Sunny Lisbon

In my last post, written some weeks ago, I’ve talked about starting a topic on Lisbon hotels. And here it is the first one. For this first one, I’ll start with one I see everyday from my office window, the VIP Zurique.

You can check this hotel prices here.

Location

VIP Zurique is a big hotel located in the Entrecampos area. This area is one of the most active parts of the city during the daytime, being the close-by Avenida da Républica and Avenida 5 de Outubro two of most lively streets in town, filled with office and government buildings. This is Lisbon “second downtown” area, providing it with a lot of transportation and a nice sense of safety.

You can check it’s location on Google Maps.

From and To The Airport

The AeroBus bus stops at Av. Da Républica, which is close to the hotel.

Transportation

This is one great location in terms of public transportation. The hotel is close to the Entrecampos train station (too close?), that provides direct trains to Sintra, the south margin of the Tagus river or Oriente, from where you can take long course trains to the North of the country.

There are two main subway stations, Entrecampos (entrance on the train station) and Campo Pequeno. Avenida da Républica is well served with Carris buses.

Getting To…

• Downtown – You can get to downtown using the subway. Take the yellow line to Marques de Pombal and there change to the blue line, taking the Baixa-Chiado direction and exiting the subway in the station with the same name. If you share my opinion and prefer to avoid subways (sorry but dirty underground walls are not my scene), you can take the 745 bus (Est. Sta. Apolonia direction)  and exit on the Rossio square.
• Belém Area – The quickest way should be to take the train to Alcantara-Terra, and from there take another train to Belém. Using the same line you can also reach Cascais and Estoril. If you are a bus guy, take the 727 bus (Restelo direction) and exit on the Belém area.
• Sintra – You have direct trains from the Entrecampos train station.

Surroundings

Being a busy area means that you can find a lot of commerce in this surroundings. Still don’t expect to find here souvenirs or postcards, since this is not a tourist district.

On a short walking distance you can find the Campo Pequeno building, Lisbon bullfighting area and now also a shopping center where you can find shops and fast food restaurants. Close by you also have the Nossa de Senhora de Fátima church and the Caloust Gulbenkian museum, one of Lisbon finest art collections.

As stated before this is a safe neighborhood, so security shouldn’t be a problem.

Would I Stay There?

Yes. The only downside of this location is that it is not on the downtown area, which is more touristic and has a more lively nightlife, specially after dinner time. Still, using the bus, subway or even a taxi can take you from a place to the other in less than 20 minutes.

Last April I had to travel to Amsterdam for a few days, and lived a little nightmare while trying to book my hotel. It was the Queens Birthday, everything was in either one of two states : central and extremely expensive or in the middle of nowhere and under my price range. So I tried to decide which one was the best middle of nowhere, and let me tell you, it is hard. Since I’ve never been to Amsterdam before, I had no idea of how the city transportation worked, if the hotel X was really close to the train station or if hotel Y was really only at a 10 minutes walk to the nearest bus stop. Online booking systems can give you some help, as user reviews help you understand how many 10 minutes it really takes, and how badly the free hotel mini-bus really work.

I made my choice, based on a couple of user reviews, but even tough, I as totally insecure about my decision. What a shot in the dark! I ended up booking a small hotel in a distant Amsterdam suburb. In the end, it was not a bad experience after all, but it could have been. As this is always a risk you travel to a country that you don’t know and of which none of your contacts has an well informed opinion.

So, I’ll start a new topic in this blog, where I will try to produce some hotel reviews, not as if it is seen from the inside, but seeing it from the outside, analyzing it’s location, surroundings and transportation available. So if you are visiting Lisbon and feel like choosing an hotel will be a shot in the dark, search the blog, maybe I’ve talked about it. If I didn’t, well, just leave a comment and I’ll try to make a post of it as soon as it is possible.

As I have said before, I usually travel on a tight budget, and this year was no exception. Still I try to enjoy as much as I can, living those days with as much comfort as my wallet allows.

One of the easier places to cut your expenses it’s the food. I always try to eat something traditional of the area I’m visiting, but I don’t do it everyday. And since my days are spent in historical neighborhoods, it’s kind of hard to find cheap places to eat. It then that fast-food comes to my mind, as a safe and inexpensive solution.

On this year vacation I found myself in a situation where I had to have dinner and had no idea where could I eat : it was late, and I didn’t want to go around searching for a place to spend my money. I wanted a McDonald’s, and I want it fast. So, to avoid that you have this same problem, I leave you a collection of McDonalds addresses in Lisbon!

• Allegro Alfragide - Ok, this is not really Lisbon, but it’s located in a big shopping mall close to Lisboa Camping, so it may be handy if you are staying there.
  Schedule : Everyday from 10 am to 11 pm.
• Chiado and Rossio - Both are located in the downtown area and are easy to find.
  Chiado : Rua do Carmo, 2
  Rossio : Praca D. Pedro V, 83
  Schedule : Everyday from 10 am to 11 pm (Chiado) and 10 am to 02 am (Rossio).
• Belém - Between Jeronimos Monastery and the Belem Palace, close to the Pasteis de Belem shop.
  Schedule : Everyday from 10 am to 12 pm.
• Colombo, Vasco da Gama and Amoreiras - Located in the shopping malls with the same names.
  Schedule : Everyday from 10 am to 12 pm.
• Airport - If you think that airplane food isn’t lousy enough.
  Schedule : Everyday from 06:30 am to 11 pm.
• Av. Padre Cruz - Good if you are traveling by car, it is open 24h a day.
  Schedule : Everyday, all day.
• Saldanha - In the uptown part of the city, the economic center.
  Av. Republica, 10F
  Schedule : Everyday, from 11 am to 23 pm
• D. Carlos I - Close to the river, in the Santos area.
  Av. D. Carlos I, 17
  Schedule : Everyday from 11am to 12 pm (02 am from thurday to saturday)

Like I’ve promissed, here we are again to learn some more Portuguese words, on our second lesson regarding colors. Learning the colors should be regarded as something very useful, as they can help you identify a subway or train line, or to get directions to somewhere.

• Black – Black follows the same construction form that the color white uses, that I’ve talked about in the previous post, changing it’s form with the gender and with it’s plural. So you can have a “carro preto” (black car, male) or a “camisa preta” (black shirt, female). In the plural form, you just have to add the “s” letter at the end of it. So you can have “carros pretos” (black cars) or camisas pretas (black shirts).
• Red – This can be a tricky one, as there are two distinct words that have the same meaning, but are used more frequently on some parts of the country than on others. So, for red, you can have the word “vermelho” (more used in the south of the country) or the word “encarnado” (more used in the north). Like, with the previous colors it follows the same rules of construction, so you can have the “autocarro vermelho” (red bus, male) or the “luz vermelha” (red light, female). In the plural form we would have the “autocarros vermelhos” (red buses) and the “luzes vermelhas” (red lights). Using the “encarnado” word, we would have the “autocarro encarnado” (red bus, male) and the “luz encarnada” (red light, female).
• Brown – Again the same construction. You can have an “envelope castanho” (brown envelope, male) or “madeira castanha” (brown wood, female). In the plural form we would have “envelopes castanhos” and “madeiras castanhas“.
• Gray – You can have a “chapéu cinzento” (gray hat, male) or a “manhã cinzenta” (gray morning, female) or, in it’s plural form “chapéus cinzentos” and “manhãs cinzentas“.
• Yellow – Since we had to go through some pretty dull colors today, I’ll end up with yellow, to lighten things up and give you the true feeling of the current weather in Lisbon : Sunny, bright and warm. Guess who’s going for a ride on this Sunday afternoon :). The yellow colors is said through the word “amarelo“. So you can have a “passaro amarelo” (yellow bird, male) or a “caneta amarela” (yellow pen, female). In the plural form, “passaros amarelos” and “canetas amarelas“.

As with all the countries in southern Europe, Portugal is also known for it’s sunny and warm beaches, with Algarve being the most famous and desired shores. Every years thousand of tourists coming mainly from Germany and the UK flock to the south of the country to spend their vacation, in the search for the great weather and spendid landspaces that only the sun and the sea can offer.

Although being far away from Algarve, Lisbon also has some nice coastlines in it’s surroundings, where the it’s citizens spend their free time over the summer weekends. In this post I will talk about the closest ones, the Cascais/Estoril and the Costa da Caparica. If, while spending your time in Lisbon, you decided to rent a car and travel a little bit further, you can also try the beaches at the north of Sintra (Ericeira, Santa Cruz, Nazaré) or further down on the south side of the river (Portinho da Arrabida or Troia), than can be more quiet and relaxing.

• The Cascais / Estoril Coastline (Green) - It is the most easy beach area to access to someone traveling from abroad. First, because of the Cascais train line, take starts in Lisbon at Cais do Sodré (close to downtown), goes through Belém area and goes straight to Cascais always close to the ocean. The most known beach on this shore is Carcavelos. On second place it’s easy to get to this beaches, because of the Estoril and Cascais areas, that are worth visiting even if you are not enjoying the beach. I would recomend visiting the various defensive forts that are spread along the coastline, the Estoril Casino, and in Cascais, the sea bay and the Boca do Inferno cliff. The train tickets prices vary, but the ticket from Cais do Sodre to Cascais (the whole line), costs 1.7€ per journey.

• The Costa da Caparica Coastline (Pink) - Costa da Caparica is the ocean shore on the south bank of the Tagus river. The beaches here are clearly better than the ones of the Cascais line : larger and more wild spaces, fewer building in it’s surroundings, specially on the southern beaches. The handicap of this area can be it’s access, as the transportation between Lisbon and the south bank of the Tagus serve mainly it’s working population that lives in cities like Almada, Seixal or Barreiro. Still you can get to Costa using three buses from Transportes Sul do Tejo : the 153, that leaves from Praça de Espanha (Spain Square), the 161, that leaves from Areeiro Square and finally the 186 that leaves from the Universities area.