Lisbon

Seven hills, Atlantic light, and a sardine-scented breeze: Lisbon is Western Europe's most atmospheric capital and — locals will warn you — its most transformed. Read more

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Castelo de São Jorge

Castelo de São Jorge

sight·$$·★ 4.5 (102,009)·must-do

The view is the reason everyone comes and it delivers — but the rampart walk and the Camera Obscura are what make it a two-hour visit rather than a photograph.

Neighborhood: Alfama & Castelo

Praça do Comércio

Praça do Comércio (Terreiro do Paço)

sight·$·★ 4.7 (132,409)·must-do

The city's front door — and the marble steps at the Cais das Colunas, going straight into the river, are where you should watch the sun go down.

Neighborhood: Baixa & Chiado

Jerónimos Monastery

Mosteiro dos Jerónimos

sight·$$·★ 4.4 (62,024)·must-do

The cloister — a hundred metres of carved limestone that is the single most beautiful enclosed space in Portugal, and the reason 'Manueline' is a word.

Neighborhood: Belém & Alcântara

Igreja de São Roque

Igreja de São Roque e Museu de São Roque

sight·$·★ 4.5 (653)·must-do

A chapel built in Rome, blessed by the Pope and shipped to Portugal in pieces — reputedly the most expensive chapel ever built, and it costs nothing to stand in front of.

Neighborhood: Bairro Alto & Príncipe Real

Monastery of São Vicente de Fora

Mosteiro de São Vicente de Fora

sight·$·★ 4.7 (637)·must-do

The largest baroque tile cycle in the world, every Braganza monarch in one room, and a rooftop with the whole eastern city below — for five euros.

Neighborhood: Graça & São Vicente

Oceanário de Lisboa

Oceanário de Lisboa

sight·$$$·★ 4.7 (102,776)·must-do

One vast central ocean seen from four different coastlines — a genuinely intelligent piece of design, plus sea otters. The best two hours in Lisbon with a child.

Neighborhood: Parque das Nações

Belém Tower

Torre de Belém

sight·$$·★ 4.5 (114,544)·must-do·temporarily closed

A five-hundred-year-old stone galleon of a building standing in the river, and the carved rhinoceros that Dürer drew Europe's most famous rhino from without ever seeing one.

Neighborhood: Belém & Alcântara

Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcântara

Miradouro de São Pedro de Alcântara

sight·$·★ 4.6 (33,134)·must-do

The clearest single view of how Lisbon is put together — grid below, castle opposite, river to the side — with a kiosk beer in your hand.

Neighborhood: Bairro Alto & Príncipe Real

National Pantheon

Panteão Nacional — Igreja de Santa Engrácia

sight·$·★ 4.5 (12,587)·must-do

A 284-year building project, Amália Rodrigues's tomb, and a dome terrace looking down on São Vicente's towers and the whole eastern waterfront.

Neighborhood: Graça & São Vicente

Basílica da Estrela

Basílica e Convento do Santíssimo Coração de Jesus

sight·$·★ 4.6 (7,274)·must-do

A queen's vow, a dead prince, a marble interior, and a dome climb over the whole western city for five euros.

Neighborhood: Estrela & Lapa

Miradouro das Portas do Sol

Miradouro das Portas do Sol

sight·$·★ 4.7 (5,574)·must-do

The Alfama shot, plus the one thing the photograph can't convey: a €2.50 beer from the kiosk and an hour on the wall while the roofs turn orange.

Neighborhood: Alfama & Castelo

Miradouro da Senhora do Monte

Miradouro da Nossa Senhora do Monte

sight·$·★ 4.8 (28,965)·must-do

The highest point in central Lisbon, with the castle below you and the whole city named on a tiled map — and five minutes' extra climbing filters out almost everyone.

Neighborhood: Graça & São Vicente

Miradouro da Graça

Miradouro Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen

sight·$·★ 4.7 (12,862)·must-do

The castle framed at eye level across the valley, under pine trees, with a kiosk table and two hours to spare.

Neighborhood: Graça & São Vicente

Museu do Fado

Museu do Fado

museum·$·★ 4.4 (6,004)·must-do

Do this in the afternoon and the fado house that night stops being a floor show and starts being something you can follow.

Neighborhood: Alfama & Castelo

Convento do Carmo

Convento do Carmo / Museu Arqueológico do Carmo

museum·$·★ 4.5 (21,204)·must-do

Roofless Gothic arches open to the sky, exactly as the 1755 earthquake left them — the single most eloquent thing in Lisbon about what happened to the city.

Neighborhood: Baixa & Chiado

National Museum of Ancient Art

Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga (MNAA)

museum·$$·★ 4.6 (7,475)·must-do

Bosch's Temptation of St Anthony and the Panels of St Vincent, with nobody standing in front of them — the best collection in Portugal and the emptiest great museum in Europe.

Neighborhood: Estrela & Lapa

Museu Calouste Gulbenkian

Museu Calouste Gulbenkian

museum·$$·★ 4.7 (17,813)·must-do

The best art collection in Portugal and one of the best private collections anywhere — and the Lalique room alone justifies the trip out here.

Neighborhood: Avenidas Novas

Núcleo Arqueológico da Rua dos Correeiros

Núcleo Arqueológico da Rua dos Correeiros (NARC)

museum·$·★ 4.5 (837)·must-do

Free, underneath a bank, and the clearest possible answer to what was here before the earthquake — Roman fish tanks and all.

Neighborhood: Baixa & Chiado

Casa-Museu Amália Rodrigues

Casa-Museu Amália Rodrigues

museum·$$·★ 4.7 (969)·must-do

The house of the woman who took fado to the world, left as she lived in it — plus her shawls, her shoes and her shopping list of gold records.

Neighborhood: Estrela & Lapa

National Tile Museum

Museu Nacional do Azulejo

museum·$·★ 4.6 (17,224)·must-do

A 23-metre tiled panorama of Lisbon as it stood the year before the earthquake destroyed it — if the museum is open when you're there.

Neighborhood: Graça & São Vicente

Time Out Market Lisboa

Time Out Market / Mercado da Ribeira

market·$$·★ 4.4 (74,998)·must-do

Two dozen of the city's best kitchens in one room with no reservations and no obligation to agree with your table — plus a working 1892 fish market next door.

Neighborhood: Cais do Sodré & Santos

Feira da Ladra

Feira da Ladra

market·$·★ 4.3 (2,255)·must-do

Several hundred sellers on a sloping square between a monastery and a pantheon, twice a week, since the 13th century — and the tiles and vinyl are genuinely good.

Neighborhood: Graça & São Vicente

LX Factory

LX Factory

market·$$·★ 4.5 (66,119)·must-do

A working industrial complex turned inside out — the best bookshop in Portugal, a Sunday market, and rooftop drinking with the bridge roaring directly overhead.

Neighborhood: Belém & Alcântara

Jardim do Príncipe Real

Jardim França Borges (Praça do Príncipe Real)

park·$·★ 4.5 (12,944)·must-do

A 250-year-old cypress trained flat into a twenty-metre living roof, with card players underneath it and a kiosk beer in reach.

Neighborhood: Bairro Alto & Príncipe Real

Ribeira das Naus

Avenida Ribeira das Naus

park·$·★ 4.7 (159)·must-do

Broad stone steps running straight into the Tagus, several hundred people sitting on them at sunset, and no ticket, no queue and no catch.

Neighborhood: Cais do Sodré & Santos

Jardim da Estrela

Jardim Guerra Junqueiro (Jardim da Estrela)

park·$·★ 4.6 (14,702)·must-do

Big trees, a duck pond, a bandstand and a kiosk table — an hour of doing absolutely nothing, surrounded by people who live here.

Neighborhood: Estrela & Lapa

Pink Street

Rua Nova do Carvalho

experience·$·★ 4.0 (327)·must-do

The only street in Europe rebranded by paint — with the brothel fittings and the fishing tackle still on the walls inside the bars.

Neighborhood: Cais do Sodré & Santos

Cacilhas Ferry

Cacilhas — Cais do Sodré (Transtejo)

experience·$·★ 3.9 (2,982)·must-do

The Lisbon skyline from the water for €1.55, on a boat full of people going to work — and the best view of the city is from the bank you land on.

Neighborhood: Cais do Sodré & Santos

Rua do Benformoso

Rua do Benformoso

experience·$·must-do

The best-value food in central Lisbon, on the street where the neighbourhood actually shops — and a picture of the city that the guidebook routes never show you.

Neighborhood: Mouraria & Intendente

Bairro Alto street bars

Bairro Alto

experience·$·must-do

A two-euro beer, no door policy, and several thousand people drinking in the street on a Tuesday — the most effortless night out in Western Europe.

Neighborhood: Bairro Alto & Príncipe Real

O Velho Eurico

O Velho Eurico

restaurant·$$·★ 4.4 (4,255)·must-do

Traditional Portuguese cooking taken seriously without being made precious — and priced like the tasca it still is.

Neighborhood: Alfama & Castelo

Taberna da Rua das Flores

A Taberna da Rua das Flores

restaurant·$$·★ 4.3 (3,221)·must-do

The restaurant that invented the modern Lisbon tavern, still cooking from a market blackboard, still refusing to take your booking.

Neighborhood: Baixa & Chiado

Cervejaria Ramiro

Cervejaria Ramiro

restaurant·$$$·★ 4.4 (20,498)·must-do

The best shellfish in Lisbon, in a room with no atmosphere to speak of, finished with a steak sandwich as dessert.

Neighborhood: Mouraria & Intendente

Galeto

Galeto

restaurant·$$·★ 4.3 (7,027)·must-do

The best 3am meal in Lisbon, in a 1966 room whose counter was deliberately built as a maze so you'd talk to strangers.

Neighborhood: Avenidas Novas

Taberna Sal Grosso

Taberna Sal Grosso

restaurant·$$·★ 4.7 (3,941)·must-do

The rare Alfama restaurant that locals and visitors both fight over, at petisco prices — and small enough that the kitchen never coasts.

Neighborhood: Alfama & Castelo

Cantinho do Aziz

Cantinho do Aziz

restaurant·$$·★ 4.1 (3,712)·must-do

Thirty-five years of one family cooking Mozambican food properly — the Indian Ocean, Africa and Portugal on one plate, in the neighbourhood where that combination makes sense.

Neighborhood: Mouraria & Intendente

Manteigaria

Manteigaria — Fábrica de Pastéis de Nata

cafe·$·★ 4.8 (10,728)·must-do

A €1.40 custard tart handed to you hot, three metres from the oven it came out of, standing up. Put the cinnamon on.

Neighborhood: Baixa & Chiado

Pastéis de Belém

Antiga Confeitaria de Belém

cafe·$·★ 4.6 (99,696)·must-do

The original, made to a monastery recipe nobody else has, eaten hot at a marble table in a tiled room — for less than the price of a coffee elsewhere in Europe.

Neighborhood: Belém & Alcântara

Pastelaria Versailles

Pastelaria Versailles

cafe·$·★ 4.4 (5,099)·must-do

A 1922 grand café with the gilt and the silver service intact, full of actual Lisboetas rather than photographers, at counter prices.

Neighborhood: Avenidas Novas

A Ginjinha

A Ginjinha Espinheira

bar·$·★ 4.6 (3,596)·must-do

€1.40, ninety seconds, standing on the pavement outside a doorway that has sold nothing else since 1840.

Neighborhood: Baixa & Chiado

Mesa de Frades

Mesa de Frades

nightlife·$$$·★ 4.1 (1,161)·must-do

Fado without a microphone in a tiled chapel, close enough to see the singer's hands. The dinner is the cover charge; the room is the point.

Neighborhood: Alfama & Castelo

Maria da Mouraria

Maria da Mouraria — Casa de Fados

nightlife·$$·★ 4.6 (1,371)·must-do

Fado performed in the house of the woman the entire tradition mythologises — on the street where she actually sang.

Neighborhood: Mouraria & Intendente

Tasca do Chico

Tasca do Chico

nightlife·$·★ 4.0 (3,795)·must-do

Fado the way it actually exists — unbooked, unamplified, in a room of thirty people who all stop talking the moment it starts.

Neighborhood: Bairro Alto & Príncipe Real