10 things to do in Lisbon, Portugal

Lisbon is a wonderful river planted city, full of light and with a small city center that can offers you a pleasant time. The smallest the city center is, bigger are the opportunities to discover everything in your own rhythm! With her seven hills, neighborhoods composed by narrow streets, old buildings that seemed to lost the color but never the history, you have thousands of things to experiment… just let your senses choose it!

 I’ll try to put in a list the 10 things to do in Lisbon, but… have your time!… And welcome to the city of the Fado, the sea and the “saudade”!

Lisbon

1 – Observe the entire city from the top of the hill of the city castle “Castelo de S. Jorge”. You have to pay the entry but you can learn a little about the city history and the view is definitely worthwhile.

View to Castelo de S. Jorge

2 – Drink a cold beer in one of the most belvederes that the city offers. You can choose if you want to have a view for the city (S. Pedro de Alcântara), for one or another hill (Santa Lúzia, Graça, Nossa Senhora do Monte) or for the Tagus river and the south margin(Santa Catarina, best known as Adamastor).

3 – Read a book in the esplanade of the Brasileira and observe the people around you.

Brasileira is one of the oldest and most famous cafés in Lisbon.Located in the center, so you can enjoy the life and the city movement. The epic Portuguese writer, Fernando Pessoa, (1888 -1935, Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic and translator) used to gather here with other writers to discuss ideas or spend his afternoons, so you can take a photo with his immortalized statue that is seated in the outside tables.

4 – Drink a Ginginha in the Rossio square. 

Ginginha is the typical drink in Lisbon, Alcobaça and Óbidos. You can enjoy this liqueur made by infusing ginja berries in aguardente with sugar together and other ingredients, and drink it in a small glass outside. You can taste slowly this sweet drink while you taste also the bustling environment of Rossio.

5 – Get lost in the old neighborhoods streets, as Bica, Alfama, and Mouraria. The tiny and labyrinthic streets can offer you a lot of small details, while you are offered a magnificent view to the Tagus River. And maybe you can find someone who can talk with and tells you a little about his history.

Bica

           

6 – Go to Bairro Alto at the end of the day, and observe the rising of the night.

It’s interesting to see the day life of one of the most known Lisbon neighborhoods. Full of little conventional stores and local trade, when the night comes, the restaurants seem to gain life, you can feel the smell of food and see the tables to eat outside. There are also good restaurants to eat while you listen alive the traditional Portuguese music, fado. As the night progresses this neighborhood fulfills of people that come to drink a beer or a cocktail in one of the many bars. Usually people drink in the street while are talking and meeting friends. Some streets can be very full during Thursday, Friday and Saturday’s nights. Here always begins the city night.

7 – Catch the 28 yellow tram.

This legendary “eléctrico 28” gets you closer to the mainly attractions, and it’s very cheap to do this tour! There are many expensive tours on sightseeing  buses, but a ride in this one will make you feel the city and breath a little of its life!

8 - Go to the Oceanarium, designed by Peter Chermayeff, and see the large collection of marine species — birds, mammals, fish, cnidarians, and other marine organisms totalling about 16,000 individuals of 450 species.  It’s located in Parque das Nações, the area that was chosen as the location for the Expo '98 World Exhibition. You can walk and discover the many interest points of this new architecture example area.

Parque das Nações

9 – Eat Pastéis de Belém and take a journey into the Discoveries time.

Belém is a wonderful place, with a lot of monuments of the Portuguese discoveries time, such as the Tower of Belém, the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos, and more recently the Lisbon cultural centre with a lot of good art exhibitions. It’s not very far from the Lisbon’s centre, and is where you can eat the delicious pastéis de nata, a Portuguese egg tart pastry. These pastéis can be found for all Lisbon, but I am pretty sure that you’ll eat this ones warm out of the oven and sprinkled with the cinnamon and powdered sugar, and you’ll never forget them!

10 – Take a day to go surf, bodyboard or do kytesurf.

There are a lot of beaches near Lisbon, you can go to Guincho or to Caparica, which are very good for the practice and to take a one day lesson. At the end of the day, you’ll be presented with a very nice sunset on the ocean. It’s definitely one of the things you must do if you come right to the European capital that kisses the Atlantic!

Note: If you come to Lisbon during the 13^th of June, you can also experiment the crazy Santos night. From the 12^th to the 13^th of June, the entire city comes to the street to celebrate its patron, the Santo António. You can see the colorful popular marches, eat sardine in the bread, drink wine and dance in all the city center streets! The city is full of life in that night, it’s easy to talk with everyone, discover new places, and listen to our traditional music.