Lisbon City Guide

Lisbon Sights

Lazy in Lisbon just lookin' and loungin'.

Lisbon is the kind of place where you can sit at street cafes - sampling food or fado - and watch the world go by. But for the eager there are also plenty of cultural activities. In addition to architectural masterpieces at Belém, Lisbon has over 50 museums to visit.

Lisbon Nightlife

Put on your dancing shoes and join the party.

Lisbon loves the night. Clubs come and go, and the bar scene is casual. Bairro Alto, where some bars have DJs and open late, heaves with revellers at weekends, as does the booming riverside Doca de Santo Amaro, where the local crowd is dressed-down cool. Even the hipper places are welcoming.

Shopping Lisbon

A browser's delight, a trawler's dream.

Lisbon is a tempting place to shop, if only because the street life moves slowly enough to make browsing a pleasure. And although modern shopping centres are increasingly in vogue you can still find plenty of traditional and specialist shops.

Museu de Artes Decorativas Portuguesas

Art gallery, Museum

This brilliant museum and school of decorative arts, operated by the Fundação Ricardo do Espírito Santo Silva, displays 15th- to 19th-century furniture, textiles, jewellery, silverware and porcelain in an aristocratic 18th-century palace. Call ahead about the workshops where artisans practise traditional wood carving, metalwork, decorative painting and more.

Igreja de São Roque

Museum, Religious/spiritual, Architectural highlight

The 16th-century Jesuit Igreja de São Roque has a plain façade, designed by the architect of São Vicente, hiding a dazzling interior of gold, marble and Florentine azulejos - an elaborate canvas bankrolled by Brazilian riches.

Cascais

Beach

This former fishing village ('Kush-KAISH') has been tuned in to tourism since 1870, when the royal court first came here for the summer, bringing a train of nobility in its wake. It's now the liveliest beach resort on the Estoril Coast, attracting a young and international crowd.