Lively Lisbon

World-Class Capital

By Farah Amin

Where to Stay

With an excellent array of design conscious boutique hotels and upmarket backpacker digs, there is plenty of choices to slumber.

Lisbon Lounge Hostels a stylish Baixa digs that has immaculate dorms and an artfully designed lounge complete with turntable and faux moose head.

Complete with a fun team who hosts nightly dinners, bar crawls and other events makes it a perfect spot to meet other travelers.

With supreme comfort, cleanliness, style and security, the multi-award-winning Lisbon Lounge Hostel is the perfect place to call home during your visit to our fantastic city.

For a luxurious stay, book in the 19^th Century 5-star hotel, Olissippo Lapa Palace is nestled on a sub-tropical garden on a hilltop overlooking the Tagus River. It has an expansive spa and indoor and outdoor pools. The rooms are elegant at the Olissippo Lapa Palace are bright and airy and include a spacious seating area. Restaurant Hotel Lapa serves fine Mediterranean cuisine and regional wines, while Le Pavillion, during summer time, serves cocktails, homemade iced teas and fruit juices around the pool

Where to Eat

The Portuguese capital has raised he bar recently in the culinary scene where creative, open-minded chefs look to Brazil, France, India and the Mediterranean for inspiration.

Pharmacia

in Lisbon’s apothecary museum, this wonderfully quirky restaurant distributes tasting menus and that are market fresh and Mediterranean influenced, served by Waiters in white lab coats, appetizers served in test tubes, and cabinets brimming with pill bottles and flacons.

100 Maneiras

One of Lisbon’s best-rated restaurants, 100 Maneiras has no menu, just a 10-course tasting menu that changes daily and features creative, delicately prepared dishes. part of it’s charm that the menu is all a surprise. The small space has a lively and elegant buzz to it.

Alma

Henrique Sá Pessoa, one of Portugal’s most talented chefs prepares at this stylish, all-white restaurant in Santos with excellence and consistent great reviews. The multicourse tasting menus provide excellent value for money and the service is first-rate.

What to See

Praça do Comércio

With its grand 18th-century arcades, lemon-meringue facades and mosaic cobbles, the riverfront Praça do Comércio is a square that stands out from everywhere else.

Everyone arriving by boat used to land here, and it still feels like the gateway to Lisbon, alive with activity and rattling trams. At its center stands the equestrian statue of Dom José I , hinting at the square’s royal roots.

Alfama

Walk down through Alfama’s steep, narrow, cobblestoned streets and catch a glimpse of the more traditional side of Lisbon before it too is redeveloped, and linger in a backstreet cafe and experience some local bonhomie without the tourist gloss.

Castelo de São Jorge

The hilltop fortifications of Castelo de São Jorge towers dramatically over Lisbon where it sneaks into almost every snapshot. These smooth cobbles have seen it all – Visigoths in the 5th century, Moors in the 9th century, Christians in the 12th century, royals from the 14th to 16th centuries, and convicts in every century.

Roam its snaking walls and pine-shaded courtyards for the best view of the city’s red rooftops to the river.

Torre de Belém is a World Heritage–listed fortress that epitomizes the Age of Discoveries.

Francisco de Arruda designed the pearly-grey chess piece in 1515 to defend Lisbon’s harbor and nowhere else is the lure of the Atlantic more powerful. Climb the narrow spiral staircase to the tower, and get a sublime view over Belém and the river.