Im doing exploratory work for a trip to Portugal in late Feb -Early March (until Ash Wednesday).
Husband liked Lisbon a lot 40 years ago on a business trip where he was wined and dined by locals pleased to have a chance to use their expense accounts, and was able to spend a lot of time running around and looking into churches. .Im looking at 10-14 days, about half in Lisbon and about half travelling southward, birding in the Algarve and in the eastern countryside being one objective, aside from eating and cultural exploration. Ive been mining the great recent posts on the site here and trying to get a feel for the geography and our options. Will probably do airbnb at least in Lisbon so am looking for the type of residential area we like, which tends to be quiet but with nice architecture, good food shopping, and convenient to transit/cultural sites and good dinner options. NOT looking for late night, new construction, lots of young people, trendy or non-food shopping. Im having a hard time getting a feel for what the geography is like - any clues?
Second, Im trying to figure out where to go and stay on the way south and once there. The posts on Monchique sounded enticing! It looks like some of the main birding action may center on Faro although Im not real interested in staying in another big town or a beachy spot but a base that will be walkable, interesting and have superior food - and maybe even good carnival ?
I believe we will have a car and anyone who knows me knows that my preference is for great local ingredients and dishes, and not for tastings, desserts or chi chi.
At this preliminary stage even the smallest thoughts or pointers are welcome!
We stayed at a super-cute airbnb in the Bairro Alto, which is super-central, but also super-young & def a lot of late-night action. Lucky for us, the windows were fabulously insulated, so we heard nothing of the ruckus.
It’s a small city & very walkable. This might be helpful:
I really enjoyed my AirBNB in Lisbon. It is 400 yards to the Terreiro do Paço transit station, 100 yards from Saint Anthony’s Cathedral on Largo da Se and is right on top of the #28 Trolley line. The owner’s name is Nuno and it was a bargain around $145US per night.
It is about a 5 minute walk to the Arco da Rua Augusta, and that pedestrian street with all the food and shops is right there too. My memory fails me from time to time when it comes to names, but it has a bunch of places that sell bacalau and port wine.
Can’t help with much, but do go to Ramiro for seafood. Ask to sit on the ground floor for more action; second floor is quieter but they put many tourists up there so you will not get the true feel of this bustling place…not more than a block away is a great shop for Portuguese products including food and kitchen items…will find the name if you are interested.
For food shopping, you must visit at least one of the long-running conservas shops selling tinned seafood. I will get you the names if you like. Even the labels on the cans are often gorgeous, not to mention what’s inside.
We are planning a trip in late September. I’ve only begun to research restaurants and have skimmed some of the great posts on HO. I’ve reserved hotels in Lisbon, Coimbra and Porto. The one I chose in Lisbon is Mama Shelter. A friend stayed there last year and loved it. The location is very central and it’s reasonable.
Ramiro is definitely on our list. Jim’s just been eating one meal a day recently (in the evening) not sure whether that will continue but I doubt that we will be eating out twice a day given our normal airbnb pattern of eating lunch out and dinner in (maybe we will snag some good takeout, roast pig, goan…to augment market finds). So high quality takeout reccs would be useful.
We spend quite a lot of time in Portugal and keep going back. I love going in winter, so many fewer tourists! In Lisbon we only stay at a special hotel called Rue das Janelas Verdes. It’s a small boutique hotel that feels like you’re staying in someone’s home. It’s reasonable, so you can easily get 2 rooms. The breakfasts are lavish, and there’s a library/lounge/ terrace with games where you can hang out between sightseeing. The staff makes you feel like family. It’s just west of central Lisbon, south of the Estrella neighborhood. It’s quiet and more residential, but you can still walk to everything, and there are tons of restaurants and shops. I echo Ramiro and Prado for dinners. But I usually rely on the hotel staff to tell me where to go that’s new and delicious. I also love the restaurants at the nearby LX Factory. All have been wonderful. When you go south, stop off for a night in either the hill town of Palmela (wonderful castle hotel there), or Comporta, which is very chi chi but has the most beautiful beach I’ve ever seen.
We love the western Algarve much more than the eastern end. The area north of Sagres is breathtaking and very sparsely populated. It’s called the Costa Vincentina. We stayed in a village called Aldeia da Pedralva. It’s an old village that has been preserved and turned into cottages for tourists. We loved it. In Algarve we always stay in a gorgeous private bnb called Casa Tres Palmeiras in Portimao. It’s right on the cliffs with the most stunning views. We’ve gotten to know Dolly, the 90 year old owner and host, and she is amazing. We’ll be there in February too! You can book through booking. Finally, if you still have any days left, my favorite eastern hill town is Marvao towards the north. It’s preserved but not touristy like Obidos. And the scenery is stunning. You would think you were in Scotland!
Welcome @/TeresaE and thanks so much for the itinerary and lodging recommendations, definitely will consider seriously as we plan. tho these days we would normally go the airbnb route for a multiday city stay like this.
Cynic! Serously thats always been my view with large commercial hotels that the recommendations of concierges are suspect, but it would not keep me from asking at a smaller heritage place, especially if I got to know the staff a bit.
I had a few bad experiences asking staff for recommendations at boutique hotels in Crete and Santorini. I finally changed my question to : where would you go eat with your family or on a day off?
I went to Lisbon with a nice list from Chowhound, thanks to Maribel and Monchique (this was in 2009, Solar dos Presuntos and Ramiro are the recommended places I remember visiting), and we winged half of our restaurants and pastry shops.
All good. We didn’t have any disappointing meals.
One of my friends from university became a concierge at the Waldorf Astoria, and she would often bring me as a plus 1 to the various dinner comps she received while she was working at the hotel. The comps influence the recommendations. Even for Concierges who have acquired their Golden Keys.
No, and I don’t always rely on every hotel’s staff, but at this particular hotel, I’ve stayed so many times I’ve come to trust their recommendations.
I don’t think the fact the concierge has received complimentary invitations would automatically means he / she will send you to a bad restaurant! They also have their ethics and reputation to protect. I work in the hospitality business and if I recommend a restaurant, I don’t want my client to come back the next day dissatisfied if I can avoid it, or thinking I sent him there to get a cut …
I agree with this. My issue with getting recommendations from a concierge or any local for that matter is that I dont know anything about them, including their own food preferences. They can suggest all kinds of places for a variety of reasons. Some may suggest cheap places that they frequent that are good enough for them and where price is the main draw, while others are more comfortable suggesting the most expensive places. Since its fancy, it must be good. I still ask hosts for ideas, but I get more comfortable with their suggestions after spending some time with them.
Our host in Lecce for example recommended seafood places but after spending a few days with her talking about food, I realized she hated seafood, and her favorite food is a burger.
I am not saying it’s automatically going to lead to a bad restaurant experience.
My friend, the concierge, wasn’t sending people to bad restaurants. She was recommending pretty good touristic restaurants that had given her a free dinner, in hopes that she would recommend the restaurant to travellers. She also wanted to be tipped, so there was no way she was sending them out for a bad meal. That would be silly. She was sending them to places that treated her well.
Some of them were great restaurants, and at least she had tried the restaurants herself before recommending them.
There was an incentive for her to be recommending those specific restaurants.
Not all hotel concierges will operate like this, but many will. I’m not even thinking this is a bad thing necessarily, because many concierges would not be making enough money to try the nicest restaurants if some meals were not comped.
I suppose the answer for me is to take any recommendations, from anyone, with a grain of salt.
To rely completely on one concierge at a hotel?
I have been burnt too many times to rely on one person’s recommendation when I only get to visit Portugal for a few days once or twice in a lifetime.
I cant help much with your airbnb, neighborhoods, etc because we dont have the experience. We are pretty much strictly hotel people these days. Mrs Z has needs If there’s no long mirror anywhere, it should not be listed anywhere.
I like the hotel we stayed last time, BessaHotel Liberdade. Nice and comfortable, with the kind of shower we wont find in an airbnb. I like the location. Not super close to anything in particular, but close enough to everything.
I like the Alfama area, but dont know what its like to stay there.
One thing to consider in Lisbon is that some of the restaurants we liked like O Velho Eurico can be booked solid months in advance.
One issue I am finding is that there are not as many concierges of the Golden Keys rank in most of the hotels I stay in. “Concierge” also means “front desk person” in many cases, even at high-end hotels. I don’t think front desk people even get comped and I would not rule out recommendations from a dedicated concierge even if his or her meals at a place were comped. But one top of that, I do my own research (tons of it!). Last year in Madrid, I gave a list of restaurants and asked the “concierge” (not Golden Keys) to book tables for me. My constant discussion of food with him and another front desk person lead to the hotel owner/manager to listen in to our conversations. None of the front desk people had ever heard of the restaurants Ii was asking about.
It turns out that many of the restaurants on my list were the owner/manager’s own favorites (Sacha, Taberna Laredo, Rafa etc) and she has now asked me to collaborate with her on writing a restaurants guide to Madrid that they plan to hand out to hotel guests! I will have to give Maribel credit if I decide to go along with this project. Crazy!!
The comps influence the recommendations. Even for Concierges who have acquired their Golden Keys.
If there’s no long mirror anywhere, it should not be listed anywhere.
