Where to stay in Lisbon: choose the hill, then the hotel

Chiado is the hinge of old Lisbon: a few upmarket streets of shops, pavement cafés, theatres and the Museu Nacional de Arte Contemporânea, on the slope between the Baixa's grid and the Bairro Alto. It is busy from mid-morning, and its western edge, Praça Luís de Camões, is where the Bairro Alto's evenings begin; the 28E tram crosses the square until after midnight. The hills are real but short, and you are never more than a few minutes from a good table.

Baixa-Chiado station, on the blue and green Metro lines, has one exit on Largo do Chiado and another down in the Baixa on Rua do Crucifixo. The 28E stops at Chiado and Camões on its way east to the Sé and Alfama, and the 24E leaves Camões for Príncipe Real and Rato. Rossio is 9 minutes on foot, the Time Out Market 10 and Praça do Comércio 11; the castle is 16, down through the Baixa and up the other side.

The trade is crowds and price: you pay for the address. The Bairro Alto Hotel stands on Camões itself, two minutes from the Metro, and The Ivens is three minutes from the station's Baixa exit.

The Baixa is the grid Lisbon rebuilt after the 1755 earthquake, in the valley between the Bairro Alto and Alfama hills, with Rossio at the top and Praça do Comércio on the river at the bottom, joined by the pedestrian Rua Augusta. It is souvenir shops, patisseries and café terraces, buses and trams on the streets still open to traffic, and the one level part of the centre, where a pushchair or a bad knee does not decide the route.

Transport is the reason to stay. Rossio (green line), Restauradores (blue), Baixa-Chiado (blue and green) and Terreiro do Paço (blue) sit on its edges; the 15E tram to Belém and the 737 bus to the castle leave from Praça da Figueira; and Rossio station starts the Sintra line. From Rossio, Chiado is 9 minutes on foot, Praça do Comércio 11, the castle 14 and the Miradouro de Santa Luzia 15.

None of our ten is in the Baixa: Chiado, 9 minutes up the hill, gives you the same reach with better evenings.

Príncipe Real is the hilltop beyond the Bairro Alto, between the São Pedro de Alcântara viewpoint and São Bento. Its centre is a garden square with a playground, a kiosk café and a centuries-old cedar, ringed by nineteenth-century mansions, and the streets around it are restaurants and antique shops. It is residential after dark: close enough to walk to the Bairro Alto's bars and, in most streets, far enough not to hear them.

There is no Metro in the neighbourhood. From the garden, Avenida station (blue line) is 9 minutes down steep streets and Rato (yellow) 10. The 24E tram runs through to Camões one way and Rato the other, but its last weekday departure is at about eight in the evening, and the Glória funicular, the old short cut down to Restauradores, has been out of service since September 2025. On foot, the São Pedro de Alcântara viewpoint is 8 minutes, Chiado 14 and Rossio 15, and every one of those walks ends with a climb home.

Memmo Príncipe Real is on Rua Dom Pedro V, three minutes from the garden; Palácio Príncipe Real is five minutes below the square, in its own garden.

Alfama is Lisbon's oldest neighbourhood, a knot of cobbled lanes, stairs and steep climbs between the castle and the river, with the Sé, the Santa Luzia viewpoint and some of the city's oldest fado houses inside it. Cars are restricted, so luggage goes up on wheels or shoulders. The 28E climbs past from about six in the morning until after midnight, and through June the arraiais, the street parties of the Santos Populares, bring grilled sardines and loud music to the old quarters, peaking on the night of 12 to 13 June.

The Metro stays at the bottom: Terreiro do Paço, Baixa-Chiado and Martim Moniz are 11 to 14 minutes' walk from Santiago de Alfama, downhill going and uphill coming back. The 28E runs west to the Sé and Chiado, and the 737 bus climbs from Praça da Figueira to the castle. From Largo das Portas do Sol the castle is 5 minutes, Praça do Comércio 14 and Rossio 16.

Santiago de Alfama sits on a lane a few steps from the Santa Luzia viewpoint: the old city at dawn and after dark, and a climb from dinner anywhere else.

The Avenida da Liberdade runs from Restauradores up to the Marquês de Pombal roundabout, a boulevard of international fashion houses, cafés and terraces, with the Parque Eduardo VII beyond. It is the calm, orderly side of central Lisbon, with wide pavements and little nightlife, except on the evening of 12 June, when the city's neighbourhoods parade down it in the Marchas Populares.

The Metro is the point. Restauradores, at its foot, and Avenida, halfway up, are on the blue line, and Marquês de Pombal joins the blue and yellow; Carris buses 744 and 783 run from the Marquês to the airport. On foot from Marquês de Pombal station, Príncipe Real is 18 minutes, Rossio 23 and the Gulbenkian 25, but Chiado is 26 and the castle 35, so most evenings start with a taxi or the Metro.

Our hotel here is not on the Avenida itself. The Four Seasons Hotel Ritz Lisbon is on Rua Rodrigo da Fonseca, above the Marquês by the south-west corner of the park, eight minutes from the station. Sublime Lisboa, three minutes further west, is on the Amoreiras side and is listed there. Book here for a grand hotel, not to walk out of the door into old Lisbon.

The Bairro Alto is a tight grid of lanes above Chiado, full of small restaurants and bars. By day it is quiet; after dark its streets fill with people drinking outside, and the night drifts downhill through the Bica to Cais do Sodré. Cars are restricted and the cobbles are steep in places, but noise is the defining fact: sleep at the edge, and ask for a room away from the street.

São Pedro de Alcântara is that edge, a viewpoint on the Bairro Alto's north-east corner. The Glória funicular below it has been out of service since September 2025; the 51E bus stands in, looping from Restauradores up to Largo do Carmo and Largo Trindade Coelho every day from 07:00 to 21:00, and the 24E tram stops at the top. Restauradores station (blue line) is 8 minutes down the Calçada da Glória, Príncipe Real 8, Chiado 9 and Rossio 10.

Palácio Ludovice faces the viewpoint across the street, four minutes from the bars of Rua da Atalaia: near enough for a late dinner, and on the edge of the grid rather than in it.

Santa Catarina is a few residential streets on a hilltop above the river, with the lanes of the Bica falling away below. Its viewpoint, the Miradouro de Santa Catarina, with its statue of Adamastor, looks over the Tagus, the bridge and the rooftops, and it is a sunset gathering place, with music and beer into the night. Cars are restricted here too.

The Bica funicular, which climbed from Rua de São Paulo, has been out of service since September 2025; Carris's 22B bus covers the gap, from Cais do Sodré up to Largo do Calhariz and on to Príncipe Real, from about seven in the morning to half past eight at night on weekdays. The 28E stops at Calhariz (Bica) and Santa Catarina. From the viewpoint, Chiado is 9 minutes, the Time Out Market 10 and Rossio 16; Baixa-Chiado station is 9 minutes away and Cais do Sodré, for the Cascais trains and the ferries, 11, downhill.

Verride Palácio Santa Catarina is a few steps from the viewpoint. Ride-hailing cars stop at a barrier about 200 metres from the door while licensed taxis drive in, and the viewpoint's evening crowd is right outside.

Cais do Sodré is where the city meets the river and the trains. The green Metro line ends here, CP's Cascais line starts here, and ferries cross the Tagus to Cacilhas. The Mercado da Ribeira, with the Time Out Market inside, faces the station, and behind the square the bars of Rua Nova do Carvalho, the Pink Street, pick up where the Bairro Alto leaves off: clubs and old sailors' bars, with a sunrise on the way home for those who stay.

By day it is convenient rather than charming. Belém is 8 minutes on the Cascais train and Cascais 40, with trains every 20 minutes through the day, and the 15E tram to Belém stops outside. From Praça do Duque da Terceira, the square in front of the station, the Time Out Market is 5 minutes on foot, Chiado 8, Praça do Comércio 10 and Rossio 16.

None of our ten is down here, because the bars and clubs around Rua Nova do Carvalho keep going until sunrise; Verride and the Bairro Alto Hotel are ten minutes up the hill, close enough for the trains and far enough from the bars.

Amoreiras is where the Águas Livres aqueduct ends, at the Mãe d'Água reservoir, now part of the Water Museum, on the Jardim das Amoreiras: a shaded garden square with a kiosk café and the aqueduct's last arches along one side. Around it are apartment streets, the Arpad Szenes-Vieira da Silva Foundation, the Amoreiras shopping centre and Largo do Rato, a busy junction with the Metro beneath. There are no big sights and no nightlife: evenings are neighbourhood restaurants and early nights.

Rato is the end of the yellow line, one stop from Marquês de Pombal. The 24E tram runs from the Jardim das Amoreiras through Rato and Príncipe Real to Camões until about eight on weekday evenings, and bus 783 runs from the Amoreiras shopping centre to the airport. From Largo do Rato, the Jardim das Amoreiras is 5 minutes, Príncipe Real 11 and Rossio 24; Chiado is 24 minutes down and a taxi back.

Our two hotels sit at opposite ends. Hotel das Amoreiras is on the garden square, six minutes from Rato station. Sublime Lisboa is at the northern edge, on Rua Marquês de Subserra, a residential street three minutes from the Four Seasons: Marquês de Pombal station is 10 minutes away, Rato 11. Both suit a return visit or a long stay.