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The best things to do in Mallorca, Spain
Your vacations are fast approaching and you’d like to visit Mallorca in the Balearic Islands? Discover our complete guide on our travel blog!
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We’ve really fallen in love with Portugal since our stay in the Algarve in the autumn. We had already discovered Porto and Aveiro and this visit to the Portuguese capital confirmed our crush on this country. On our travel blog, we give you our top tips for accommodation in Lisbon, our favorite restaurants and the neighborhoods not to be missed during your stay in Lisbon. We’ll take you on our Portuguese adventure to discover the pretty views over the orange rooftops, the mythical yellow streetcars, the Belem Tower… And even, if you have the time, a day in Sintra to discover its incredible parks, palaces and castles!
To visit Lisbon in 4 days, we chose The Lumiares Hotel & Spa. Located right in the heart of the city, in the lively Bairro Alto district, you’ll be close to the city’s best bars and restaurants.
Tastefully designed and decorated, the entire hotel is very comfortable and welcoming. The attentive staff will make you feel at home from the moment you arrive. We stayed in the Gloria Suite, which has a bedroom, kitchen and small living room: everything you need for a pleasant stay. As an extra, a view of Lisbon’s mythical yellow tramway. 😍
We also loved the breakfast, served on the 5th floor, at the Lumi Rooftop. From sweet to savory, from local specialties to trendy avocado toast, everything is excellent. You can also enjoy lunch, dinner or a drink. All in all, a great address for your next stay in Lisbon!
If you’d like to discover more great places to stay, we recommend taking a look at our dedicated article on the best hotels in Lisbon.
The Chiado district is particularly lively and commercial during the day. You absolutely must stroll through Chiado to discover the beautiful monuments you come across: the Jardim de Sao Pedro de Alcantara, the Praça Luis de Camoes…. You can also discover the many theaters and shops in the district. It’s the ideal place for a spot of shopping.
The Bairro Alto district is best discovered after dark. It’s in these lively streets that you’ll discover the best bars and restaurants for a memorable evening.
If you too dream of getting a photo of Lisbon’s iconic yellow Tramway, two places are just right: the “Bica” stop or the “Gloria” stop. They both have a steep pedestrian street that will give a great perspective to your photo and show off the funicular well!
This 45-metre-high wrought-iron monument is also emblematic of the city of Lisbon! You can find it at the intersection of Santa Justa and Aurea streets. You can climb to the top to experience this elevator, created in 1902, and get a view of the Portuguese capital’s rooftops.
This restaurant is very close to the Santa Justa elevator. We went there, not for lunch, but to take a photo of the restaurant’s lobby, which is accessible without consuming. Its Moroccan palace style seduced us!
The famous Time Out Market is well worth the detour to discover the array of stalls with different cuisines to sample on large shared tables for a lively atmosphere.
This pretty street is on the list of instagrammable Lisbon photos! It’s so called for the color of its floor, painted pink. You’ll find plenty of bars here, making it a very lively street at night.
Cross the lively shopping street Augusta, then pass under the Arc de Triomphe and discover Lisbon’s huge and famous square. Place du Commerce, located in the Baixa district, is surrounded by yellow buildings, with a statue of King Joseph 1st at its center. You’ll find plenty of terraces and a view of the Tagus River.
It’s impossible to visit Lisbon in 4 days without passing by this must-see! The Belem Tower, known in Portuguese as Torre de Belém, was built in the 16th century. At the time, it was used to control entry into Lisbon. Located on the banks of the Tagus River, the Belem Tower is a must-see. You can climb to the top of the Tower for a pretty view by paying the entrance fee of €6 per adult.
After discovering the Belem Tower, stroll along the riverbanks towards the April 25 Bridge. If, like us, you’re lucky enough to have exceptional weather, it’s a very pleasant walk. We even rented electric scooters on the BOLT app. On the way, pass by the famous Padrão dos Descobrimentos. This huge monument was created as a tribute to the Portuguese navigators of the 15th and 16th centuries.
The huge Monastery built in the 16th century was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983. You can visit it for €10 per person. We only admired its facade before heading off for a Pasteis de Belem… Oops 🙈
The adorable rue de Belem really appealed to us, and in particular it’s the perfect place to sample one of the best Pasteis de Belem.
This industrial estate is a former Portuguese fabric factory that has been rehabilitated. Today, discover in this incredible place 50 bars and restaurants, designer boutiques, concept stores…. It’s also the perfect place to admire street art and soak up the highly creative atmosphere. We loved this address, which we returned to twice. We almost felt as if we were in the USA or London! As you can see, for us it’s impossible to visit Lisbon without stopping by!
The immense Golden Gate-style bridge was inaugurated in 1966. 3km long, it crosses the Tagus River. You can reach it by car or by ferry. We crossed the bridge in the direction of Almada to admire the view of Lisbon and the Bridge.
On the Almada side, you can admire the immense 110-meter-high silhouette of Cristo Rei up close. It has been visible from all over Lisbon since 1959. With its hint of Rio, Lisbon is definitely a cosmopolitan city!
The Alfama district is Lisbon’s most typical, with its cobbled streets, its 28E Tramway, the washing in the windows… We really enjoyed getting lost in its narrow streets and admiring the streets from the belvederes. A must-see during your stay in Lisbon!
The Castelo de San Jorge is one of Lisbon’s highest monuments. If you wish to visit it, we advise you to go fairly early in the morning. Its visit lasts between 1 and 2 hours and costs €10 per person.
This belvedere is one of Lisbon’s finest for admiring the sunset. The setting is magnificent, with its bougainvillea and charismatic architecture. It’s impossible to visit Lisbon without admiring a sunset here! 😍
We decided to take a trip to Sintra, a town located 1 hour by train from Lisbon or 30 minutes by car. Sintra is known for its beautiful parks and numerous castles and palaces.
This palace is the highest in the town of Sintra. Its enchanting appearance will make you feel like you’re in Disneyland! We loved this palace for its typical 19th-century Romantic architecture and bright colors. We were lucky enough to discover it without any tourists (during Covid-19), but it seems to be really crowded in normal times.
We therefore advise you to get there early in the morning to enjoy the peace and quiet. We chose to take the “Park and Exteriors” ticket as we wanted to discover the outdoor parts and the many alleys of the Park without visiting the inside of the Palace.
Peña Park is incredible! We were impressed by the size of this verdant park, you have enough to walk around for hours, or even a whole day. You can walk up to the Cruz Alta, a cross at the highest point of the mountain, 540 meters high. From this cross, you’ll have a great view of the Peña Palace.
The Quintra da Regaleira, an architectural ensemble that forms a large park, can be visited in just a few hours and is well worth a detour, particularly for its hidden caves and huge, photogenic well. We’d heard a lot about this place, but we didn’t quite fall in love with it. Perhaps also because we’d just had our fill of Peña Park.
To find the best mode of transport (plane, train, bus) to get to your destination, we advise you to always look on the OMIO comparator. This will give you an overview of all the modes of transport available for your destination, and make it very easy to compare prices.
If you’re looking to rent a car during your trip, we recommend looking on the RentalCars website. This will help you find the best prices and conditions for your rental.
In order to find the best hotels and benefit from the best conditions (security, cancellation…) we go almost exclusively through Booking.com for our trips. We recommend that you take a look at the available hotels and filter them according to their ratings. There are plenty of recent customer reviews, so there are no nasty surprises when you’re traveling!
If you want to get ideas for activities to do on your vacation and want to book in advance, we’d also recommend taking a look at the GetYourGuide site. This will give you an overview of the activities on offer in your destination, so you don’t have to wait until you get there to book your places.
Lisbon is a very interesting destination, especially for French tourists, as it remains very affordable and easy to get to (2 hours by plane from Paris). We advise you (as usual) to discover this destination out of season, to avoid the large number of tourists. The city is particularly pleasant in May/June or September/October.
For our part, we headed out to celebrate New Year’s Eve and explore the city in the first week of January. Although the weather was a little chilly, we were able to enjoy good conditions, with beautiful sunny spells throughout our stay. In our opinion, Lisbon is one of the few pleasant destinations to visit all year round!
We made the choice to go celebrate New Year’s Eve with friends in Lisbon. We were looking for an address where to spend the first part of the evening. During our research (mainly on The Fork), we found that the prices charged for this evening were really excessive. It was hard to find a nice place for less than 200€ per person…
We ended up dining at Terraço Editorial, a rooftop restaurant with a large outdoor terrace. We dined very well for a very reasonable price (less than 200€ for 4 people) and the atmosphere was pleasant. On the other hand, we wouldn’t recommend the cocktails, which weren’t exceptional.
There are also (outside the Covid-19 period) a number of services available to celebrate New Year’s Eve in Lisbon, such as boat dinners on the Tagus to admire the many fireworks displays.
Like us, you’ll no doubt be surprised to discover that at midnight on December 31st, the Portuguese launch a huge number of fireworks themselves! The result: a sky lit up on all sides and a joyous concert to admire from your windows.
When we arrived in Lisbon, we bought an unlimited metro card for €6 for 24 hours. The metro is very fluid and in good condition. But then we started looking at VTC prices on apps like Uber and Bolt and realized that prices were very low! Expect to pay between €2.50 and €4 for a 15-minute ride… So we used this means of transport for the rest of our stay in Lisbon. It’s the ideal way to get from one point to another, as far away as the Belem Tower, for example.
Bear in mind, too, that the city is very hilly! Taking a VTC for a short but very hilly distance is therefore a perfect solution for saving time and energy during your stay in Lisbon.
We hope the tips and good addresses on our travel blog will help you plan your stay in Lisbon!
You can also follow our daily adventures on Instagram 🙂
Clem & Alex
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