See the sights and sounds of Lisbon
Lisbon is around two hours from the UK. It’s a mixture of ancient and modern buildings and attracts people from all over the world. This is a great place for a long weekend, or to use as a base for exploring the rest of Portugal.
Accommodation is plentiful in the city and ranges from a room in a shaded villa to modern apartments, or hotels. Pricewise there is something to suit all pockets.
What characterises Lisbon’s old city is its network of creaky trams and the cobbled streets, not to mention the artistic and beautifully designed eighteenth century buildings. To see old Lisbon at its best it is worth visiting the suburb of Belem and seeing some of the most interesting buildings, including the monastery of Jeronimos which was built in 1502 to give thanks to God for the riches found in the New World.
In 1998 the area along the waterfront was redeveloped for the Lisbon Expo and there is some amazing modern architecture in the Parc des Nacoes area of the city. The fabulous sweeping palm-like lines of the Oriente train station bring modern metal architecture to a city full of ancient buildings.
The super modern Vasco da Gama suspension bridge stretches out across the River Tagus and is a major landmark not to be missed.
Since the end of the twentieth century, thanks to EU funding, the old city of Lisbon has been given a new lease of life and it is now an international city which attracts lots of visitors and is almost as interesting as Barcelona.