Abrigado Lisbon.
One of my on-going lifelong dreams is to travel with my family. Our trip to Portugal started out as an idea for a sister trip and we got our parents as bonus!! We chose Portugal - at first because I found a flight I could book us on points over peak dates (26 Dec- 4 Jan) and then as we kept researching and putting shape around the itinerary, it felt so right because the country could cater to all of our interests. My personal motivation was to take the girls to Europe and have them experience the lifestyle differences - I wanted a country that would be as inexpensive as possible, offer some kind of water activity and city life. The other bonus for us as a family was Fatima - and visiting this very holy place where Mary appeared to children on top of a hill.
In reflection upon this trip, I’d say we kept the itinerary pretty flexible. We did not reserve too many things in advance and sort of just wrote down things we wanted to do but did not constrain ourselves to much to being at a specific place at a specific time. I think some trips are more enjoyable with this type of flow, especially if its more than a few people. - Kinda want to give everyone their space to just wake up when they want and do the things that feel good on their own time.
Here are my tips, what we did and what I’d do differently if I had the opportunity to go back:
1. Our full Itinerary included staying at 4 hotels and 3 different cities. - so we did a lot of moving around. Biggest tip is when traveling to Europe, pack in a carry on. Because we were 5- we had to to fit everything into the trunk of a car. I rented a VW-Tiguan and I don’t think there were any larger options offered. I do think that I looked at the trunk space measurements of this vehicle on more than one occasion to ensure it would fit our suitcase lol (Not me threatening @Chloe that she’s going to have to tie her suitcase to the roof)
2. Rent a car - I say this because If you stay in Lisbon I highly suggest you tour the Sintra Palace. Now, there are a lot of tours that will take you out there (1h20min drive) but you’d end up all day on a big tour bus. I’m sure this is a great experience if you’re looking for the most convenient option, but for me it just feels nicer to do things on my own time. Most of the roads we drove in Portugal are large highways and it only really gets dicey in the cities, Lisbon/Porto but its very do-able.
3. Book a Food Tour- We did this on our first full day and it was a fantastic way to walk the city, eat new things we’ve never tried before and also have the comfort of someone leading us around their city. Our guide was Anna - she was so enthusiastic about her city and had a genuine warmth of hospitality. Making sure to tell us many times to ‘feel free to text her anytime in Lisbon for questions’.
How we spent all our time in Lisbon
26 Dec 2022:
4:10PM: We boarded our plan and were on our way with a stop over in Paris. *I’m pretty sure our layover time was around 1h10m, but it felt extremely close transiting through CDG. - Charles DeGaulle.
27 Dec 2022:
2:00PM: We landed in Lisbon, waiting for an Uber to collect us and take us to our Airbnb. (Linked Here) - I really liked this spot. The host left nice notes, and the patio was cute. The location was also great because we could walk everywhere.
5PM: We walked to the main section of the city (lots of shopping, restaurants and people out and about)
At Sunset we were at this beautiful hotel called Memo Principe Real, that had an amazing view overlooking the city.
7PM: At at a deeeelicious piazza place recommended by our hosts
Early night in after traveling.
28 Dec 2022:
11AM: Met with Anna for our food tour! - My favorite stops were probably the first and last.
Cervejaria O Trevo- a great spot to get a beefana and a beer. Anthony Bourdain Endorsed! (I think that would total to like 5 Euro)
Casa da Índia
Traditional Portuguese food - Felt very local, I don’t think I would have had the courage to step inside there on my own. We were the only non-locals, had to order at the counter and it was packed out! We tried a lightly fried Sardine here - even though it wasn’t a prime month, it was still fun!
Dessert was just around the corner - the famous, egg custard - pasteis de nata. So light and perfectly sweet.
3PM: We walked around and shopped a little. - *Always go into the stores we have home (Zara) - you can find such amazing things but on trend with the European styles so you could find some gems! I love to do this and see parallels in styles..
10PM: Drinks: we went to super nice place for drinks, mainly to take cute pics LOOOL then kinda struggled to find a dinner place open because it was late at this point.. (Whoops)
29 Dec 2022:
10AM: Everyone woke up and we met up in a central spot that was near Tram28. This is the cute old school yellow train you’ll see in so many photos if you google ‘what to do in Lisbon’. We boarded it and just went for a ride hahaha it was fun and confusing and packed. I’ll never forget the sounds it made when it would whip around corners and then come to a stop. Also we just kinda got off the tram wherever we were like “ok this looks good” and walked around a plaza. -No regrets on this, but if you’re not fun and free and this stresses you out then the night before plan it.
Afternoon: Castelo De Sao Jorge. - I had no expectations, I think we decided to do this because we happened to be near by. It was a GREAT view of the city, a lot of this castle was open and mainly just the walls remaining but it was still cool to see and walk through. They also had Peacock’s roaming around which was cool!!
Dinner: JNcQuoi: This is another really trendy spot, bathroom is prime for photos and it was nice to get dressed up and enjoy a fancy dinner. There was even a marriage proposal next to our table - which was so cute. I wanted to clap and cheer and say congrats but held back.
30 Dec 2022:
This concluded our time in Lisbon -we headed out to our next city, Ericeria (to Surf) and stopped at Sintra Along the way.
12PM Sintra is a beauuuutiful, yellow and red colored castle that you might have seen in photos before its a *MUST Do. Its offers a very large area to explore and could easily take up 4 hours.
Tip: Book your space to enter ahead of time because they’re pretty limited on timing and you would have to wait in a long line if you don’t do this - we kind of had to finesse getting in. (Not us sneaking into the castle because our timed entry passed like an hour ago) The inside section has different chambers, meeting spaces, dining areas and so many works of art on display. If you can- I’d say getting someone to guide you here would be worth it, it really puts color around the things you get to see inside. I’m pretty sure the first Maison Pearson brush was on display but could be wrong lol
TiP: Allow yourself about 40 minutes to figure out how to park. There are some spaces at the top, some along a winding road, and very limited number of spots right next to the castle.
Until Next Week
Xx