A Weekend in Lisbon

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Have you been to Lisbon? Wow, honestly — what a wonderful place, lovely people and absolutely fantastic food. It is not without reason that Lisbon is on the list of Europe’s most popular cities.

One of the things that struck me most when we arrived was their English — goodness, they speak perfect English, almost everywhere. Not that it matters as such, but it does help you avoid a fair few misunderstandings when you don’t speak their language yourself 😉

In any case, here is a little inspiration for both things to do and, mostly, food — in case you are considering a trip to Lisbon.

Jes and I took a weekend trip to Lisbon on the last weekend of August — no children, just the two of us — and it was lovely.
The weather was glorious, though that is typical for the time of year, and we really enjoyed it.

Hotels in Lisbon

We stayed at The Lumimeers boutique Hotel & Spa, in the heart of the Bairro Alto district. An incredibly beautiful hotel with large, spacious apartments, a wonderfully calm style and, not least, a fantastic restaurant on the roof — with views over the whole city.

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City life in Lisbon

And when I say calm — well, I should probably admit that we got a bit of a shock when, after dinner on the first evening, we wanted to take a stroll down into the streets and find a cosy café/bar for an evening drink. Calm it certainly was not 😉 Up at the restaurant you couldn’t hear the noise from the streets, and now we found ourselves right in the middle of the liveliest party district of them all, packed with loud music and an awful lot of people everywhere. Not what we had expected given the hotel’s location, but it was a fun experience all the same. 

We popped into a bar nearby, Arroz Doce Bar — cheap cocktails, great service and a really nice spot for drinks and live music, although the live music had been shut down because of Covid restrictions, and dancing wasn’t allowed either, so we stayed put in our seats. The waiter also served us a couple of free shots, perhaps he thought we looked tired — in any case, they were espresso and vodka, 50/50, and they come warmly recommended 😉

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The food in Lisbon

On a great many holidays we have been caught in the typical “tourist traps”: the menu looks good, the staff seem nice, but the food just isn’t worth sinking your teeth into.
That has happened incredibly rarely since we started using Tripadvisor every time we eat out. As a rule we look for places with a rating of at least 4.5 out of 5 — and usually restaurants in the 3-4 $ price bracket, which is still very cheap in Lisbon.

We really did eat at some fantastic places (thanks to Tripadvisor), and those are the places I know you would like to hear more about, so read on below 🙂

Lumi Rooftop Bar and Restaurant

This was the restaurant at the hotel — we had dinner there on the first evening, and we also had breakfast up there both mornings.
Wonderfully cosy, lovely background music and the most beautiful view over the city, with the water in the distance.

We ordered 5 different tapas dishes — the waiter was kind enough to tell us that we should probably stop at 5, as that would undoubtedly be plenty. We had actually spotted 2-3 more we wanted, but it’s great that they tell you, instead of just selling — and that was the case everywhere we ate.

The dishes tasted lovely, and at thoroughly fair prices — between 7-16 EUR per dish. They were served in 2 rounds, and the kitchen made sure to serve them in the combinations that go best together.
I must also recommend trying their Porto Sour, which we were given as a welcome drink, and my, it was good. 

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M’Arrecreo

On Saturday we had lunch at M’Arrecreo, a lovely Italian restaurant with a pleasantly compact menu. The restaurant is below the hotel — and it should be said that it gets pretty lively there in the evening too.
They have a small selection of mixed antipasti and salads — and then the best pizzas in the world, or at least the best restaurant pizzas I have ever tasted. A pizza is around 14 EUR, soft drinks 2 EUR and drinks and wine 5 EUR. Again, thoroughly fair prices for such good food, and well worth a visit.

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Tapa Bucho

On Saturday evening we went to Tapa Bucho — or rather, we called quite late to book a table and EVERYTHING was fully booked, as it was at several other places, by the way. So a tip is to book your table in good time, preferably 1 day ahead at the popular restaurants — at least in high season.

Anyway, they said we could try popping our heads in, in case some guests finished early or someone didn’t turn up. We went over at around 21.30 — people generally eat quite late, which is wonderful, perhaps especially without children 😉 All restaurants open at around 19.00, though. The restaurant was only a couple of hundred metres from the hotel, so we dropped by and saw that there were already several people queuing — some who had booked and another group who, like us, hadn’t. We waited for about 10 minutes, and then we were lucky enough to get a table on their roof terrace — it couldn’t have been better. You could certainly hear the noise from the streets up there, but it was really cosy and not at all overwhelming. A simple, compact menu, really friendly service and once again truly fair prices — tapas dishes are 5-10 EUR.
Here too they were kind enough to tell us to order a maximum of 4-5 dishes — and the food was superb. Almost everywhere serves oxtail croquettes, and I’m telling you, they are good — we always started with them at every meal in the tapas restaurants.

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Tapisco

On Sunday, before heading home, we just managed a lunch at this lovely restaurant from the Michelin guide. Here too we were lucky to get a seat, even though it was well booked up. We got a seat at the “counter” facing the kitchen — all the other seats were booked. Normally I’m not a huge fan of sitting on a high stool watching the kitchen, but it was really enjoyable. The restaurant has a cosy “diner feel”, and it was great fun to sit and follow the 3 chefs in the kitchen; they were completely on top of things.

We ordered 5 tapas dishes, even though she recommended stopping at 4 — we probably should have taken her advice 😉 Really good food; the prices here are a little above the other restaurants, especially if you go for meat or shellfish — those dishes were generally 20-35 EUR. Other tapas dishes were between 7-14 EUR. Superb food, really friendly service and simply a lovely atmosphere.

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Getting around in Lisbon

The city is full of trams — and it really is very hilly, up and down all the time. We chose to walk, though; otherwise a guided tuk-tuk tour comes highly recommended — their tuk-tuks are of a rather different standard from the ones in Thailand, so you actually sit comfortably in them, by the look of it.
I can also highly recommend Uber. When we arrived we took an ordinary taxi to the hotel. He drove terribly, and the trip cost 25 EUR. We took the same trip back to the airport, but in an Uber, which cost 16 EUR, and that was even in their “black” version with more luxurious cars. It was the only one available at the time, but I would guess an ordinary one would have cost between 12-13 EUR.

We mostly use Uber when we are abroad; the drivers simply drive more calmly, so you don’t have to sit there fearing for your life 😉

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Sights in Lisbon

Castelo de São Jorge

In reality we only had 1 full day in Lisbon — and that was Saturday. We spent the day on some long walks, including some very hard climbs up and down the hills. From the hotel we walked down around the harbour area — which wasn’t really all that exciting — but from there we headed towards Castelo de São.
Castelo de São Jorge caught our eye on the very first evening, we could see it from our hotel, and it definitely had to be visited. The walk up was really steep, with nice paths to walk on — but it was really hard going, especially with the sun on our backs.
The streets on the way up were wonderfully charming, beautiful surroundings and simply a lovely calm atmosphere — we actually wondered why we didn’t come across any hotels, it was a gorgeous area. Perhaps we didn’t look properly 😉 There are several small cafés and restaurants on the way up, though, which is nice when your legs need a rest.
Castelo de São Jorge is well worth a visit — and so is the walk up the hill. The most beautiful panoramic view of the city — just wow. The outdoor grounds were indescribably beautiful, rustic and authentic. You can climb right up to the highest parts of the ruins — but you had better not suffer from vertigo, I can tell you that much.
Entry costs 10 EUR — and a guided tour of the castle is included in that price. We stayed in the outdoor areas, though, but another time we will definitely go up there again, and take the tour inside too.

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Photos from Lisbon

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Our verdict on Lisbon

We were really pleasantly surprised by Lisbon — a fantastic city, at least what we managed to see of it, and simply wonderfully kind people, beautiful areas and really good food.
The streets where we stayed are definitely not suited to stilettos and finer shoes — the stones are slippery and the paving very rustic, so bring some proper footwear, and save the stilettos for the restaurant at the hotel where you don’t have to set foot outside 😉
We are certainly not done with Lisbon, and I’m already looking forward to going back one day — and next time we’ll bring the girls.