Always A Fantastic Vibe In Lisbon

Welcome to a city of colour. Welcome to Lisbon. Today’s episode of the Kated travel podcast is in the Portuguese capital, a fascinating city and a great travel destination in these times of COVID. There’ve been very few cases there, and there’s always, always a fantastic vibe in Lisbon. The only time there’s not a fantastic vibe is when Portugal have lost at football. But the World Cup is a long way away, the Euros are a long way away, so let’s take a journey into Lisbon.

A city that is built on a river — a river inlet from the Atlantic ocean — and that is built on a series of hills. A city with an immense history that is very much changing into a vibrant youthful present. Whenever I have visited Lisbon, I have felt 15 years younger than I am. It is such a youthful city. There is so much energy on the streets. There is so much colour in the form of azulejo tiles, in the form of graffiti, even the tram, even the old trams that go past, they just seem so youthful, the way the conductor tinkles the bell as they go by.

Lisbon’s one of those cities that has an infectious energy that carries you away. When I visited, it certainly carried me away. Maybe i t’s because it’s by the water. You know, places by the water are always quite youthful. A capital city as well — a lot of capital cities can be quite youthful. But maybe it’s just Lisbon’s unique appeal.

Of course, Lisbon has attractions. You can go there for a city trip. You can see beautiful places. Absolutely no doubts that you will see incredible places like Belém, like the Belém Tower, the monastery in Belém, the Manueline art, which is very unique in Europe — it’s a mix of Gothic, Renaissance, different European styles that were imported to Portugal.

You can go to Sintra, you can explore the old Moorish palaces in Sintra. You can cruise on the Tagus river. You can do a lot of traditional sight-seeing like Lisbon Jewish heritage. Some of the art galleries, like the Gulbenkian Museum.

See A Lot In Little Time

But for me, Lisbon is more of one of those cities where it’s great just to get lost. It’s great to go out with or without a guide and just explore. It’s a city that is alive in its individual bairros, in its individual neighborhoods, a city that has all these local secrets. So if you don’t go out with a guide and you just go get lost during the day, make sure you do have a guide to get you a dinner reservation or plan something in a neighborhood you haven’t heard of. Because there’s so much beyond the main kind of tourist centre. The main tourist centre is kind of Lisbon light, what you need to do.

What I really enjoyed doing was just wandering and exploring on the hills, seeing what existed, just soaking up its color, stopping to have an espresso every two hours. Cause that seems to be what people in Lisbon like to do, eating a pastel de nata every two hours — pastel de nata is a little custard pastry treat. Absolutely beautiful and originates in Lisbon. The original place is in Belém. And it lives up to its long queues.

And if you don’t have that much time to spend in Lisbon — okay, you go into Lisbon, you only have a couple of days. Okay, still great. How can you get — how can you really see a lot of it? The tram is a great way to do that, because the tram travels through these intimate old neighborhoods. There is a route, quite a famous route, tram 28. And you can just go on the normal tram and it connects different neighborhoods. Baixa, Alfama, Graça, Bairro Alto, Chiado, Estrela.

A lot of those are along the tram 28 route. And if you want to do something really exclusive, very private, more luxurious, you can have a completely private Lisbon tram ride on a route and itinerary that is customized to where you want to go. So of course, all the tram lines are connected. So you can go on one of the traditional yellow trams, but it will be a private carriage, private tram. You’ll go down the narrow alleys, on the steep streets.

On The Tram, You Go Where You Want 

You’ll go past the cathedral, past the castle, through the whitewashed neighborhoods. You’ll go down and up and down and up, to all these famous places, but a completely private experience in the city. And so there are Portuguese travel designers who can arrange that for you. So you can just travel around where you want to go, based on how much time you have.

So if you have a week in Lisbon, brilliant, spend a week, go out, get lost, don’t take a map. Get a guide, get a travel designer, to just book the things that — you know, if you don’t like going with a guide, not many people, not everyone likes going out with a guide all day — but use an expert to book the places for you. Use an expert who knows, okay, I’ll book you a table for the best fado performance. So you can experience local fado. I’ll book you restaurants, where you can have the best food for 12 euros. Instead of going out in the middle of the city where you’ll get the same dish and it will be half as good. And it will cost five times more.

You know, that’s the advantage of using a local travel designer. Somebody who really knows the place. Wine tasting, palaces, golf, cathedrals — so many different things that are possible. Hiking, trips to nearby towns. So if you’ve got a week, if you’ve got five days, great, you can do all that. And if you only have one or two days in Lisbon — you are just doing a short layover, maybe you only have four hours, you are changing planes — you can still get in touch with a local travel designer, because you can be on a tram, you can go through the city, you can appreciate its colors, its nuances is variety — and you can travel different.