The perfect weekend in Lisbon, Europe's most photogenic capital
There is authentic, genuine and welcoming hospitality; and a wave of new and affordable hotels along cobbled streets and flanking bougainvillea-clad squares. Lisbon, unlike so much of the world, has not gone global: it remains resolutely Portuguese, looking out to sea, with its back to the rest of Europe and its identity intact. Here's how to spend 48 hours in this exciting city.
For more Lisbon inspiration, see our guides to the city's best hotels, restaurants, bars, shopping and attractions.
In this guide:
What's new in Lisbon this summer
See: The Armando Martins Museum of Contemporary Art
The Armando Martins Museum of Contemporary Art (MACAM) recently opened in the former Condes da Ribeira Grande Palace. Its wonderful private collection offers a journey through Portuguese art from the late 19th century to the present day. There's a hotel on site for those who can't tear themselves away, along with a restaurant, plus a bar housed in a former chapel.
Eat: Cervejaria Liberdade
This classic restaurant on the main thoroughfare of Avenida Liberdade has reopened after a complete refresh by Galician design company Martinez Otero, with clay tiles by Maora Ceramic and tableware by Portugal's renowned Vista Alegre. As part of the Tivoli Avenida Liberdade Lisboa hotel, you can expect classic trolley service: steak tartare and crêpes suzette are prepared before you, which feature on the menu alongside the freshest of John Dory fish fillets with cockle rice.
Stay: The Verse
This centrally located house has been turned into 15 stylish apartments by renowned interior designer Joana Astolfi and are perfect to use as a base for exploring Lisbon. The Verse 's cocktail bar, on the ground floor, makes an ideal meeting point and offers a chance to sample Portuguese gins and local wines.
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Expert reveals why you MUST change your ‘outside' clothes as soon as you get home & the bad habit that's making you ill
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''I think people underestimate or simply forget how dirty our bags are, but it doesn't take an expert to realise how much bacteria and grime lurks on public transport,'' said Ella. ' 'I try to wipe mine down with a leather safe, anti-bacterial wipe most days.'' 10 Grossest Areas People Forget to Clean By Danielle Mason, who has 20 years of experience Under and Behind the Fridge Crumbs, dust, and spills accumulate over time, attracting pests and creating bad odours. Shower Curtain & Liner These collect mildew and soap scum but are often overlooked. Wash or replace them regularly to keep your bathroom fresh. Toothbrush Holder One of the germiest places in the bathroom, filled with bacteria and toothpaste residue. Rinse and disinfect it weekly. Dishwasher Filter Food particles and grease build up, leading to unpleasant smells and reduced efficiency. Remove and clean the filter every few weeks. Washing Machine Seal The rubber gasket traps mould, mildew, and detergent buildup. 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No poetry, please — ‘OOO' does not stand for overly odious odes
The sounds of summer used to consist of the thwack of leather on willow and the call of 'new balls, please'. To those, we must now add the ping of an out of office message, or 'OOO', the noise you possibly make after eating too much moussaka in a Greek taverna. The acronym — and its unpronounceability — is such a feature of the summer holidays that many Microsoft employees choose to call it 'Oof', which supposedly stands for Out of Facility, a hangover from when early computer programmers were recruited from academia. Though Amy Stevenson, a Microsoft corporate archivist, points out that this is probably a 'backronym' — there is no evidence that anyone actually said 'out of facility'; it's just easier to say Oof, than Ooo. Either way, we are entering peak OOO season and with that comes tortuous attempts by workers to sound either terribly important or be the office wit. The default for execs is the brusque: 'I am away on annual leave until July 28. Please contact my EA in my absence.' Do not do this, unless you are in the Coldstream Guards and believe a two-week jaunt to Tuscany should be treated as a military exercise. 'Annual leave' has crept into office parlance, but is insufferably pompous. What's wrong with: 'I'm away on holiday'? 'Annual leave' has legalistic overtones. It groups your time off with the kids around a swimming pool with sick leave, or compassionate leave, as if your summer break is something you are reluctantly taking under contractual obligation. It's OK to be on holiday. At the other end of the scale is one I saw recently: 'Knock knock. Who's there? Not me. Knock again on 21 July.' This was from a copywriter, so it was just about acceptable. But using an OOO as a vehicle to express your personality has become a dangerous trend. I've seen people post poetry, the itinerary of their road trip across America and their summer reading list in their OOOs. • This week I attended the Google journalist summer party and was shown by a Googler their boss's OOO, which started: 'Thanks for your note. Long story short, I'm currently in my bride era and out of the office. The planets and fates and all the stars aligned — and I'm saying I do, because it's a love story, baby.' There were a few more paragraphs of this, before we got to the little footnote: 'This out of office was inspired by Taylor Swift lyrics and partially composed with the help of Gemini.' Welcome to the future. Not only do you have to wade through OOOs that are long, comedic homages to pop stars, but ones that have been crafted by the very machines about to steal your job. I've seen another this week, which explained that the person was away at an Oasis concert in Manchester — made up of the band's song titles ('I'm on a Supersonic journey to Heaton Park', etc). I thought it was moderately droll. But now that I know the person may have resorted to AI, I am thinking it was a warning sign that civilisation is collapsing. An OOO should not be an attempt from consultants to prove they could have enjoyed an alternative career as a Funky Pigeon joke card writer. It should be a vehicle to ensure you enjoy some undisturbed time away from your responsibilities, while providing a substitute person to contact. • Academics urged to end 'con' of jargon-filled writing In our always-on culture, too many people focus on the first part of this, rather than the second. John Oxley, a political strategist, on the Bluesky social media platform, cited a particularly egregious example. The individual set up an OOO that listed various people to contact in his absence before, as a final option, an email address he would be monitoring: MyProblemIsMoreImportantThanYourFamilyTime@[company].com. Ouch. Many people have adopted a less hostile approach, which is to tell people they are not reading emails, but they are returning on Aug 18 and if it's important they should re-email them then. You will be surprised how many people bother to email again. Mercedes-Benz workers in Germany are able to sign up to what it calls the 'Mail on Holiday' deletion service. People messaging the car company are given an alternative person to contact and then promptly told their email will be automatically deleted. You come back to the office not only with a suntan but with a wonderful clean, empty inbox. This, of course, only works because it has the full backing of the management. The problem is that remote and flexible working has blurred the boundaries between work and home life so much that a small number of people expect a reply at all times, an attitude which only encourages the baroque, comedic or aggressive OOOs in order to scotch this. • IBM registered at the Intellectual Property Office a bit of software that would ensure that if you started to email someone from whom you had already received an out of office message then you would get a pop-up notification reminding you they were unavailable. It was a clever solution, but I don't believe any email provider adopted it. And however perfectly crafted the OOO is, too many people use WhatsApp as a form of business communication, circumnavigating your elaborate attempts to get some peace poolside. I find the following message remarkably effective: 'I am away on holiday and trying to look at my emails just once a day, apologies in advance for the slow reply.' In this era no one is truly uncontactable and all attempts to thwart the inevitable are akin to Canute proving to his courtiers he could not stem the tide. The best we can hope for is a few hours of peace. Unless you have used AI to write your OOO — in which case I hope your holiday is ruined with people continually harassing you.
