Hey everyone! Have you ever been to Lisbon? After my London trip (see my London trip recap HERE) I met up with one of my friends in Portugal! I had wanted to go to Lisbon for such a long time and it did not disappoint! If you go, make sure to bring comfy walking shoes because you will do a lot of walking and some of the streets can get a little hilly.

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What I did:

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Thursday:

I arrived in Lisbon really late at night, so my friend and I checked into the hotel, caught up with each other for a little and called it an early night to prepare ourselves for a full day of exploring the next day. Because I have a lot of hotel points from my work travels I booked a room at the Doubletree Frontera in Lisbon. The hotel itself was an interesting setup, but the staff were super friendly and they even welcomed us with a cute little tray of goodies when we checked! One of the things on the tray was a Pastel De Nata which little did I know I would end up eating about 50 of them throughout the next few days (they are so addicting – I ended up bringing a huge box of them home!)

Friday:

• Walked to Edward VII Park
  • The park is on a hill, but if you walk to the top you won’t be disappointed by the views!
• Walked around the Barrio Alto area – which I found out later in the weekend that it gets super rowdy at night (think of it as the bourbon street of Lisbon). I guess this is a popular place for Europeans to have their version of Bachelor parties.
• Walked around the Alfalma Area: This was probably my favorite areas in Lisbon. There are pretty pastels on every corner and lots of colorful tiles on the walls!
• Stopped at ZARA to pick up a sweater – make sure to check the weather before going. I don’t know why I assumed it would be super warm in Portugal, but it was breezy while I was there. But I’m not going to lie – I wear the sweater I got ALL the time so I think it was fate that I didn’t bring one!
• Grabbed Coffee at Nicolau!
  • The CUTEST spot! I wish I had more time to check out the food scene in Lisbon. Highly recommend following @heyandiehey for inspiration on places to go before your trip!
• Walked to dinner at “Tapas with Friends”. We died laughing at the name since we were literally friends eating Tapas.

Saturday:

On Saturday we took a day trip to Sintra! I highly recommend doing this if you are ever in Lisbon! The train to get there is SUPER cheap, so easy and it’s such a gorgeous place! See my recap of our trip to Sintra HERE!

When we got back from Sintra, we were exhausted so we ordered pizza on UBER eats – haha yes they also have that in Europe. After relaxing a little bit we headed back to the Barrio Alto area to experience the crazy bar scene we had heard about. Overall the bars were pretty fun and just as we had heard there were a TON of British bachelor parties – but beware that (sorry again for the NOLA reference) it is just like Bourbon street where the street is dirty and the people on them may or may not be aware of their surroundings. I learned this the hard way after a man spilled a purple drink all over my white canvas sneakers. Needless to say I looked like a homeless person walking around the next day with my purple stained shoes (if you look closely at the second picture below you can see just how bad the damage was)

Sunday:

• Explored Belem Tower / Padrão dos Descobrimentos
  • Right by Belem Tower is the original Pasteis De Belem restaurant (those incredible pastries I was telling you about). We didn’t end up going because there was a HUGE line – but I’m sure they are incredible here! Also I don’t know why I want to keep referencing New Orleans but this reminded me of people waiting in line at Cafe Du Monde for a beignet.
• Jerónimos Monastery
• Time Out Market: On the way to Belem there is an awesome food hall with lots of different restaurants. They have big communal benches to sit at – so it would be a fun place to go if you love chatting with locals and meetings new people while you’re traveling! Also – if you don’t want to wait in line for the original Pasteis De Belem – there is a store called Manteigaria at the market that also has delicious ones!
• Rossio Square
• Praça do Comércio
  • Waterside Public plaza – super cute but it’s pretty touristy so I don’t recommend eating around here.
• Santa Justa Lift
• Headed back to the hotel to pack up

Monday morning I took off for the airport and headed back to the US. It was so sad to have my trip come to an end but it was the perfect vacation to start 2018 off with!

Thanks for stopping by!

XOXO,