restaurant called Alma near our flat. It was amazing! Plus a sticky toffee pudding for dessert and sparkling wine. Too many places to choose from and if we had more time in Lisbon, we would have gone back. It was packed, and I’m sure it’s like that any time of the day or night. The variety is incredible. As someone said, it’s the best food court ever! Cost for all of our food and drink was about 45 euros for the 2 of us.
After 4 days, we headed on to the next leg of our trip. I'll be posting that part of the trip in the Spain boards.
At the end of the trip, we flew back to Lisbon from Sevilla. We were in the airport for about 3 hours (time for a couple more tarts!) before flying home to Toronto. All in all, a great trip, and I'd love to go back to see more of Portugal.
However, when I was booking the flights, I read that TAP Portugal had introduced direct flights from Toronto to Lisbon, so we decided to spend a few days in that city at the start of the trip. I then booked flights from Lisbon to Malaga and from Sevilla back to Lisbon. The plan was to spend 4 nights in Lisbon, 1 night in Malaga, 3 nights in Granada, and a week in Sevilla.
TAP Portugal was fine. We had a red eye flight, and normally I’m able to sleep on a plane – I’ll fall asleep even on a 1 hour flight between Toronto and Montreal – but I really didn’t sleep this time around, even with some pharmaceutical assistance. Arriving in Lisbon was very easy, and I was surprised that we didn’t have to fill anything out for immigration. We had gone carry on so no issues waiting for luggage. We had asked our AirBnB hosts to arrange a pickup for us, and that was a big help. We met our driver and he zipped us off to our apartment for the next 4 nights. I don’t know if we’d have found it on our own, especially with no sleep!.
General Impressions:
We loved it and would go back anytime. It surprised me – the city seems much younger and more stylish than I was expecting. (Not that we’re young or particularly stylish!) There’s so much to do and see, and I could easily spend more time there. The city is lively – restaurants are bustling and lots of people are out and about. It really does seem like everyone speaks English. Even though Portuguese may look a bit like Spanish, it doesn’t sound at all like Spanish.
Accommodation: The apartment was lovely! It’s in Bairro Alto and it’s impeccably and artistically decorated. I could live there. It’s on the second floor (what North Americans would call the third floor) in an old building, but it’s been totally renovated. Lovely wooden floor, lots of skylights with shades, and great looking art (the owner’s personal photography and art from Brazil). I would stay here again in a heartbeat. The kitchen is well-equipped. The owners ask that you remove your shoes inside the apartment – as a Canadian, that makes sense to me. The neighbourhood is busy, but our street is fairly quiet.
Activities:
After arriving and getting our bearings, we decided to go ahead with our plan to do a free walking tour (https://lisbonfreetour.blogspot.ca/) – better get right into it, right? The tour meets at Plaza Luis de Camões, which is only a block or so from the apartment. There were a lot of people for the afternoon tour, and we were divided into 2 groups. OMG we walked a lot! The tour was about 3 hours and started at 4 PM. Since we hadn’t eaten lunch or gotten any sleep, we were both hungry and tired by the time we finished. (By the time, we got to the final lookout, all I wanted to do was sit down.) It was definitely worth it though – we got a great overview of some of the city and covered a lot of territory. The guide was a young man called Rafael and we gave the guide a good tip – he was excellent and kept us moving.
We definitely wasted some time trying to catch the famous and overcrowded tram 28. The only one that we could have caught (it was virtually empty for some odd reason) went by when we were between stops. Both John and a Toronto friend who was also in Lisbon wanted to do a tuktuk tour instead. Being ‘frugal’, I wasn’t so keen, but I’m really glad we did it. In another coincidence, when we went to the Plaza Luis de Camões, we met the same guide our friend had met before in a totally different part of the city. That settled it. We decided to do the 3 hour tour. It was a lot more money than the tram but it was excellent, and we covered very different areas from the previous day on our walking tour. The guide was a friendly guy from Cape Verde called Pifas, who speaks perfect English. At one point, we ended up in Belem, where Pifas was able to run in, bypassing the long lineup, and pick us up some of the famous tarts. Although we paid for 3 hours, the tour was actually close to 4 hours. We saw the Roman Theatre, Panteao Nacional, Alfama (where Pifas got out and walked with us), Belem and so on. I had a little taste of the sour cherry liqueur in Alfama – it’s sold by women on the street, but I bought it in a small shop that Pifas recommended as being one of the best. We also liked the look of LX, which is an area that we had hoped to go back to visit.
We had already bought tickets to see a fado performance through Real Fado that night, and our friend decided to join us. The restaurant where the show was held is called Gin Lovers (odd name, I know), and the cost was 20 euros each. That included both the show and a huge gin & tonic. Just watching the good looking bartender make the drink was worth the cost of admission – it was a real performance! And it was probably the best gin & tonic I’ve ever had. The fado was good as well. Not sure I’d become an aficionado, but it was enjoyable.
We also did a lot of random wandering in Lisbon. One morning, we had a bit of rain, although it quickly changed to sunshine. During the rain, we were actually in a café in Bertrands book store, which is apparently the world's longest running bookstore. We checked out a small chocolate cafe called Bettina and Nicolo where the chocolate comes from Sao Tome and Principe. Amazing! We did a bit of shopping in the same building where we saw the fado show. The architecture is wonderful. On our final full day, we had a slow start as I didn’t wake up until 10 AM. Our friend had gotten tired of waiting for us to get going, so we were on our own. We had coffee and then headed out to Alfama where I bought a lovely piece of ceramics and then we ended up at their large and busy flea market. I found a necklace that I would have bought, but the colour wasn’t what I wanted. I probably could have done a lot more shopping in Lisbon if I hadn’t been going carry on. I saw some clothing that I really liked, designed and made in Lisbon.
Food:
We definitely had problems finding a restaurant for dinner our first night. We tried 2 or 3 places that were recommended, and either they were already full or they were all reserved. We finally ended up at a little place called Dona Saudade – the food was pleasant, prices were great and we could get a table at 8:30! I ordered a lasagna with cod and spinach – different combination and quite tasty. Dinner for the two of us came to 35 euros.
The next day, we met up with our friend. Coincidentally, our flat was about a 3 minute walk from where he was staying! We started off with an excellent brunch at The Mill which is a very popular Portuguese/Aussie restaurant near us. John had the “the Sydney breakfast” – a sweet corn fritter with poached eggs, avocado and fresh cheese, while I had their take on huevos rancheros – totally delicious. Prices for the dishes are about 7 or 8 euros each for very generous servings. The Mill is extremely popular and I can see why.
Before the fado show, we had a casual dinner in a park across the street from the restaurant where the fado was held. The guys both ordered chicken, and I had a decent tuna carpaccio. We shared an order of fries with truffle oil, garlic, and parmesan. I can’t recall the cost, but it was reasonable and the food was pretty good.
One evening, we had plans to meet our friend at a very popular restaurant, but they don’t take reservations and clearly we weren't early enough so we went with plan B. We ended up at Os Bons Malandros where we shared some fabulous tapas and a bottle of red. It’s also a popular place but we got there before they opened and were able to reserve a table. The menu is all small dishes and I’d say all of them were good. I particularly liked the tuna with the mojito shots (involving molecular cuisine), but we also enjoyed delicious crunchy chicken and pulled pork sandwiches, octopus, quinoa and so on. The bill for the 3 of us (which included a nice bottle of red wine) was 72 euros. It was definitely a lot of food. Service was also very good.
One afternoon, we headed to Time Out Market (Mercado de Ribeiro), which my brother (a chef) had recommended, for a late lunch. Wow! We started out with seafood - John had cuttlefish in black tempura while I ordered seared scallops and mango. The cuttlefish looked weird on the plate, but it was delicious! We then ordered the suckling pig from Henrique Sa Pessoa. He’s a chef who has a Michelin star restaurant called Alma near our flat. It was amazing! Plus a sticky toffee pudding for dessert and sparkling wine. Too many places to choose from and if we had more time in Lisbon, we would have gone back. It was packed, and I’m sure it’s like that any time of the day or night. The variety is incredible. As someone said, it’s the best food court ever! Cost for all of our food and drink was about 45 euros for the 2 of us.
After 4 days, we headed on to the next leg of our trip. I'll be posting that part of the trip in the Spain boards.
At the end of the trip, we flew back to Lisbon from Sevilla. We were in the airport for about 3 hours (time for a couple more tarts!) before flying home to Toronto. All in all, a great trip, and I'd love to go back to see more of Portugal.
Oct 6th, 2017, 11:26 PM
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Glad you enjoyed Lisbon. Hope you get to go back. The other parts of Portugal that I have seen are very different, but in a very fascinating way, and all easy to reach and all equally budget friendly. I share your admiration of Lisbon apartments. Spacious, light-filled, conveniently modern without any loss of personality, and so cheap to rent.
Oct 7th, 2017, 02:26 AM
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Thanks for the report and I'm glad you had a good time. I'm going back to Lison (it's been 10 years) in March and also flying TAP so I was glad to hear it was OK. I notice you said you did carry on only. Did they weigh your bags (and personal item)? Seems like their weight limits are more strict than most airlines.
Oct 7th, 2017, 06:42 AM
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Hi Susan!
I visited Lisbon for the first time a year ago and was hooked by the city and its people. I'd love to return. We stayed in a hotel near your flat, on Placa Luis Camões, but I'd love to have the link for the flat, for next time. Could you post it, please?
I visited Lisbon for the first time a year ago and was hooked by the city and its people. I'd love to return. We stayed in a hotel near your flat, on Placa Luis Camões, but I'd love to have the link for the flat, for next time. Could you post it, please?
Oct 7th, 2017, 10:55 AM
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lobo and Nikki - I find it hard to believe that was ten years ago too. Lots of great trips between then and now but that one stands out as one of the best. My husband still talks about that dinner.
Oct 7th, 2017, 02:35 PM
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The link for the apartment we used is https://www.airbnb.ca/rooms/447832
I really liked staying in Bairro Alto. Very central. We weren't on a main street, so it was quiet.
TAP Portugal was fine. They did weigh my carry on, but I had already weighed it at home so there were no surprises. However, I think the only time they weighed it was when I was leaving Toronto - I don't remember anyone weighing it in Seville or Lisbon.
I really liked staying in Bairro Alto. Very central. We weren't on a main street, so it was quiet.
TAP Portugal was fine. They did weigh my carry on, but I had already weighed it at home so there were no surprises. However, I think the only time they weighed it was when I was leaving Toronto - I don't remember anyone weighing it in Seville or Lisbon.
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