Almada

Ten minutes by ferry from Cais do Sodré, with the best view of Lisbon, riverside fish restaurants and Caparica's beaches behind.

Almada sits on the south bank of the Tagus, directly opposite Lisbon, and the ferry from Cais do Sodré to Cacilhas takes ten minutes and costs about €1.55 with a Navegante card. That is the whole proposition. You get rooms at half Lisbon prices, the single best view of the city — because you are looking at it rather than standing in it — and the Costa da Caparica beaches twenty minutes behind you by bus. What you give up is being able to walk home from dinner in Bairro Alto.

Cacilhas itself is a ferry terminal, a strip of seafood restaurants, and the Rua do Ginjal, a crumbling quayside lane of abandoned warehouses running west under the cliff with two or three restaurants at the end of it whose terraces sit right on the water. That walk — five hundred metres of dereliction opening onto the postcard — is the most memorable thing on this side of the river. Ponto Final and Atira-te ao Rio are the names; both need booking, both are worth it, and both look straight at Alfama.

Above, on the cliff, is Almada Velha, the old town, reached by the Boca do Vento panoramic lift for a euro or so. Up here the streets are quiet, there is a contemporary art centre with a garden at Casa da Cerca, and by nine at night there is almost nobody about. Further inland, Almada is a large working suburb of tower blocks and shopping centres served by the Metro Sul do Tejo trams; there is no reason for a visitor to sleep out there.

Base here if the budget matters more than the atmosphere, or if you want beach and city in the same week without a car. It suits people who like ferries, photographers, and anyone who has done Lisbon before. It does not suit first-timers with three nights — you will spend an hour a day on the water and resent it — and it does not suit late-night drinkers, since the last ferry back on weeknights is around one and Cacilhas closes early.

Where to sleep

Two useful pockets. Cacilhas and the streets climbing behind the terminal — Rua Cândido dos Reis, Rua Elias Garcia — put you two minutes from the ferry and five from the riverside restaurants, at €45 to €80 a night, which is roughly half what the same room costs in Baixa. Almada Velha, up the cliff by the Boca do Vento lift, is quieter and has a handful of small guesthouses with river views at €60 to €100. Pragal, near the MST tram and the hospital, is cheap and characterless. Avoid the big chain hotels along the Avenida dos Bombeiros Voluntários and out towards Feijó unless you have a car — they are twenty minutes from the water with nothing walkable around them. If you want the beach instead, look at Costa da Caparica town, which is a separate proposition at €70 to €130 in summer.

The essentials

Cacilhas quay to Cristo Rei (5 km)

Leave the ferry, walk west along Rua do Ginjal past the abandoned warehouses to the riverside restaurants, then double back to the Boca do Vento lift and ride up to Almada Velha. Cross the old town past Casa da Cerca, follow Rua Bernardo Francisco da Costa inland and climb steadily to the Cristo Rei sanctuary. Return on bus 101 down to the ferry terminal.

Getting there & around

The ferry from Cais do Sodré to Cacilhas runs every ten to twenty minutes from about 05:35 to 01:40, takes ten minutes and costs around €1.55 with a Navegante card; a second crossing links Belém to Porto Brandão and Trafaria. From the airport, take the red metro to Alameda, change to green for Cais do Sodré, then the boat — about fifty minutes total. The Metro Sul do Tejo trams, lines 1, 2 and 3, connect Cacilhas with Pragal, Corroios and the university. TST buses from Cacilhas terminal serve Costa da Caparica in around twenty minutes. Driving in means the 25 de Abril bridge and a northbound toll.