Lisbon, Portugal – Part 2 – Food, Hotels & Practical Travel Tips

So from steep hills to streetcars, the scent of grilled sardines, the sounds of crowds cheering on matadors.

On today's episode, we're heading back to Portugal's capital, looking at how this once sleepy port town has become one of Europe's most creative and surprising cities.

A place from Fado.

We talked a little bit on the last episode to futuristic waterfronts.

We're talking a little bit about what's new to see and do in Lisbon.

And yesterday we kind of covered off some of the main sites in the city.

You know, kind of the why to go.

Today, we're going to get a little bit more into the logistics of your trip, the where to stay, where to eat, and getting around the city.

Getting around.

I know you.

I mean, you touched on this a little bit in our last episode, Tim.

But I found Lisbon, like, really accessible in terms of great transportation around the city.

And I mean, we, I think we spent about two and a half weeks in Portugal, rented a car for a couple of days, but vast majority of the country, like, trains were super easy for, for transportation between.

Between cities and around Lisbon itself as well.

Absolutely, absolutely.

I mean, it's, it is one of the easiest cities to get around.

It's not a particular particularly walkable city because it is set on all these hills, but, you know, a lot of trams which are, which are great.

I mean, I love if, if the tram.

If you can find a way for the tram to take you there, definitely get on the tram because it's like a little tour through the city and you get to see all these different neighborhoods, but a pretty good Metro system, pretty good buses.

And I'll say that the taxis and the Ubers, the Ubers especially, are extremely affordable.

They're priced, I think, for the local population.

And I remember going through my Visa bill, you know, after one visit, and I was like, what is this char charge for $2?

It was an Uber ride.

I got some.

I don't know how far I went, but $2, you know, anything for $2 is good.

So, yeah, very, very easy to get from A to B, and, And you can walk quite easily.

But if you're going from.

Away from the water, towards the water, it's much better because the city kind of slopes down towards the water.

Otherwise, you're, you're, you're walking uphill.

But so many things to see and do there.

Where do you want to start?

You want to talk?

Food's always good, and we don't necessarily think about Portuguese food.

Do you have any Favorite places to dine in.

I mean, my trip's probably not, not nearly as recent as yours.

So you're, I mean, I'm going to defer to you on the, on the where to eat other than when we get to our camp.

Mrs. Where I will throw in, throw in one on that is kind of food based.

But I was really impressed with Portuguese food.

I thought, you know, a lot of it were dishes I'd never tried before very much.

You know, you can see they, they really take pride in local producers and local products and everywhere that, that, that we ate.

But, I mean, what was your experience with food in the capital?

There's a, there's really a lot of great restaurants in Lisbon.

I'll start out with an easy one, which is that the timeout market.

It's right near the river and it's served as a market since then.

It has this kind of classic, you know, vaulted ceiling, I believe, with skylight.

And I don't know how long it's been the timeout market, but they have 26 restaurants in there and it's kind of the perfect place to go, especially on a first visit to get a little sampling of Portuguese food.

So one recommendation, I mean, you go around the food stalls, say you go there with five friends, everybody goes out and gets their own thing and then you share, right?

And you can try five different Portuguese things.

They also have hamburgers and hot dogs and pizza and all that kind of stuff too.

But one recommendation would be this dish called pika pow, which means woodpecker in Portuguese.

It's like a slang, and it's little pieces of beef in a garlic sauce and you just kind of pick away, you know, so it's the perfect thing to kind of put in the middle and like a woodpecker, you know, on a tree, just peck away and peck away and peck away and eat it.

And that's, that's kind of a good one for sharing.

And then they also have this, the ultimate Lisbon sweet Florida thing, which is these pastis de nata, which are this kind of sugary, creamy, tart, you know, flaky filling, beautiful.

I'm not much of a sweet tooth person, but this is definitely one of the things that you have to eat when you go to Lisbon.

I'm going to mention one other market which is the LX factory, which is a former textile factory.

It's right under the, the big red Bridge, the 20, I think it's 25th of 25 to April Bridge.

And you can go there to shop.

They have one of the best bookstores that I've ever visited.

50,000 titles.

They've got all these sort of soaring staircases and this angel riding a biking from the ceiling.

And they've got a coffee shop and a little micro bar, microbrewery in the back.

But all through there you'll find a lot of great restaurants.

I believe there's one called Cantina and it's kind of an elevated version of Portuguese worker food.

So it'd be kind of, you know, the blue collar fair that you might have gotten, you know, when, if you were working the, the looms or whatever at the textile factory.

But they elevate it and, and, and that's, that's, that's also a good place for local food.

And then I'll just mention maybe one more which is at the Four Seasons there's a great restaurant called Cura.

And it is, again, it's, in this case it's a tasting menu.

You might get seven courses, you might get 12 courses.

And it is local ingredients, you know, time honored Portuguese methods and, but with, you know, a Michelin recognized chef.

So, so Portugal, but really, really elevated.

So those would be, I mean again Portugal's or Lisbon is a place that you could kind of go on and on and on and talk forever about in terms of food.

But those are just a few of my recommendations.

And one thing I will say in Portuguese food is it seems, you know, very simple ingredients prepared very simply in many cases.

We had kind of the first time trying these kind of barbecued grilled sardines while we were there that we thought were fantastic when we were in Portugal.

Tried to recreate them at home and it was like Fear factor.

They were the worst things we ever made.

And so I don't know, it seems super simple when you're there and how they prepare some of the dishes, but they do such an incredible job of it.

And yeah, we highly recommend trying the grilled sardines while you're there.

Strongly recommend not trying to reproduce them when you get home if you don't know what you're doing.

I was going to say probably Fear factor is the last thing thing that you want, you know, on your, on.

Your plate is yeah, they were mushy.

They were absolutely terrible.

We tried to recreate them, but they were great when we were there.

So definitely recommend checking those out in terms of where to stay.

I, I remember a couple of.

Well, I know there's been a few new great hotel openings recently in the city.

I know we've talked a lot about some of the autograph collection hotels by Marriott.

They're, they're often quite cool properties and they've opened a newer one there just in the last couple years called the Ivins.

Very centrally located, very kind of Instagrammable, well executed, very cool looking spot on the Marriott side of things.

And then you know, one thing that we made a mistake in doing when we stayed in Lisbon is we, we stayed at another Marriott property that was quite far outside of the central city.

And, and as you said, it's not a walkable city necessarily.

Even though public transportation is great, it's still, we were spending a lot of time moving back and forth and I think going back I would probably look to stay right in the heart of Lake Barrio Alto if we could.

There's some really cool properties there.

I know one called Lumarius Hotel and Spa that I heard from a friend who went there recently who spoke very highly of that.

What are some of your favorites?

Well, I love, I mean I have two standout favorites which are very, very different hotels.

One is the Four Seasons Ritz, which was actually built so Portugal had this dictator named Salazar and he bemoaned the fact that the city didn't have a world class like a true five star hotel.

It sits on a, on a ridge.

It's right near one of the biggest intersections in the city.

And they've, they've done so much to keep that hotel, you know, pretty much one of the best in the, in the country.

It's got a huge spa.

They've done a lot of renovations recently.

Huge, huge, I think 16,000 square meters or feet.

Huge, huge spa, indoor and outdoor pools.

They put in a track on top, a running track that even if like I don't, I'm not a big jogger, but I would go up there and just walk around and take in the views of the city because the amazing views and they have a great art collection, one of the best private art collections in the country.

And it celebrates Portuguese modernism.

And then the other one, I'm going to do a quick mention of the Tivoli, which is a very nice four or five star hotel.

Great location on Avenida Liberdad, great rooftop bar and restaurant.

Just a quick, quick mention for the Tivoli because that really is a great hotel.

And then a place that's really close to my heart.

I love this Corpo Santo historical hotel.

It is, it's just an independent hotel.

It's a five star hotel.

And they have this policy of like, it's like an all inclusive policy.

So you have this historical hotel, one of the, one of the most historical neighborhoods in the city, right.

Three steps from the river, right in the, in the old town.

And they have free walking tours.

So you can go on a walking tour and they'll, they'll.

The concierge from the hotel will take you out on a walking tour.

They have unlimited free candy in the lobby.

These huge jars of candy.

I was there with my sister's family and they weren't even staying at the hotel.

I was staying at the hotel, but they would come in and the kids would just take handfuls of candy and they were just like, great.

Have more, have more.

Super, super friendly staff.

They even have an ice cream machine.

And this is not really like a family, it's not a Disney or a family hotel, but I think they're just like, hey, people like ice cream.

So let's have ice cream.

And they do a happy hour every day with snacks and all of that's free of charge.

So you get your beautiful room in a wonderful location and you get all of these other inclusions as well.

And it is built.

They, when I did the tour, they told me they were building an indoor pool and a spa.

And when they started digging, they, they, they, they dug up this 14th century wall.

And so they said, okay, well, we don't have a pool, guys, but we have a wall.

And so you can go down and have a drink or have a coffee.

And there is this historic wall that, that they've preserved in the, in the lower level of the hotel.

So, you know, it's, it's, it's quirky and interesting and definitely worth.

And what's it called again, Tim?

It's called Corpo Santo Historical Hotel.

Amazing.

Well, free candy and ice cream.

You can't go in.

Who doesn't love free candy and ice cream?

So, yeah, one of my favorites.

All right, well, I think we've both got two can't misses as we close things out on Portugal.

And my two are both food related.

And you talked a little bit earlier about the pastis de nata, the really kind of iconic custard tarts that, that are like the national dish, I would say, of Portugal.

I would say I had on average 12 to 15 of those a day, every day we were in, in Lisbon.

And if there was one kind of iconic spot, the gold standard, it was in the.

The Belem district.

Past.

I'm probably mispronouncing it here.

Pastis the Belem, which, you know, would lines out the door.

If you got there at the right time, you could get the fresh hot ones out of the oven.

They were sublime.

It's highly recommend seeking that out.

So that.

That would definitely be one of my can't misses.

The other one is kind of food and music related.

It's a place called Casa de Linjares in the Brago Alta district as well.

This was built in the 16th century.

It is one of the really kind of best known fado music venues in the city, but also a great restaurant as well.

I know we have diverging views on fado.

I like the fado.

You were not as big a fan of the classic fado music in Portug.

I loved it though.

And I thought this was.

If you're looking for somewhere not just for the musical experience, but also some great food with it in a great historic location.

This was a great place that brought them both together.

How about you?

I know you said you've got two campuses this week as well.

Yeah, yeah, definitely.

And neither of them, for the record, involve fado at all.

So.

So it's a, you know, I mean, I think people should go as a historical, you know, cultural experience.

But I don't know, I always just felt a little depressed walking out afterwards, but.

But it is worth it from a cultural perspective.

And the food sounds good too.

My two are both day trips.

Sintra.

I can hop on a little train, go up to Sintra, and there it's a palace town.

It's a UNESCO World Heritage site.

There's the Castle of the Moors that dates back to the 8th century, back to the Moorish times.

The national palace, which is one of the best preserved medieval palaces in the world.

And one of my favorite, if you can have a favorite palace.

One of my favorite palaces in the world is Pena Palace.

Pena palace, which is, you know, built in this romance style, spires and domes and all these different colors.

And it's right up there on the ridgeline.

So the views out are absolutely incredible.

And it's just amazing place to take photos.

Amazing place to just wander in and out of of.

Doesn't look like the other palaces, you know, it doesn't look like a Habsburg palace in Vienna.

It's very, very.

It's almost like a.

Like an animation.

It's Almost like a, like a toy, like it's, it is, it is so much different than any other palace that you've ever seen.

And then my other camp miss is it is a day trip to, to and I, I'm going to probably mispronounce.

I mispronounce it every time.

Every time I say it to a Portuguese person they correct me.

But I'm going to say Cascais and it might be Casch.

It's Casch.

And you take a train, it's about 45 minutes, you hop on the train.

Right.

I was talking about Corporal Santo.

Historic hotel, train stations right in front, two minute walk.

And this was, it's a beach town, it's a whole separate municipality.

45 minutes going along the water, going under the bridge, really nice ride and then you get there and yeah, once home to the Portuguese royal family still has that, that aristocratic royal feel.

And there are 17 beaches if you're there in the summer, bring your bathing suit and towel.

17 different beaches that are kind of tucked away in the crags with the rocks and there's a nice food market there as well and little food stalls.

It is a great way if you're a little bit tired of the urban beat and the hot cobblestones, you know, get there, hop on the train, easy ride from not even €3, €4 probably gets you there and then spend the day in Cascais.

So yeah, amazing.

Well that is actually one of the places that I'm hoping to go later this year on an upcoming trip so hopefully we can do a full episode on some of what see and do there on an upcoming show as well.

But as always, well thank you for taking the time Tim.

I know you were on a cruise ship around the world over in Europe right now so I have very much appreciated taking the time to record a few episodes with us here on, on Lisbon and looking forward to catching up with you again next week.

Absolutely, yeah.

I'm on the beautiful Viking Jupiter and I am actually sailing north of the Arctic Circle at the moment along the coast of Norway.

So very, very interesting part of the world.

Little chilly, it's only 5 degrees Celsius out today but anyway always.

Where are you hitting this week?

What destinations are you at?

So we came from Scotland so the ship boarded in, in London and we did London and then Edinburgh, Orkney, Shetland crossed over to Norway and then we've been, we got up as far as the North Cape which is the really the northernmost part of mainland Europe.

71 degrees North Arctic Circle 66.

So 5 degrees north of the Arctic Circle.

And now we're we're slowly making our way back down the Norwegian coast, so all along the fjords.

And we are going to finish in in Bergen in Norway.

And then next week I'm going to be in Poland because why not?

So, yeah, beautiful ship.

Lots of great experiences on board.

Love to just, you know, the other night I sat on my balcony and we were going through the this archipelago, the Lofoten Archipelago, and just all these beautiful villages and churches.

And we'll have to do a whole episode on it.

Yeah, amazing.

Well, absolutely, we should, as you're in some of these destinations over the next couple of weeks, try and catch you while you're there and record a few live.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Looking forward to it.

David.

Sounds great.

Thanks.

J.

Sam.