Lisbon, Portugal

I didn’t expect Lisbon to become one of my favorite cities when I visited, but after exploring the city by foot, trying authentic Portuguese food, sitting by the water with good friends and getting a taste of their nightlife; that’s exactly what happened.

I went with practically no research and 0 expectations. I wouldn’t always recommend doing that, but this somehow made my trip even better. I went sort of on a whim because Yara knew someone there, and I was not disappointed. We both quickly fell in love with the city. When Yara said she was coming to visit me in Paris, we knew we wanted to go visit a new city –and that was my only requirement: that it be somewhere I haven’t been before. So, she chose Lisbon.

In the end, my flight back to Paris got cancelled. Needless to say, I wasn’t so disappointed… especially since Air France paid for the extra 24 hours I got in Lisbon, meaning any hotel I picked, food for the night, and cabs to and from the airport. So I picked a hotel called the Feeling Chiado, and though I never give hotel recs (I rarely stay in them,) I have got to give this place it’s own special shout out.

First of all, without the Feeling Chiado, I would have never had the chance to explore the Chiado neighborhood, which would have been a shame. Don’t make this mistake! Chiado is a neighborhood on top of one of the 7 hills in Lisbon… which means my fancy-schmancy hotel room’s balcony had an incredible view.

I say it was fancy-schmancy, but really it was only about 100 euros a night… not bad for a super nice hotel, but of course it would be relatively attainable in Lisbon. The hotel was more like an incredible apartment.  They even did a complimentary breakfast in the morning… which was more filling than the traditional European complimentary breakfast you’d expect: they ask you how you like your eggs, and they make them for you. You can choose from gains, cereals, meats, cheeses, coffee, tea…. they had it all. The only downside (if you consider this a downside,) was that there was no elevator to get up, so I had to walk up about 5 flights to get to the hotel’s entrance.

Service of the hotel staff was super friendly, my receptionist waited for me at the door to hand me my key. But, enough about that. Here are my recommendations for Lisbon.

Food:

• Lisbon is known for their seafood. I had bacalhau– which is essentially dry and salted cod. It was delicious. Mine came with potatoes and veggies. I don’t have a restaurant recommendation for this so much as I just recommend you try it during your visit in Portugal. As usual, I highly recommend that people who do not have diet restrictions always try the food that the country they are visiting is known for.
• If you’re into vegan food like me, I ate at a vegan buffet called Jardim das Cerejas in the Chiado neighborhood that was absolutely incredible. All you can eat vegan food, and like everything else in Lisbon, so reasonably priced.

Nightlife: I fell completely in love with a bar/club with awesome decor called Pensão Amor. They play all different kinds of music, but the night I went they were playing 90s/early 2000s R&B and hip hop… which is right up my alley.

Tips:

• You absolutely need to take a ride around the city on the tram. There may be a bit of a long line, but it’s completely worth it. You go all over the city for cheap… it’s a fun way to see everything. We weren’t even intending to go anywhere in particular, just to see the city.

• • the tile museum is the only thing I would say you can skip. Though it was cool (and free for us, we went on the 1 free museum day a year on accident!) the entire city is a tile museum, really. It’s not really necessary to go to the museum.

• Everything in Lisbon is inexpensive. It’s insane. You don’t have to budget much at all for a trip to Lisbon. We got beers for 2 euros on the Graca hill, which was wonderful in so many ways. The weather  was wonderful, there were people strumming their guitars, cheap booze, and one of the most incredible views. Which brings me to my next point

• Graca hill: Please don’t skip this. It’s so wonderful for all of the reasons I’ve already written, and more that just cannot be expressed.