Lisbon travel guides & articles
All 44 in-depth pieces we’ve published on Lisbon — newest first.
Tours & tickets
Climbing to Lisbon's Castelo de São Jorge Without the Queue
The queue at the castle gate is about when you turn up, not how you bought the ticket. Here is the route up the hill, the hour to arrive, and what the €17 buys you.
Tours & tickets
Sintra in One Day from Lisbon Without Rushing the Hill
One day in the Sintra hills from Lisbon, walked at a calm pace: which two monuments to pick, what each climb costs you in minutes, and how the timed slots work.
Four Nights in Lisbon on Trams, Trains and Ferries
A calm, walkable four-night plan for Lisbon built entirely on tram 28, the Cais do Sodré ferry and the Sintra line. The timed slots, door realities and hill warnings are all written down.
The City in Blue and White: Lisbon's Azulejo Trail Through Five Centuries
A calm, walkable route through Lisbon's tiled facades, monasteries, beer halls and working workshops — five centuries of azulejos, honestly mapped, from the Benfica palace to the studio where you glaze your own.
Campo de Ourique Is Where Lisbon Eats at Home
A plateau neighbourhood with 1923 tascas, a market hall that runs until one in the morning and two gardens that do the work of a living room. This is what I order and what it costs.
Where to Stay in Lisbon Without Fighting the Hills
Fifteen honest Lisbon addresses, graded by how much hill stands between you and bed, starting at a €35 dorm bed and ending in a palace garden.
What a Ride From Lisbon Airport Should Cost
The metro is €1.92, the meter is regulated, and the apps hide their pickup point in a car park. This is what every way out of Lisbon Airport costs in 2026, and where first arrivals lose money.
The Best Rooftop Bars in Lisbon
Where to actually drink above the river in 2026 — sorted by the night you're planning, and honest about the queues, doors and seasons.
How to Walk Lisbon's Mouraria After Dark
A street-by-street night walk on the most layered hill in Lisbon: a rooftop above a shabby shopping centre, Mozambican ribs, fado in the house that made it, and a gig room that runs to 04:00.
How I Spend a Rainy October Day in Lisbon
October in Lisbon is warm, wet and getting shorter by the week. Here is where I actually go when the rain lands, with prices, closing days and the two big museums you can't count on this year.
Slow Lisbon Days, Seafood Lunches and Easy October Escapes
How I spend October in Lisbon: long shellfish lunches, two museums for the wet afternoons, and three train rides out that beat any packed itinerary.
The Tasca Table: Lisbon's Tiny Taverns That Still Feed the City
The tascas still cooking for Lisbon first — which to book, which to queue for, and which can actually seat your whole table.
The Flat Atlantic Day Trip from Lisbon to Cascais
A half-hour train from Lisbon buys you three kilometres of level seafront, four small museums, a wind-hammered surf beach and shellfish sold by the kilo. This is how to order the day.
Lisbon Without a Rental Car, Line by Line
The metro, four tram routes, two railways, a ferry and the two lifts still running cover every corner of Lisbon and both day trips. Here is how to use them, what each ride costs, and when to give up and call a car.
Lisbon's Oldest Conversation With Itself
A calm, honest walk through Lisbon's fado rooms — which houses suit a first-timer, which suit two, and which you should never bring a group of ten to.
Lisbon Kiosk Evenings From the Viewpoints to the River
Fifteen iron pavilions with cold beer, no bookings and closing times that vary wildly, strung into one easy Lisbon evening.
Graça on Foot for Lisbon's Highest Views, Gardens and Lunch
Three free terraces, a garden you can climb without stairs, and lunch on the largo for €15: how to spend a day on Lisbon's highest central hill.
Your First Time in Lisbon Without the Queues
A first-trip plan built on the quieter half of Lisbon: rooftop viewpoints you can stand still in, tascas at local prices, and the walks, ferries and closing days that make them work.
The Factory Under the Bridge: Lisbon's LX Factory and the Creative Quarter That Refused to Quit
Under Lisbon's great red bridge, a nineteenth-century printing complex became the city's creative heart — here's how I spend an afternoon in it, told by a writer who won't praise a kitchen she hasn't eaten at twice.
The Viewpoint Ritual: Lisbon's Sunset Miradouros and the City at Its Feet
A calm, walkable plan for catching Lisbon's evening light — from the free hilltop terraces to the rooftops that genuinely face the sun, and the boat that beats all of them.
Walking the Grid the 1755 Earthquake Left in Lisbon
One November morning flattened the lower town, and the city drawn in its place is still legible on foot. This walk reads it with you, stop by stop.
Christmas in Lisbon 2026: Wonderland Lisboa, City Lights and New Year's Eve
The Baixa lights are free, the Ferris wheel in Parque Eduardo VII is €6, the ballet plays through Boxing Day and there is a fado night on New Year's Eve. Every 2026 date and price is here.
Walking Lisbon's Avenida da Liberdade and Marquês de Pombal
A 1.1km climb up Lisbon's wide central boulevard, from the Restauradores obelisk to the park at the top, past shellfish counters, tiled palaces and rooftops.
Lisbon Marathon Weekend Along the Tagus
How to plan the two days around the EDP Lisbon Marathon on 10 October 2026: bib collection at FIL, and the flat riverfront that carries you to the finish.
Custard Tart Crawl: Lisbon's Pastel de Nata Pilgrimage
A bakery-by-bakery route through Lisbon's rival pastel de nata camps, from the monastery counter in Belém to the neighbourhood café that keeps winning the contest nobody's heard of.
The Oceanário and a Flat Tagus Walk in Eastern Lisbon
One long stretch of Lisbon has no hill in it. Time your aquarium slot right, take the cable car one way, and finish the day in Marvila's beer halls.
Lisbon in June: Sardines, Saints and a City on Fire
Every June, Alfama turns its doorways into grills, the Avenida into a parade route and the cathedral steps into a mass wedding — here's how to actually eat, watch and survive Santo António's festival season in 2026.
Grilled Fish and Cold Atlantic in Ericeira, an Hour from Lisbon
I do this one as a day trip up the coast from Lisbon: boats hauled up on the sand, beaches you can actually swim at, and the fish kitchens I keep going back to.
Tours & tickets
Lisbon's Roofless Carmo Convent on a September Afternoon
The 1755 earthquake took the ceiling off this Chiado church and nobody put it back. How to walk it in September 2026, what the €7 buys, and where to go when it shuts.
Walking Lisbon After the Sights Are Done
Six walks through Campo de Ourique, Graça, Alvalade, Marvila and across the river, with the distances, the opening hours, the prices and a warning before each climb.
Tours & tickets
September Mornings in Lisbon's Largo do Carmo
A roofless convent, the barracks where a dictatorship ended, and a free terrace over Chiado, all within 300 metres. Get there before the square fills.
Tours & tickets
Lisbon's Church of St. Anthony on a September Morning
The church is free and takes twenty minutes, the museum next door costs €3 and explains it, and the walk around both stays flat until the Alfama hill starts.
The Sintra escape: how to dodge the crowds and find the palace's secret corners
A timing-first route through Sintra's palaces and gardens - when to book, which sites the coach tours skip entirely, and where to go once the crowds have moved on.
Slow Lunches and Old Trams in Lisbon's Lapa and Estrela
A downhill day through two quiet residential districts of Lisbon, following a small tram line to a convent and a lunch nobody rushes.
How to walk Lisbon's Mouraria from Martim Moniz to Graça
You start at the Martim Moniz counters and finish in the 20-seat room where fado began, in the quarter under Lisbon's castle walls.
Where to eat, drink and look out in Graça, Lisbon
Lisbon's highest viewpoint, a workers' lane from 1902, two market days a week, and a tasca where the fado is sung by whoever turns up.
Campo de Ourique, Lisbon's market and tasca district
In Lisbon's Campo de Ourique: market hours, the tascas worth booking, Pessoa's last address and the one high terrace in walking range.
Riding Tram 28 Through Lisbon's Prettiest Traffic Jam
Lisbon's Tram 28 rattles from a Graça viewpoint to a Campo de Ourique cemetery gate past cathedrals, fado's birthplace and the city's oldest bakery — here's how to ride it properly, block by block, without pretending the crowds aren't part of the story.
Parque das Nações, Lisbon's Expo riverfront on foot
Walk Lisbon's Expo riverfront end to end, with a timed slot at the Oceanário, charcoal-grilled fish on Rua da Pimenta and a casino open until 03:00.
Walking Cais do Sodré, Lisbon's riverside bar quarter
Time Out Market, the pink pavement of Rua Nova do Carvalho and two dock warehouses that run until 06:00, walked in the order they open.
Walking São Vicente, the Lisbon hill above the Tagus
A flea market, two royal pantheons, the city's highest viewpoint and the small kitchens you have to book weeks ahead.
Walking Alcântara under Lisbon's 25 de Abril Bridge
A walking route through Lisbon's bridge-side district: it starts inside a hollow concrete pillar and ends with charcoal-grilled fish at the container docks.
Estrela, the Lisbon neighbourhood around the basilica
A church built on a vow, with a dome you can climb, the garden that gave the district its name, and the one Portuguese state building here you can book your way into.
Walking Arroios and Intendente in Lisbon
Walk Arroios and Intendente in Lisbon in order, past an 1865 tiled façade and an ex-voto shrine, stopping for cachupa and curry, ending at a kiosk miradouro.