Portugal
Lisbon and Sintra
What an amazing city! The winding streets, buildings covered in tiled art, the never-ending hills!
Day One:
My mom and I arrived in Lisbon at 9 AM after an overnight flight. The flight itself had turbulence and I got such bad motion sickness. Picture me sitting for hours trying not to blink and not eating. Usually, I love overnight flights where you land the next morning, but this wasn’t the best example.
Once we landed, we were introduced to Lisbon’s driving. Let me say, our driver was built for the racetrack. We stayed at the Tempo FLH (Feels Like Home) hotel and it was such a good location next to the Elevador de Santa Justa with free breakfast too. Perfect place for our home base. It was in a more touristy part of the city, which worked for us and our first time in Lisbon but if I went back I would want to stay in other parts. It was raining but we walked around, got to know the area, and finally got some food. The day mostly consisted of being part of the crowd, window shopping, and making sure I knew the layout of places close to us. To end the night we went to see a Fado show. Fado is Lisbon’s traditional folk music. Highly recommend seeing one of these! Sometimes they are during dinner or just over drinks.
Day Two:
Our first guided tour. If you have any interest in art, history, and tiles I would also highly suggest going on a tile tour of Lisbon. The tour consisted of driving around to see tiles on buildings and talking about their history. Then we drove to a tile factory that still makes and sells tiles. There we saw the process of how they handmade tiles, artists painting and forming tiles, and got to paint our own! Afterward, we had lunch and headed over to the National Tile Museum. If you’re a museum person go here! Our tour guide was excellent and my very artsy mother loved the whole day. When we got back we walked to the ocean, which is just always the best!
Day Three:
Today we found Vegan Nata! Nata is a Portuguese egg tart. It was amazing and the person running the store was so nice. My mom (who is not vegan) said they were also delicious. After a lovely breakfast, we walked around and saw so many cool buildings, museums, and churches. I went to my first bookstore called Bizantina which sold used books. It was one where the walls were lined and stacked to weight capacity. Amazing! Not an English word in sight which was also cool.
We went window shopping along the way to the underground! Once we got there, I had a bit of a panic. I couldn’t figure out the machines and language (I should’ve done more research beforehand). Cue us walking against the oncoming rain, our phones not working, and being stranded for a time with no one around. So fun. Finally, we made it to the LX Factory! It’s a refurbished industrial complex with stores, cafes, and restaurants. It also has Livraria Ler Devagar. Such a fun, cool bookstore! There were multiple floors, a vinyl shop, a cafe, plus a good-sized English section. I never expected one at any of the bookstores we went to but I finally had the chance to buy a book! While there we ate at Matchamama which was an Asian-inspired restaurant and was delicious. Exploring this little section of Lisbon was so fun and there were so many people doing the same thing. We sort of crashed when we got back to the hotel but managed to rouse ourselves for some empanadas from Empanar Empanadas. They were perfectly cooked and delicious. If you can’t tell we are such foodies.
Day Four:
We stopped for some more Nata and said goodbye to our hotel before heading to Sintra for the weekend. This was mostly a travel day with some Sintra exploration. The town was so pretty and the hills surrounding it made it appear out of a fairytale. We had dinner at Incomum. It was pricey and I did not feel prepared for the fancy vibes as I was soaking from the rain, lol, but they had this avocado, coconut pasta with fresh tomatoes that was so amazing.
Day Five:
Day five was our tour of Sintra! It was raining every day, but this was the heaviest yet. We did a driving part of the tour passing by the mountains and sights before going to Pena Palace, Sintra National Palace, Fonte Mourisca, Quinta da Regaleira, Tivoli Palacio de Seteais, Parque de Monserrate, and the ocean!! This especially felt like a good way to tour Sintra because there were so many places that it was more efficient having someone who knew the area take us rather than trying to coordinate everything ourselves. Our tour guide was also lovely and customized the tour to what my mom and I were interested in.
Also, all of these places had stairs and hills (Lisbon and Sintra, too) so accessibility is something to think about beforehand. This lasted the whole day so we ate at the hotel (NH Sintra Centro). Expensive but the food hit the spot after such a long day.
Day Six:
We headed back to Lisbon for a day before our next flight. Here we finally got to walk around the Castelo de Sao Jorge which we saw every day from our first hotel. The views were amazing! They also have an archeology site they are working on which was neat to see too. We walked around, had some bad sushi, and retired for the night to get ready for our flight to Barcelona!
Highlights:
Beautiful buildings and art. There are tiles everywhere you go. Just walking around feels special.
Furthermore, there are so many cool, small spots. You can wander around and find new stores or old restaurants.
The ocean!
Sintra is a must.
The people we met were so nice.
What to know:
Hills are an accessibility aspect that warrants thinking about. Not only do they make a 5-minute walk difficult, but it was raining the entire time we were there and it made all the tiled sidewalks so slippery. My mom (who’s 67) had some trouble.
Not everywhere takes credit cards so make sure to have cash
Apple Maps works, and so does Uber.
Not everyone speaks English so make sure to have a translation app or some book to help you.
As a vegan (and for vegetarians) there were plenty of options but you have to do your research before as most restaurants were heavily meat-based.
Food:
Fiorella - Brunch and lunch with great lattes
Organi Chiado - An all vegan restaurant with a variety of foods. I ordered this amazing curry dish and my mom got a pasta dish she loved.
Nori Sushi - We stopped for a quick bite. I had the tofu burrito and miso soup. Both delicious!
Matchamama - If you’re going to the LX Factory, this is a great pick. Such interesting flavors and so many options.
Vagan Nata Portugal - The Portuguese vegan pastry! So, so good.
Peixoco - I had their gazpacho. It was so fresh and good. My mom ordered their fried cuttlefish and said it was cooked so well. If you’re in the Setúbal area check it out. It’s on the water!
Empanadas Empanar - This place had both vegan and meat options! The filling was so flavorful and the pastry was crispy.
Incomum - Great place in Sintra! I’m still thinking about the pasta.
Bookstores:
Livraria Bizantina - This store sold vintage used books. It was small but packed to the brim. I didn’t see any English books here.
Livraria Ler Devagar - Amazing!
Livraria Antiquária do Calhariz - An amazing little shop. This had so much cool art and old books. There were no English books but it was so fun to walk around.