Hi everyone

Once I get a bee in my bonnet about a trip I start the search...

I decided yesterday that if I can get Thanksgiving week off I'm heading to Lisbon. I checked out VRBO and have found one in particular that I really like, with another one owned by the same person as an alternate.

It is "77293" in Chiado and the owner is Paulo. Apparently he owns another apartment, it seems like it is in the same building or near by. Can anyone tell me if they have stayed there and what they thought? It looks wonderful and the area looks great.

many thanks! Now I'm off to read the Lisbon Dining Club as well as the other Lisbon postings here...

This apartment has been mentioned before here on Fodor's. In the LDC and Lisbon superthreads it's described as "namaka's apartment" (as she stayed there and described it). There area is lovely and convenient, right on Praca Luis de Camoes, and the apartment is reportedly very nice.

I stayed in another great apartment just across the plaza from this one. It was larger (two bedrooms, two full baths, amazingly well-equipped kitchen) and had views over the plaza on one side and back towards the river on the other. You can see it at:

http://www.travelingtolisbon.com/

It's apartment #33. I was very happy with my experience with this agency---very responsive to email inquiries, so if you have a specific question about a property don't hesitate to ask.

Thanks Therese, I do see that this is quite popular with fodorites! Thank you for the additional recommendation.

Hi flygirl! Yes, our family of four stayed at Paulo's lovely apt last summer for 11 nights. It is as nice as I described! Paulo was so great to work with before and during our stay.

We had decided to pay cash for the apt on arrival and found that we were unable to get any cash out of any ATM's the day we arrived (a Monday). We showed up at the apt empty-handed and Paulo was the least bit worried. He just said that whenever we were able to get the money to just call him and he would come and pick it up-which he did. He said that if we couldn't get the money, that we would just make other arrangements. That was just so nice!

He personally met us at the apt and had coffee, juice, water, fruit and cookies there for us. In addition, because we stayed for over a week, he had someone come in to clean (at no extra charge). I would definitely recommend his apt without any hestitation. The only "con" is that because it is in the heart of the Chiado, it can get a little noisy at night; of course we were there during the World Cup with Portugal winning!

As an alternate choice look at the apartments and houses on www.visitingportugal.com. They are owned by American ex-pats and are very nicely appointed, including PCs with internet service in all of them.

I have to put my vote in for Paulo's apartment especially because he is wonderful to work with.

Any questions at all are answered promptly and he does everything he can to make your stay enjoyable.

Good luck.

bkg

Namaka's point about potential noise from Praca Luis de Camoes is a good one: the weekend crowd got very big and very noisy one night (again, some sort of soccer win, I think). But we found that closing the windows in the front of the apartment (the apartment opposite the one mentioned by the OP and namaka) blocked out every last bit of the noise. And even though I had the windows open on the other side of the apartment, facing the river, it was absolutely quiet.

We were invited for after evening drinks at Therese's above apartment while she was staying there. It's a beautiful spacious apartment and modern to boot. A real treasure.

And when schuler says "we" she doesn't mean herself and one other person, but a good-sized crowd of about 8 people in all, and we could easily have accomodated a much larger group (though I don't think the wine would have stretched that far).

And we ate all your cookies too.

Actually, no, you didn't eat all of those cookies, which is too bad, as I was hoping you would. I'd originally purchased them as a gift for a local friend, but then decided they weren't pretty enough and got something else.

So there I was with that enormous box of cookies. Fortunately you all showed up to help. ;-)