Lisbon is rich in history, culture, monuments and cuisine. Only you can decide for yourself. I suggest doing some research on your own. The city of Lisbon as well as the country itself have some excellent and informative websites that will help guide your decision. For authenticity, I would stay clear of subjective websites such as Trip Advisor, Ten Must See..., et al. Good luck.
We have been to Lisbon several times. I would look at “Exploring the Duoro plus Lisbon and Madrid” tour to get some ideas..But, we have found many interesting places and some great food in Lisbon. I would recommend a couple of days there. We plan on spending an extra day on our Duoro trip next year even though we have been there several times in the past.
Many years ago, we always bought the guidebooks like the green Michelin guides for France and the Fodors guides. I still look at Fodors on line, Lonely Planet and the official tourist board sites for the country.
It’s hard to know what to suggest for you, can you be more specific. Are you a museum person, history buff, art appreciation, animal lover, scenery, food, Do you enjoy talking to the locals, trying out your foreign language skills, what floats your boat?
For us, the least important thing when we visit another country is the food aspect, everything else to see is our priority but I know that is unusual. We will worry about food when we get there.
We still haven’t been to Portugal though we will be passing through Lisbon airport next week. So no personal recommendations for Portugal but we will visit there soon, maybe independently.
Sorry; This is more of how to arrange the trip. We will go to Morocco but not sure whether it is best to go to Lisbon first or on the way home to Boston.
It might make sense to fly from Marrakesh to Lisbon at the end of the tour, if there is a direct flight. We couldn't get a direct flight to NY, so we did an overnight in Paris. The airport in Marrakesh is really close to your hotel. Others on the tour had a long(and very early morning) drive to Casablanca so they could catch direct flights home.
The Four Seasons Ritz is lovely and is in a great location. Tauck also sometimes stays directly next door at the Intercontinental, which is certainly adequate. I have stayed three times at the Ritz and once at the InterContinental, if that is any indication of my personal preference!
We enjoyed Lisbon and hope to return soon. We stayed at The Hotel Lisboa Plaza. It’s an old fashioned family run hotel with a great breakfast buffet and a comfy little bar. Nice location. There is a restaurant sort of behind it (a bit of a maze but they can direct you) called A Gina. Lots of Portuguese family’s enjoying grilled seafood, steak kabobs. Do take a food tour! We used Culinary Backstreets and did the Song of the Sea tour.
The nice thing about Hotel Lisboa is that it is situated on Avenida Liberdade, the main shopping street. I have not stayed there...just peeked inside once. It does, indeed, look very quaint and would be a nice change from the "big box" hotel chains.
Thanks, Folsomdoc, for the restaurant suggestion. We are always looking for those mom and pop eateries specializing in regional dishes...as long as grilled octopus is on the menu!
The restaurant for Lisbon: Ha Tapas No Mercado, small, great food. You can find my review and a thousand others on TripAdvisor. Make sure to get a reservation … very small.
Unless you like walking uphill or take lots of cabs I wouldn't recommend either the Ritz or the Intercontinental. They are next door to one another and look very close to a metro station. Unfortunately what the map.doesn't show you is there is a heck of a climb between the station and the hotels.
We were there last week. Our first day my husband and I walked down Ave Liberade all the way to Commerce Square with a couple of side trips. After a beer, cod cakes and people watching we took a tuk tuk back to the hotel. Best 20 euros we ever spent.
While in Lisbon we did make the walk from the Pompal metro station a couple of times and you get a workout.
We went to Lisbon for 4 days after the Morocco tour ended. We flew there direct on TAP Portugal from Marrakech and were glad that we decided to add it to the end of the tour. We did not want to fly home from Casablanca, so seeing Lisbon at the end of the tour eliminated that problem. The Morocco tour was great, but we were exhausted by the end of the tour. In Lisbon, we booked 2 Tuk-Tuk tours which were great for keeping the walking to a minimum. We booked a 4 hour tour of the view points of Lisbon, a 2 hour tour of modern Lisbon. We also booked a van tour to Obidos and Navarre. We highly recommend these tours. Hope this helps.
Part of the allure of Lisbon are its hills. I'm sure one can find hotels in flat areas, especially along the Tagus River, but you would be missing out on so much by not exploring other areas. The public transportation is quite easy to use when you tire of the hills--and they definitely can be tiring.
I wouldn’t recommend staying at the big hotels along Avenida Liberdade. Some people are excited by the access to all the typical European prestige type shops but there aren’t really many local type stores that give you a true flavor of the Portuguese culture. Much as I love to stop into Hermes wherever I travel I don’t need to stay close by. The avenue is long and wide, dominated by big buildings and has a business travel aspect rather than local culture. It seems a long walk to anywhere. I love Four Seasons but on my recent trip chose to stay in a more vibrant, interesting neighborhood. We stayed in an Apartment Hotel, Flora Chiado in the Chiado district and it was delightful. The neighborhood has vibrant nightlife, charming shops, is still centrally located and surprisingly there’s an Hermes store. I had the best of both worlds and every meal we had was amazing, including the Michelin starred Alma.
I love Lisbon. All these tips are great. I'll add that the Tile Museum is terrific. We've stayed at Four Seasons and like it but Claudia is right it can be a hike. Wish I'd known about the Flora Chiado.
The Devour food tour in Lisbon offers a nice introduction to some local favorites as well as some history of Lisbon. Our Tour guide, Rita was outstanding. The group sizes were small. It's a nice half day tour.
Claudia Sails - Oh you're right. That was Devour in Madrid. The one is Lisbon is much longer with the history of the city included. Our tapas tour in Madrid was short and sweet. Might have been because it was raining. lol
Devour does excellent tours. We booked them in San Sebastián. Also had that abbreviated tour in Madrid mentioned above. They are offering 25% off as a Black Friday sale use BFRIDAY2022 and book before 12/6!
Comments
Lisbon is rich in history, culture, monuments and cuisine. Only you can decide for yourself. I suggest doing some research on your own. The city of Lisbon as well as the country itself have some excellent and informative websites that will help guide your decision. For authenticity, I would stay clear of subjective websites such as Trip Advisor, Ten Must See..., et al. Good luck.
Yes.
We have been to Lisbon several times. I would look at “Exploring the Duoro plus Lisbon and Madrid” tour to get some ideas..But, we have found many interesting places and some great food in Lisbon. I would recommend a couple of days there. We plan on spending an extra day on our Duoro trip next year even though we have been there several times in the past.
Many years ago, we always bought the guidebooks like the green Michelin guides for France and the Fodors guides. I still look at Fodors on line, Lonely Planet and the official tourist board sites for the country.
It’s hard to know what to suggest for you, can you be more specific. Are you a museum person, history buff, art appreciation, animal lover, scenery, food, Do you enjoy talking to the locals, trying out your foreign language skills, what floats your boat?
For us, the least important thing when we visit another country is the food aspect, everything else to see is our priority but I know that is unusual. We will worry about food when we get there.
We still haven’t been to Portugal though we will be passing through Lisbon airport next week. So no personal recommendations for Portugal but we will visit there soon, maybe independently.
Sorry; This is more of how to arrange the trip. We will go to Morocco but not sure whether it is best to go to Lisbon first or on the way home to Boston.
What are your flight arrangements? Do you prefer direct flights (if applicable), layovers, price? These are just a few of the many things to consider.
It might make sense to fly from Marrakesh to Lisbon at the end of the tour, if there is a direct flight. We couldn't get a direct flight to NY, so we did an overnight in Paris. The airport in Marrakesh is really close to your hotel. Others on the tour had a long(and very early morning) drive to Casablanca so they could catch direct flights home.
Any recommendations on a hotel and location of hotel in Lisbon... thanks
The Four Seasons Ritz is lovely and is in a great location. Tauck also sometimes stays directly next door at the Intercontinental, which is certainly adequate. I have stayed three times at the Ritz and once at the InterContinental, if that is any indication of my personal preference!
We enjoyed Lisbon and hope to return soon. We stayed at The Hotel Lisboa Plaza. It’s an old fashioned family run hotel with a great breakfast buffet and a comfy little bar. Nice location. There is a restaurant sort of behind it (a bit of a maze but they can direct you) called A Gina. Lots of Portuguese family’s enjoying grilled seafood, steak kabobs. Do take a food tour! We used Culinary Backstreets and did the Song of the Sea tour.
The nice thing about Hotel Lisboa is that it is situated on Avenida Liberdade, the main shopping street. I have not stayed there...just peeked inside once. It does, indeed, look very quaint and would be a nice change from the "big box" hotel chains.
Thanks, Folsomdoc, for the restaurant suggestion. We are always looking for those mom and pop eateries specializing in regional dishes...as long as grilled octopus is on the menu!
The restaurant for Lisbon: Ha Tapas No Mercado, small, great food. You can find my review and a thousand others on TripAdvisor. Make sure to get a reservation … very small.
Unless you like walking uphill or take lots of cabs I wouldn't recommend either the Ritz or the Intercontinental. They are next door to one another and look very close to a metro station. Unfortunately what the map.doesn't show you is there is a heck of a climb between the station and the hotels.
We were there last week. Our first day my husband and I walked down Ave Liberade all the way to Commerce Square with a couple of side trips. After a beer, cod cakes and people watching we took a tuk tuk back to the hotel. Best 20 euros we ever spent.
While in Lisbon we did make the walk from the Pompal metro station a couple of times and you get a workout.
We went to Lisbon for 4 days after the Morocco tour ended. We flew there direct on TAP Portugal from Marrakech and were glad that we decided to add it to the end of the tour. We did not want to fly home from Casablanca, so seeing Lisbon at the end of the tour eliminated that problem. The Morocco tour was great, but we were exhausted by the end of the tour. In Lisbon, we booked 2 Tuk-Tuk tours which were great for keeping the walking to a minimum. We booked a 4 hour tour of the view points of Lisbon, a 2 hour tour of modern Lisbon. We also booked a van tour to Obidos and Navarre. We highly recommend these tours. Hope this helps.
Part of the allure of Lisbon are its hills. I'm sure one can find hotels in flat areas, especially along the Tagus River, but you would be missing out on so much by not exploring other areas. The public transportation is quite easy to use when you tire of the hills--and they definitely can be tiring.
I wouldn’t recommend staying at the big hotels along Avenida Liberdade. Some people are excited by the access to all the typical European prestige type shops but there aren’t really many local type stores that give you a true flavor of the Portuguese culture. Much as I love to stop into Hermes wherever I travel I don’t need to stay close by. The avenue is long and wide, dominated by big buildings and has a business travel aspect rather than local culture. It seems a long walk to anywhere. I love Four Seasons but on my recent trip chose to stay in a more vibrant, interesting neighborhood. We stayed in an Apartment Hotel, Flora Chiado in the Chiado district and it was delightful. The neighborhood has vibrant nightlife, charming shops, is still centrally located and surprisingly there’s an Hermes store. I had the best of both worlds and every meal we had was amazing, including the Michelin starred Alma.
I love Lisbon. All these tips are great. I'll add that the Tile Museum is terrific. We've stayed at Four Seasons and like it but Claudia is right it can be a hike. Wish I'd known about the Flora Chiado.
The Tile Museum is excellent. Just download the English language app while you're still at home. Museum Nacional do Azulejo.
The Devour food tour in Lisbon offers a nice introduction to some local favorites as well as some history of Lisbon. Our Tour guide, Rita was outstanding. The group sizes were small. It's a nice half day tour.
Devour is who Tauck used for our Tapa tour in Madrid.
Claudia Sails - Oh you're right. That was Devour in Madrid. The one is Lisbon is much longer with the history of the city included. Our tapas tour in Madrid was short and sweet. Might have been because it was raining. lol
Devour does excellent tours. We booked them in San Sebastián. Also had that abbreviated tour in Madrid mentioned above. They are offering 25% off as a Black Friday sale use BFRIDAY2022 and book before 12/6!
thanks to all...just booked the devour tour of lisbon at 25% off
Can not answer, but please post a review as my wife and I take this trip in Oct. 2023