Lisbon

Lisbon is the country’s capital, brimming with hustle and bustle and located on the coast. You can while your time away café hopping and noseying around neighbourhoods – Bairro Alto being our favourite. The city is colourful and lively and the atmosphere is contagious. A little train jaunt outside the city is Sintra – well a visit. A little up the coast, the beaches of Estoril and Cascais are easy day trips when the sun is out.

Each ruling dynasty that came here left their mark on the capital. The knock on impact of this is that each of Lisbon’s neighbourhoods have their own unique character, from the grand 18th-century buildings of the lower town to the labyrinth-like streets of the oldest district, Alfama, that sits at the base of the Moorish Castelo de São Jorge. Interestingly, an earthquake in 1755 brought much of Lisbon to its knees, and nowadays the city’s architecture is clearly defined as being pre- or post-quake.