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Things to do in Lisbon

Miradouros, tiled churches, castles and the museums worth your time — with real hours and honest entry prices.

Ramparts and pine trees of São Jorge Castle above the rooftops of Lisbon

Historic Sites

São Jorge Castle

The hill the whole city grew around — Moorish walls, eleven towers and the single best free-standing view of Lisbon's rooftops and river.

Entry
€15Details
Manueline cloister arcades and carved stone of Jerónimos Monastery in Belém

Historic Sites

Jerónimos Monastery

Portugal's greatest Manueline building — a cloister carved like rope and coral, funded by pepper money, holding the tombs of Vasco da Gama and Camões.

Entry
€18Details
Belém Tower standing in the Tagus with its Manueline bastion and turrets

Historic Sites

Belém Tower

The little fortress on the water that guarded Lisbon's harbour and became the country's emblem — tiny inside, unforgettable outside.

Entry
€8Details
The yellow and red towers of Pena Palace rising above the Sintra hills

Historic Sites

Pena Palace

A Romantic fantasy in ochre and crimson on the highest crag in Sintra — the most photographed building in Portugal and the most demanding to visit well.

Entry
€20Details
Twin conical kitchen chimneys of Sintra National Palace above the town

Historic Sites

Sintra National Palace

Those two enormous white chimneys in the middle of town mark the best-preserved medieval royal palace in Portugal — and the finest tile collection you will see anywhere.

Entry
€13Details
The spiral Initiation Well descending through moss-covered stone at Quinta da Regaleira

Historic Sites

Quinta da Regaleira

An esoteric garden of grottoes, towers and a nine-storey spiral well built by a millionaire and an Italian set designer — the strangest place in Portugal.

Entry
€15Details
Ruined ramparts of the Moorish Castle snaking along a Sintra ridge

Historic Sites

Moorish Castle

A 10th-century hilltop ruin whose walls ripple along the ridge above Sintra — the best view in the region and the least crowded of its monuments.

Entry
€12Details
Moorish-influenced arcades and dome of Monserrate Palace with its lawn

Historic Sites

Monserrate Palace

The Sintra palace nobody queues for — an 1858 Mughal-Gothic fantasy with a carved plaster interior and the finest botanical garden in Portugal.

Entry
€12Details
Rococo facade and formal parterre gardens of Queluz National Palace

Historic Sites

Queluz National Palace

Portugal's Versailles in pink Rococo, twenty minutes by train from Rossio and almost always half empty — the great overlooked palace of the Lisbon region.

Entry
€10Details
Romanesque twin bell towers and rose window of Lisbon Cathedral

Spiritual Sites

Lisbon Cathedral (Sé de Lisboa)

The city's oldest church, founded in 1147 on the site of a mosque — a fortress-like Romanesque nave with free entry, five minutes below the castle.

Entry
FreeDetails
Clipped box hedges of Parque Eduardo VII running downhill toward Avenida da Liberdade and the Tagus

Green Spaces

Parque Eduardo VII & Estufa Fria

Lisbon's biggest central park, a 26-hectare carpet of clipped box hedges climbing to the city's best free view straight down Avenida da Liberdade to the river.

Entry
FreeDetails
Bandstand, duck pond and old trees in Jardim da Estrela opposite the white dome of the Estrela Basilica

Green Spaces

Jardim da Estrela

The most-loved neighbourhood garden in Lisbon — a romantic 1850s park of huge fig trees, a duck pond and an iron bandstand, with the Estrela Basilica's dome filling the sky across the road.

Entry
FreeDetails
Pine and eucalyptus woodland of Monsanto forest park with the Tagus and the 25 de Abril bridge beyond

Green Spaces

Parque Florestal de Monsanto

Lisbon's forest — roughly 900 hectares of pine, eucalyptus and viewpoints on the hill west of the city, with trails, playgrounds and the concrete Panorâmico looking straight down the Tagus.

Entry
FreeDetails
Wide sandy sweep of Carcavelos beach with surfers and the old fort at the western end

Beaches Waterfronts

Praia de Carcavelos

The big, easy, half-hour-from-Lisbon beach: 1.3 km of sand, dependable surf, a wall of kiosks and a train that drops you at the top of the hill.

Entry
FreeDetails
Windswept dunes and Atlantic breakers at Praia do Guincho with the Sintra hills rising behind

Beaches Waterfronts

Praia do Guincho

The wild Atlantic beach inside the Sintra-Cascais Natural Park — huge dunes, world-class wind, Bond-film cliffs and water cold enough to make you gasp.

Entry
FreeDetails
Long open sands of Costa da Caparica with beach bars and dunes stretching south

Beaches Waterfronts

Costa da Caparica

Fifteen kilometres of open Atlantic sand on the south bank, reached by ferry and bus, with a little narrow-gauge train that runs down the dunes to the emptiest beaches.

Entry
FreeDetails
Long shared tables and lit food counters inside the iron-and-glass Time Out Market hall in Cais do Sodre

Street Markets

Time Out Market Lisboa (Mercado da Ribeira)

Twenty-odd of the city's best kitchens under one nineteenth-century iron roof, where a pastel de nata, a plate of grilled fish and a glass of Alentejo red cost less than one sit-down dinner in Chiado.

Entry
FreeDetails
Stalls of old tiles, brass, vinyl and second-hand clothes spread on the ground at Campo de Santa Clara

Street Markets

Feira da Ladra Flea Market

Lisbon's centuries-old thieves' market, spread twice a week across Campo de Santa Clara, where azulejos prised off demolished houses sit beside colonial coins, dead radios and somebody's grandmother's cutlery.

Entry
FreeDetails
Food counters and fresh produce stalls inside the 1930s Campo de Ourique market hall

Street Markets

Mercado de Campo de Ourique

The neighbourhood market that got a food hall without losing its butchers, greengrocers or its regulars — the version of Time Out Market that Lisboetas actually eat in.

Entry
FreeDetails
Narrow stepped lane in Alfama with washing lines, tiled facades and the Tejo river below

Historic Quarters

Alfama Old Quarter

The one district the 1755 earthquake largely spared: a Moorish tangle of stairways, washing lines, tiled facades and fado rooms falling from the castle walls to the river, and the best half-day walk in Lisbon.

Entry
FreeDetails
Crowds drinking on a narrow Bairro Alto street at night with bar doorways and tiled facades

Historic Quarters

Bairro Alto

A grid of sixteenth-century streets that sleeps by day and turns into Lisbon's loudest bar crawl by night, where the drinks are sold through doorways and the whole crowd stands in the road.

Entry
FreeDetails
Steep Mouraria lane with a fado mural, hanging laundry and small immigrant-run shops

Historic Quarters

Mouraria

The quarter the Moors were pushed into after 1147, where fado was born in the 1800s and where today Lisbon eats Bengali, Chinese and Nepalese two streets from the castle walls — the least polished and most alive district in the old city.

Entry
FreeDetails
Rua Garrett in Chiado with mosaic pavements, old shopfronts and the Santa Justa lift beyond

Historic Quarters

Chiado

Lisbon's literary and shopping quarter — Pombaline streets, the world's oldest working bookshop, a burnt-out Gothic convent and the cafe where Pessoa still has a chair — all inside ten walkable blocks.

Entry
FreeDetails

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