In May 2025, Sam and I spent just shy of a whole month in Lisbon. Prior to that our last trip to Lisbon was part of a Great Covid Escape trip in the height of Covid in spring 2021. We journeyed from Douro Valley to Porto to Lisbon that time, but we felt like we needed to return in more normal times to fully experience Portugal.
This was our first trip where we really let TrustedHousesitters (check our review here) take the lead on our destination. I was busy with work at this moment in time, and we had recently just spent over a month in Mexico. For the sake of working timezones I wanted to find a trip in Europe. We were at one of our favourite London catsits until the end of April. After that we were free agents (geographically).
At the top of our list, as it usually is, was Barcelona. But with a seven week catsit in Madrid approaching, we wanted to try something different before visiting Spain. My sister had just graduated from university in Canada. She was going on a graduation trip to Europe with a group of her friends. With this in mind we had half an eye out for something which could overlap with her trip (and which wasn’t Ibiza). From that shortlist, we both had a hankering for Lisbon.
Where to stay in Lisbon
When a catsit came up for 10 days in Lisbon in a beautiful, modern, two balcony Saldanha apartment, we jumped on it. We got extra lucky and another six day sit within walking distance came up directly before that. There was a one night gap in between. We tacked on a few hotel and apartment rental nights on either side of the first and second sit. Before we knew it we were spending close to a month in Lisbon. In total we spent £418 on accommodation for this period – working out to less than £20 per night! This is thanks primarily to 16 nights TrustedHousesitters accommodation, but also in part to some great deals from Quidco and Booking.com.
If you want to truly stay in Lisbon like a local, we really do recommend looking into getting a TrustedHousesitters membership. Having two back to back sits in Saldanha really opened up our eyes to a new neighbourhood that we wouldn’t have considered before. It provided us with a comfortable home to base ourselves out of complete with cat company!
We got to Lisbon two nights before our first catsit began, and stayed around the corner at the Holiday Inn Saldahna Plaza. It was a headline £90/night including a generous breakfast. Thanks to a generous Quidco bonus at the time of booking, we managed to get £20 off per night.
For our Lisbon extension after our second sit ended, we knew we would be doing some work from home rather than spending loads of time out and about. We stayed at Cozy and Sunny Apartment in Anjos for €315 for four nights. It was an absolute bargain for a full apartment with kitchen and space for both of us to work.
We spent our weekdays being quite boring as per regular life. We worked from home, visited the gym, and ate healthy meals (which in Lisbon invariably meant Peri Peri chicken). And we spent our weekends (which now included Friday from lunchtime) exploring the city. And by exploring we of course mean eating and drinking our way through it.
Getting around Lisbon
Typically Sam and I would stay in the very centre of town, but this time around we were slightly outside the centre. We still wanted to have an easy time getting into and out of town without entirely relying on public transport. Before getting into that, we should say that the public transport in Lisbon is excellent and inexpensive. A single ticket – including trips to the airport – cost just €1.85. Lisbon is also home to the iconic yellow trams – but surprisingly we don’t think we took one trip on one!
For the most part we relied on Bolt and Lime bikes and scooters. Anyone who has seen London in 2025 will know that Zone 1 of the city has been completely overrun by Lime Bikes. These are electric, on-demand bicycles that you can park just about anywhere. Pay per minute with an unlock fee, or buy a bulk pass with a set number of minutes and use them at your leisure.
We saw that Lisbon was covered with Bolt and Lime branded scooters and bicycles, and thought – won’t this be fun? As regular cyclists in London, we prefer to be on bikes anyway. We opted for a Bolt pass for 180 minutes which cost less than €15. What we hadn’t really considered was that while we are well practiced on bikes, we never take scooters. That central Lisbon is both insanely hilly and constructed with beautiful but terribly uneven cobbled streets. And that the parking zones in Lisbon are far stricter than London, so we often had to end rides a bit further than our destination.
Regardless, it was a fun and – albeit harrowing at times – inexpensive way to get into town. Do note that due to the hills and the cobbles, as well as having to find permitted parking spaces, the estimates for how long a bike ride takes on Google maps is wildly inaccurate. Budget for at least twice as long.
Lisbon food
In Lisbon Sam and I actively sought out the classic tasca style of restaurant in keeping with our love of traditional haunts. These places ticked all of our travel-eating boxes. Traditional, unpretentious, local food, local people, and good value food and drink.
We made our way through Bifanas, Pregos, Francesinhas and more.
And of course Sam took it upon himself to deep dive the city’s famous custard tarts.
Lisbon’s bar scene
Interestingly Lisbon did not have that much of a bar culture, unlike its Iberian neighbour Spain. Besides the cluster of brewery bars that we went to out of the centre of town, and a couple of craft beer and natural wine bars in town, we didn’t find that many local bars, which we always try to seek out. Most of the local drinking seemed to take place in the aforementioned tascas.
The exception to this was Lisbon’s kiosks. The concept is similar to an Italian piazza or the Spanish square. However instead of having lots of bars around the perimeter of a square, Lisbon’s vibe was a single outdoor bar within the square itself.
This was fun when the weather was warm. Locals would be filling the patio tables drinking their beers and vinos among the greenery. Go to any little square in Lisbon and I guarantee you there is a kiosk pouring Sagres or Super Bock!
Derby de Lisboa
Besides living it up in outdoor kiosks, the Portuguese knew how to throw down for sport. Towards the beginning of our time in Lisbon, the city’s two soccer (or futbol) teams battled it out to decide who won the Portuguese League. A rare opportunity on the penultimate game of the season where either team would win the league if they beat their rival. The city was geared up for a party. The roundabout which happened to be right by our apartment, Marquês de Pombal, was roped off in anticipation of the traditional celebrations.
People in town were adorned in the dividing colours, the red of Benfica or the green of Sporting. Sam bought us opposing scarves for a laugh. We watched the game at a fun little sports bar in Bairro Alto, Pub Português. The whole crowd was watching one small TV screen in the corner. In an anti-climactic ending, the game tied and no one won the league that night. The streets were opened back up and everyone went home.
Round 2
A week later was the final round of the season. Everyone was even more amped up than the first time around. We headed out to the Campo de Ourique neighbourhood to watch the game at local institution Padaria do Povo. We had an amazing time in surrounded by the locals.
Sporting won their game and finally lifted the trophy. We trekked up to Marquês de Pombal for the after party. People packed the streets, drinking beers, waiting for the victorious team to roll down the street in their big bus. The main roundabout and whole sky was lit green to celebrate Sporting. Not a spot of red was to be seen – in fact I was told to hide my scarf for my safety by some locals!
It was so much fun to be here for this event. After hanging around in the streets for a while, we went to one of our favourite nearby spots, Galeto for beers at the bar. There was a huge line to get in. Very annoyingly, we were actually not staying in the same neighbourhood as this was our last weekend of the trip. We unwisely tried to take a taxi home, which took an hour and cost a small fortune. Don’t take a taxi during this time. In hindsight I can’t believe we tried. Regardless this was such a great closing weekend to have for our month spent in Lisbon.
The end of a month in Lisbon
On the following Wednesday, we had an early flight back to London. It was a delight that our Bolt taxi fare to the airport was literally the same price as two subway tickets. We never really take taxi’s anywhere but in Lisbon as they were so cheap and the rides home so deathly, we found ourselves taking a few. All in all Lisbon is a friendly, inexpensive and beautiful place to spend a month. We’ll be back!
