Where to stay in lisbon
 

i need help locating a place/neighborhood to stay while in Lisbon (3 nights at the beginning of our trip and 1 night before flying home).

I've got the books (Rick Steves and lonely planet), I've read and researched, but I can't seem to get my head around exactly where would be best to stay.

We plan on dedicating our time in Lisbon to walking, eating, people watching, and relaxing. We will take a guided walking tour of the city our first full day. We May take in a museum or two, at most. We aren't too interested in anything overly touristy (the other stops on our trip include loads of castles, natural parks, museums, etc.). We don't need to be in the busy city center, around lots of noise, but a more centrally located area might be nice as we would like to see as much as possible. We absolutely love food and aren't too concerned about busy night life or bars.

Although for most of her trip we have booked through Airbnb, we wouldn't mind staying at a four or five star hotel while in Lisbon, as we will be booking it with our plane tickets, and getting a discount. With that said, we would prefer to stay in a hotel that feels "Portuguese" ( so, for example, the Hilton is out).

Thanks to all for your thoughts and suggestions!

If you are inclined to stay at a 4 or 5 star Portugal is a great place to do it because you can often get great prices. I would simply check out reviews on Booking.com and pick what you like.

I ate lunch at the Hotel York House, which is a 4-star, and loved the terrace and feel of the place (although I didn't see any rooms, and you might not like the location). I also have heard great things about the best of the 4 Seasons suites, but the location may not be good for you, and you will surely want to read reviews for yourself. Maybe it's too "Hilton".

Regarding location, taxis are very cheap in Lisbon. Still, you might want to be close to places where evening strolls and streetlife -- which is part of the charm of Lisbon -- are plentiful. I like the area of Principe Real, so I would consider the nearby Avenida Palace -- but the immediate area around there is quite set up for tourists. Still, I enjoy it.

Just to clarify, the location of the Hotel York House is great if you don't want a touristy neighborhood, and it is quite nice in its own right. It would really give you a feel for non-touristy Lisbon, and there are restaurants and bars there. That said, if you want to see Lisbon's most popular tourist areas and sights, you will need to take public transportion (quite easy) or a taxi to most of them if you are staying at the York House.

Also, despite the name, the York House is set in a historic building, very old, and sitting on that terrace is just about the polar opposite of being at a Hilton. I enjoyed the food and drink at the restaurant.

http://www.yorkhouselisboa.com/en/image-gallery

Well this is a bit of a "curve ball" but you might want to consider staying in Cascais. It is quite convenient to Lisbon and much more laid back. There are frequent trains into the city (30 minutes) and also to Belem (15 minutes). There are many restaurants in Cascais, not much nightlife. We stayed at the Grand Real Villa Italia and it was gorgeous and IMO quite reasonable for how lovely it was. Esp. if you are going in the summer, it would be cooler and more scenic out on the coast at Cascais.

We are actually spending about a week in and around Sintra, Cascais, etc after Lisbon, so we will check out the grand real villa Italia as an option for our time there-thank you!

If I could afford it I would stay in the Avenida Palace (I actually stay more cheaply quite close). It is central and very convenient for the Rossio station, the bus to/from the airport, the elevator and funicular up one hill and the tram up another. I do not find the center particularly noisy, unless there is something special going on.

Thanks, everyone! Another question: does anyone know anything about the Bairro alto hotel? http://www.bairroaltohotel.com/en/ we found this to be charming and the reviews are good. Not sure where exactly this is in relation to Avenida palace, or how the two compare.

From my Lonely Planet "Lisbon":

"Loud, flirtatious and attitude-free, Bairro Alto is Lisbon's eternal student." In other words, it's party central. Great for cafes, bars and restaurants but I suspect it will be quieter down near Rossio. Also flatter.

THANK YOU, thursdaysd! My lonely planet paints Bairro alto in a nicer light...this is very good to know.

Sorry, but I have to disagree with the comments re Barrio Alto. We stayed in an apt for a week in May 2014 in Barrio Alto -- we loved it and we are not students or partyiers. We had no noise at all & it's very atmospheric. Yes, there are lots of bars and restaurants, but it did not appear to be party central to us and we walked thru it every night.
I came to this thread to recommend the Barrio Alto Hotel. We stayed very near there and enjoyed their rooftop bar frequently. Staff were very nice and freiendly and it appeared to be a lovely, small hotel. I think it's in a great location on Praça Luís de Camões which is lively but certainly not crazy noisy. During our week in Lisbon we walked pretty much everywhere from our apt in the Barrio Alto.
If you can comment on a neighborhood you like in another large city, perhaps that will help guide us as to an area you might enjoy staying in. We like staying in lively, charming, quaint areas when we can. I don't like a lot of noise at night so any neighborhood horribly noisy is out for me.

I meant to add that it is hillyin Barrio Alto and the Rossio area is flat, but to go anywhere, you gotta climb those hills.

Or buy a transport pass and use the excellent public transport. Or even the cheap taxis.

The neighborhood of Barrio Alto is not all partiers, but it is one of the most gussied-up-mainly-for-tourists areas of Lisbon, especially sort of weekender tourists, and I prefer other parts of town. Don't know anything about that particular hotel.

Climb the hills: you have other alternatives to go up: (escalator in CHiado's subway station, FNAC's lift, Rossio station's lift, Santa Justa's lift...).

It may not be fancy enough but we have stayed a number of times with www.guesthouselisbon.com. They have four different guesthouses, mostly in the Santa Caterina area (very close to the Bairro Alto but the area isn't noisy). The nicest is Monte Belvedere, right beside the Santa Caterina Miradouro. The Staff give wonderful tips on places to eat and drink and are very friendly.

Breakfasts are terrific, and the location is hard to beat.

We have stayed in three of their four locations and have loved them all.

Hotel Avenida Palace-- you won't be disappointed. Awesome customer service, gorgeous palace interior, good prices, amazing breakfast included.

http://www.hotelavenidapalace.pt/en/hotel-overview.html

I also recommend the Avenida Palace Hotel. The location is wonderful and it is a lovely hotel and the staff was great. We enjoyed the breakfast that was served each day. We thought this was very reasonably priced compared to many other hotels we stayed in while in Europe.

Cali, we looked forward to starting the day with that amazing breakfast buffet in that gorgeous dining room @ the Avenida Palace.