Lisbon hotel and sightseeing, transportation suggestions for 2 days before our cruise

[gam888]

We are flying from Canada to Lisbon in January. The plane arrives in Lisbon at 5:30am. I estimate by the time we have cleared custom and picked up our luggage, it will be at least 7am by the time we get to our hotel. We have been to Lisbon before on previous cruises, and have taken the Hop on and off bus, and ship excursion to Sintra and Cascais. However, we have not stayed overnight in the city before. We are looking for a reasonable hotel (under $200 a night) in a strategic location for sightseeing. Keeping in mind that the hotel usually will not let guests check in until 3pm, we have to leave our luggage in the hotel storage and go out and explore the city in early morning until we can check in later in the afternoon. Our flight from Canada to Lisbon is about 8 hours, and when we get to Lisbon in the morning, is really in the middle of the night for our Canadian time, so we will be very tired, since I usually can not fall asleep in the airplane. We hope to find a hotel in a central location so we can walk around to do some sightseeing, or be close to a Hop and off bus stop so we can do that again although we did that last time onshore. In the evening, we wouldn't mind visiting an area where there is some night life with bars and restaurants. Although we are not drinkers and do not plan to party, but just want to see a bit of some lively atmosphere in the city. Then we have a whole day the next day, we should have enough energy after a night of sleep, to maybe catch a train to visit something a bit further away, a castle or another small town nearby? Is there any local tour or taxi company you can suggest to pick us up from the airport to the hotel, and from the hotel to the cruise dock 2 days later. Should we pre-book this service, or is it easy and fast enough just to grab a cab from the airport.  Is there a local tour company you can suggest for us to do some sightseeing in the city? What area would you suggest for us to find a hotel that has attractions nearby that we can walk or take other transportation to? Any particular hotel names you can suggest? Thank you in advance.

[JHLH821]

46 minutes ago, gam888 said:

We are flying from Canada to Lisbon in January. The plane arrives in Lisbon at 5:30am. I estimate by the time we have cleared custom and picked up our luggage, it will be at least 7am by the time we get to our hotel. We have been to Lisbon before on previous cruises, and have taken the Hop on and off bus, and ship excursion to Sintra and Cascais. However, we have not stayed overnight in the city before. We are looking for a reasonable hotel (under $200 a night) in a strategic location for sightseeing. Keeping in mind that the hotel usually will not let guests check in until 3pm, we have to leave our luggage in the hotel storage and go out and explore the city in early morning until we can check in later in the afternoon. Our flight from Canada to Lisbon is about 8 hours, and when we get to Lisbon in the morning, is really in the middle of the night for our Canadian time, so we will be very tired, since I usually can not fall asleep in the airplane. We hope to find a hotel in a central location so we can walk around to do some sightseeing, or be close to a Hop and off bus stop so we can do that again although we did that last time onshore. In the evening, we wouldn't mind visiting an area where there is some night life with bars and restaurants. Although we are not drinkers and do not plan to party, but just want to see a bit of some lively atmosphere in the city. Then we have a whole day the next day, we should have enough energy after a night of sleep, to maybe catch a train to visit something a bit further away, a castle or another small town nearby? Is there any local tour or taxi company you can suggest to pick us up from the airport to the hotel, and from the hotel to the cruise dock 2 days later. Should we pre-book this service, or is it easy and fast enough just to grab a cab from the airport.  Is there a local tour company you can suggest for us to do some sightseeing in the city? What area would you suggest for us to find a hotel that has attractions nearby that we ca1n walk or take other transportation to? Any particular hotel names you can suggest? Thank you in advance.

 

These are 2 hotels you may want to consider: they are boutique hotels and the pricing is very reasonable: We have been researching hotels for our future trip and have friends who have stayed at The Sao Vicente and were very pleased with the experience.

1. https://www.blueliberdadehotel.com/

2. https://www.triushotels.com/saovicentealfama/

Taxis may be the best for pick-up on your day of arrival- these are a few companies offering transfer services to the port and we have confirmed that they have full insider access t port facilities:

1. https://goldcompass.pt/transfers/- they are also a tour company
2. https://toptour.pt/  also can arrange tours
3. https://amiroad.pt/  also offers tours
Here's a comprehensive guide to taxis:  
https://essencial-portugal.com/en/visit-lisbon/taxi-lisbon/

 

 

[destinsharks]

Uber and Free Now both worked well for us in Lisbon in July as long as your cell phone will work in Portugal.  Only catch is in some busy places in downtown they have designated pickup spots (but they can drop off anywhere).   If your hotel is in one of these zones, a taxi out will be a better option if you have lots of luggage.

 

Bairro Alto is the center of Lisbon night life.  You can easily walk that entire area and the adjacent Praca de Commercio / Rossio districts.  

 

Sintra / Pena Palace / Moorish Castle are some of the very best Portugal has to offer.  If you feel like your last trip checked those boxes, then I might concentrate more in Lisbon itself.  St George Castle, Geronimos Monistary, Royal Carraige and Naval Museum, Belem tower, wandering around the Alfama old town.  Weather in January may be wet and cold which could affect your touring plans in terms of outdoor activities.  

 

If it wasn't winter, Evora is a two hour train ride and is a walled city dating back to Roman times complete with Roman temple and intact medeival city walls.  It's very much a pedestrian experience though and liable to be very cold in January.  

 

I lived in Portugal previously, it's a wonderful place.

[sleepingcat]

agree with all the good advice above. 

 

The train along the coast to Cascais is a nice ride and you could get off in Estoril as you've already seen Cascais.  We did this on one of our cruise ship calls, , as the station was an easy walk from the cruise terminal. We can also recommend the Modern Art Museum.  the better museum is the Gulbenkian, but that time it happened the ship was there on its closed day so we did the Modern Art Museum instead and it was also good. 

as to weather, good to warn you about cold, but also to know that it can easily be warm enough to eat out in the sun at lunchtime as we did on a lovely birthday in January 2019 in Lisbon. We were there on a different ship this last January and it was again very sunny. 

 

I know we cannot recommend a tour we have nt done, but in 2019 I did investigate guided wild life tours of the wetland area nature reserve close by.  it didn't work with the ship timings, but as you have an overnight it will probably work. Others have posted rave reviews. 

 

cruising from Britain we tend to often get a port call in Lisbon  as it is on the way to most places, but I will never tire of it, it is one our our favourite cities and the sail in one of the best. 

[gam888]

Thank you everyone for replying my post. They are all very valuable information. I am reading through everything and my research continues! 

 

[mchell810]

On 12/18/2022 at 6:57 AM, gam888 said:

We are flying from Canada to Lisbon in January. The plane arrives in Lisbon at 5:30am. I estimate by the time we have cleared custom and picked up our luggage, it will be at least 7am by the time we get to our hotel. We have been to Lisbon before on previous cruises, and have taken the Hop on and off bus, and ship excursion to Sintra and Cascais. However, we have not stayed overnight in the city before. We are looking for a reasonable hotel (under $200 a night) in a strategic location for sightseeing. Keeping in mind that the hotel usually will not let guests check in until 3pm, we have to leave our luggage in the hotel storage and go out and explore the city in early morning until we can check in later in the afternoon. Our flight from Canada to Lisbon is about 8 hours, and when we get to Lisbon in the morning, is really in the middle of the night for our Canadian time, so we will be very tired, since I usually can not fall asleep in the airplane. We hope to find a hotel in a central location so we can walk around to do some sightseeing, or be close to a Hop and off bus stop so we can do that again although we did that last time onshore. In the evening, we wouldn't mind visiting an area where there is some night life with bars and restaurants. Although we are not drinkers and do not plan to party, but just want to see a bit of some lively atmosphere in the city. Then we have a whole day the next day, we should have enough energy after a night of sleep, to maybe catch a train to visit something a bit further away, a castle or another small town nearby? Is there any local tour or taxi company you can suggest to pick us up from the airport to the hotel, and from the hotel to the cruise dock 2 days later. Should we pre-book this service, or is it easy and fast enough just to grab a cab from the airport.  Is there a local tour company you can suggest for us to do some sightseeing in the city? What area would you suggest for us to find a hotel that has attractions nearby that we can walk or take other transportation to? Any particular hotel names you can suggest? Thank you in advance.

 

I was in Lisbon a few weeks ago and stayed at the Avenida Palace Hotel (it gets a lot of recommendations on this board).  We arrived at 9:30am and our room was ready -- an unexpected treat.  The hotel is lovely, and the location perfect for walking around, DIY exploration and restaurants.    In my experience getting a taxi from the airport is very easy and same for the cruise port.  We paid 20 euro to the airport and just 10 from the port (always rounding up from what the meter read to give a tip). 

 

[edinburgher]

to maybe catch a train to visit something a bit further away, a castle or another small town nearby?

 

 

This very recent thread also asked for easy out-of town trip suggestions and might help you decide:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/topic/2896693-tours-from-lisbon/#comment-64378604

 

A few days ago I had replied to this thread of yours with that post which  also included other links which covered "strategic accommodation locations" as you requested ( which had also been quite recently discussed), but the post has disappeared and I am at a loss as to why it would have been removed as there was much useful info to be found on the links in it, the very  reason I had posted them.

 

Edited December 21, 2022 by edinburgher

[IWantToLiveOverTheSea]

If you haven't found a place, or left for Lisbon yet: 

We're going to be staying in one of the On/Set Cinema Apartments in Alfama. It's about 140 euros a night in early May and looks very nice. They have a website, and are also on a couple hotel booking sites like Booking.com.  I was also looking at Tempo FLH in the Baixa area near the Santa Justa Elevator.  It's reasonable.  

 

But I haven't actually stayed at these places.  We DID stay in 2014 at The Lisbonaire - good location, etc. and reasonable. 

 

 

[IWantToLiveOverTheSea]

As for tours, we enjoyed our "Side Car" tour with Daniel of "Bike My Side."  It wasn't cheap, but it was certainly fun, informative, and certainly different!  My spouse loved his surprise birthday present that year (the tour).  Of the many sights in Lisbon, I especially enjoyed the Bica elevador, the sail in and sail out, Belem attractions, Palacia Fronteira's garden/water, visiting various miradouros, and looking at graffiti plus artwork in some of the Metro stations.  (Is the grafitti still there? I read it may have been made illegal!)