City Overview

With a population around 1 million, Lisbon is one of Europe's smallest capital cities, and to many visitors it instantly becomes one of the most likeable. In parts of the city, the centuries seem to collide: 17th-century buildings contrast against modern buildings. The fish market at Cais do Sodré teeming with traditional sights and smells; and just a few hops and a skip from Lisbon's 18th-century aqueduct which sits on Portugal's modernistic Amoreiras shopping center. Sitting north of the Rio Tejo (River Tagus) estuary and laying over a string of seven hills, Lisbon offers an delightful variety of faces to anyone with the energy to negotiate its switchback streets.

In the city's oldest parts, tiny, stepped alleys are enclosed with pastel-colored houses and decorated by clothes hung out to dry; here and there you come across a miradouro, a natural vantage point with spectacular city and river views. Grandiose is the 18th-century city center, wide boulevards are bordered by black-and-white mosaic cobblestone sidewalks. Clanking elétricos (trams) still maneuver through the streets; there's a legacy of fine art nouveau buildings, too, and everywhere-on church walls, around fountains, and in restaurants and bars-you'll see the striking blue-and-white azulejos (painted and glazed ceramic tiles) for which the country is renowned.

Lisbon's backyard is overabundant in possibilities: Drive along coastal roads that thread their way along dazzaling seaside cliffs, or lay about on a sandy beach, enjoying a glass of the delicious local wine. Endulge in the active nightlife of the region's resort towns or retire to a room in a converted palace, castle, or country mansion. Such famous destinations as the Estoril Coast, Sintra, the palace at Queluz, even the city of Setúbal and its Manueline church, are all within an hour of Lisbon.

Within a 31-mi stretch north and south of the Rio Tejo (River Tagus) you'll find a spread of attractive coastal resorts and important towns. These are no mere dormitory suburbs of the city, but are instead endowed with unique traditions and characteristics.