| Page Views: 1,474 Last Visit to Lisbon: March, 2006 | Lisbon - It Didn't Make It To My 'Favourites' List by mazzap - last update: Mar 12, 2006 |
The Good, The Bad & The Bits In-between! | A quiet & pretty little square in the Chiado |
For many years Lisbon has been on my 'must see' list. I can happily cross it off now that I have spent 3 days there, but sadly I won't be rushing back. I am sure there was much more to do than we could cram into an extended weekend, but by day 3 I felt I had seen enough to form my own opinion.
I found this city did not have any 'wow' factor for me. After several hours walking & looking around, I kept thinking I had yet to find the main highlights of this city & thought that perhaps I was inadvertently missing the nice bits.
A lot of the squares & streets seemed so stark & grey. After 3 days, having covered a large proportion of the city on foot & by tram, I knew that all that I had seen was in fact 'it'! I was travelling with my husband - he thought exactly the same as me! The city centre was 'dead' on the Saturday evening - so not even the nightlife made up for the lack of atmosphere experienced during the daytime!
Our 3 day break wasn't all bad! We found a few nice quiet areas with a few trees, benches & usually a statue in the centre, unfortunately, and as we came to expect, most were daubed with spraypaint :-( We spent most of the second day in Cascais which is 25km along the coast - we really liked this town & that day was by far the best one of our trip. Part of the third day was spent in the small town of Belem, 6km along the coast. For a small town, it had a lot to offer & we enjoyed our time there too. But as for Lisbon itself, well....we came away thinking 'well it was ok - nothing special!'
To sum up, the negative points of Lisbon were: the very sad & overwhelming amounts of graffiti on all accessible walls, monuments, shop fronts, public transport (inside & out), & on the patterned cobbled paths, people constantly spitting in the street, grand & beautiful old buildings sadly being allowed to fall into disrepair, too many aggressive beggars & drug pedlars, a few months worth of litter lining the streets, so many restaurants, shops & museums were shut part of the weekend & on Mondays (& when do short break tourists tend to visit?...) & finally, possibly the most unforgivable thing of all......was the disgusting dog mess every few yards along the pavements, just waiting to be trodden in........so, watch your S T E P!!
The positives (yes, there were some!): the sunshine & mild climate in March, the pasteis de nata ;-) the friendly restaurants, the low cost of food & drinks, inexpensive & frequent public transport, the local bus transfers between hotel & airport (so easy), the pork sandwiches in the local cafes, & finally the restaurant 'A Charcutaria' that was recommended by VT's 'solopes' - a nice local meal of pork & clams - thank you for that great tip!!
I have put information & pictures from Cascais & Belem on separate pages as they were so different from each other & from Lisbon itself.
Please note that these are MY OWN personal opinions - the only way to decide what a place is like for yourself is to go there & experience it! Lisbon just didn't happen to impress me, unlike many other worldwide cities that I have visited & fallen in love with for one or more reasons! |
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| Pros: | "Quick to get to from UK, & inexpensive for a city break" | | Cons: | "Try taking a photo without graffiti somewhere in the view.....not easy" | | In A Nutshell: | "Been there, seen it, done it - don't need to return!" |
mazzap's Lisbon Travel Tips
 Comments for mazzap about Lisbon | | | | |
angiebabe Sun Nov 4, 2007 01:31 UTC
Hi dear Mazzap youre featured mbr so what better reason to say ,its been a while, hello. I see theres more interesting and lovely photos since added on yr homepage. Have a good weekend. | easyoar Sat Apr 1, 2006 20:41 UTC
You're complaining about Lisbon, and you don't even mention the hideous traffic jams! We drove there and arrived in rush hour - not good :-( Sounds like you lost your cherry there though :-))) | solopes Fri Mar 31, 2006 21:39 UTC
I'm glad my tip was useful and don't mind at all your reference. Sorry you didn't like Lisbon, but you are fair in your observations. Maybe, one day, a closer look, and the discover of the other Portugal | scottishvisitor Tue Mar 28, 2006 09:43 UTC
Sorry to hear your trip was spoiled by the graffiti but you did have a nice hotel!! |
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