By Harry Nara · Last updated
Stay in the Baixa or Chiado if you want flat ground and everything within reach, Alfama to be inside the oldest part of the city, Bairro Alto or Príncipe Real for the best evenings, Avenida da Liberdade for quiet and space, and Belém if the monuments are the trip. In every other city on this site the question is how far. In Lisbon the question is how steep, and the two are not related.
Every other city on this site asks you to judge a distance. Lisbon asks you to judge a gradient, and a map will not show you one. Five hundred metres along the river is nothing; five hundred metres inland from the same point can be a climb that turns a casual dinner into a decision. The city is honest about this once you know where to look: the Elevador da Glória, the funicular that has hauled people from Restauradores up to Bairro Alto since 24 October 1885, covers 275 metres in about three minutes on a gradient of 17.7 per cent, or one in 5.65. That is the scale of the thing a flat map is hiding from you, and it is the single most useful number to carry around Lisbon.
The reason the city is shaped this way is the reason half of it looks planned and the other half does not. At about 09:40 on the morning of Saturday 1 November 1755, an earthquake now estimated at magnitude 7.7 or greater destroyed 85 per cent of Lisbon’s buildings. The Marquis of Pombal, prime minister from 1750 to 1777, took charge of the rebuilding, and what went up in the ruined lower town was a grid, laid out flat and regular in place of the tangled streets that had been there before. Its buildings were framed with the gaiola pombalina, a symmetrical wooden lattice designed to distribute the force of a quake, and it is one of the first examples of earthquake-resistant construction anywhere. They tested the models by marching troops around them to simulate the shaking.
So the Baixa is flat because it was rebuilt flat, and it is the only substantial piece of central Lisbon that is. Alfama, on the slope between São Jorge Castle and the river, was not destroyed and has remained a labyrinth of narrow streets and small squares, which is precisely why it is wonderful to walk through and punishing to arrive at with a suitcase. Bairro Alto sits on the hill on the other side. Every area below is either on the flat or on a slope, and which one it is will shape your days more than the number of metres to the nearest sight.
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The best areas to stay in Lisbon
The flat ground, and the easiest arrival in the city
Baixa, Chiado and Cais do Sodré
Suits: First visits, short trips, anyone with a heavy suitcase, and anyone who would rather not climb
If you take one thing from this page, it is that the Baixa is the flat one. That sounds trivial until you have dragged luggage up from a taxi drop somewhere else, or realised at the end of a long day that getting home involves a hill. Everything here is on the level, the grid makes it legible, and the metro, the trams and the trains along the river all converge within a few hundred metres.
Chiado, immediately west and slightly above, is the better half if you can spend a little more: bookshops, cafés and the theatres, with the Bairro Alto stairs at the top of it. Cais do Sodré, down on the water, has become the third part of this area worth considering, with the Time Out market at one end and the ferries across the Tagus at the other. All three keep you on or near the flat, and all three put you inside walking distance of the rest of the centre.
Watch out: This is the most heavily visited ground in Lisbon and it can feel like it, particularly the stretch between Rossio and Praça do Comércio. The Pombaline buildings are handsome but they were not built for hotels, so rooms tend to be narrow and interior ones can be dark. Cais do Sodré has an active late-night strip around Rua Nova do Carvalho, which is excellent if you want it and audible if you do not.
- Splurge Corpo Santo Lisbon Historical Hotel The building incorporates a surviving section of the 14th-century Muralha Fernandina, the medieval city wall, and looks out over 17th-century noble houses, which is an unusual amount of history for a five-star with a hot tub, a fitness centre and a terrace. It is rated 9.6 across more than fourteen hundred reviews, the joint best-reviewed property on this page, and stands about four hundred metres from Chiado on the flat.
- Sweet spot AlmaLusa Baixa/Chiado A renovated 18th-century building on Praça do Município, which is to say one of the original Pombaline squares, with a terrace, room service and a massage service. Commerce Square and Rossio are both a short walk, Chiado and the waterfront a little further, and none of it involves a climb.
- Budget My Story Hotel Figueira Soundproofed rooms, family rooms, room service and an Italian restaurant downstairs carrying vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and dairy-free options, at the cheapest rate in this area. It sits directly on Praça da Figueira, which puts the tram stops and Rossio at the door, and it has been reviewed more than two thousand eight hundred times.
The part the earthquake spared, and the hardest to arrive at
Alfama and Graça
Suits: Repeat visitors, travellers without much luggage, and anyone who wants the oldest Lisbon outside their door
Alfama is the one part of central Lisbon that is still arranged the way it was before 1755, and walking it is the closest the city comes to time travel: washing lines over the lanes, fado drifting out of doorways in the evening, and a view of the Tagus every time the buildings break. Graça, above it, is calmer and residential, and the miradouros along the top are where the whole city lays itself out below you.
The honest trade is arrival and departure. You will do this climb every day, twice, and on the last morning you will do it with your bags. That is entirely manageable at thirty and genuinely hard at seventy, and it is the reason the recommendation below leans on the properties that solve it rather than the prettiest ones. If the stairs are a problem, take the Baixa and come up here on foot in the evening instead.
Watch out: This is the steepest and most awkward area on the page and you should go in knowing it. The lanes are too narrow for a car to reach many addresses, so a taxi will leave you at the nearest square and the rest is stairs and cobbles. Very few buildings have lifts. It is also the most apartment-dominated district in central Lisbon, so genuine hotels are scarce, and the tram 28 route through it is the city’s best-known pickpocketing ground.
- Splurge Vincci Alfama A terrace, room service, a concierge and a 24-hour desk with express check-in and out, which is more hotel infrastructure than this neighbourhood usually offers, and the breakfast is rated exceptional. It is rated 9.4 across more than nine hundred reviews and sits on the Calçada de São Vicente, on the Graça side where vehicles can still reach you.
- Sweet spot Pousada Alfama Soundproofed rooms, a bar, a 24-hour desk and step-free facilities for guests with reduced mobility, which in Alfama is worth more than any amount of decoration. It holds 9.2 across more than eleven hundred reviews with a location score of 9.6, on Rua de São Tomé between the castle and the Graça viewpoints.
- Budget Hotel Convento do Salvador Set in a former convent with a garden and a sun deck, and the practical answer to this whole area: it has a lift and rooms adapted both for families and for guests with reduced mobility. The castle, the cathedral and the National Pantheon are each about six minutes on foot, and it has been reviewed nearly two and a half thousand times.
The best evenings in Lisbon, on top of a hill
Bairro Alto and Príncipe Real
Suits: Second visits, night owls, food and bar trips, and anyone who does not need an early start
By day Bairro Alto is a quiet grid of shuttered streets, and by night it is the loudest place in the city. Príncipe Real, just up and north, is the grown-up version: a handsome square, a concentration of the best independent shops and restaurants in Lisbon, and enough distance from the noise to sleep. Between them they are where most people who know the city well choose to spend their evenings.
Getting up and down is the thing to plan for. With the Glória closed, the practical routes from the Baixa are the Elevador de Santa Justa, the steps up through Chiado, or a longer walk around. None of that matters much at the start of an evening and it matters a great deal at the end of one, so if you are staying up here it is worth being deliberate about which end of the neighbourhood you book.
Watch out: Bairro Alto is a nightlife district in the most literal sense: the drinking happens in the street rather than inside the bars, and it runs until the small hours from Thursday onwards. A room without soundproofing here is a mistake. The hill is also harder to get up than it used to be, because the Elevador da Glória funicular has been suspended since a derailment on 3 September 2025 in which sixteen people died, and is not scheduled to reopen until 2029.
- Splurge The Lumiares Hotel & Spa A spa and wellness centre, a sauna, a fitness centre and a rooftop that looks across to the Tagus on one side and São Jorge Castle on the other, in a Small Luxury Hotels member where the units come with kitchenettes. It is rated 9.4 and sits in the middle of Bairro Alto, about four hundred metres from Chiado.
- Sweet spot Dear Lisbon - Charming House A garden, a terrace and an outdoor swimming pool, which is close to unheard of in a guest house on this hill, plus a breakfast rated exceptional. It is rated 9.1 across more than fourteen hundred reviews, and sits on the Príncipe Real side about five hundred metres above the Ribeira market.
- Budget Bairro House Lisbon Charming Suites Eight suites, adults only, with soundproofed rooms, balconies, private check-in and a lift, which is the specific combination this street demands. It stands on Rua da Barroca in the heart of Bairro Alto, so you are directly above the noise rather than a walk from it, and the soundproofing is the reason that works.
Space, quiet and the easiest airport run
Avenida da Liberdade and Marquês de Pombal
Suits: Longer stays, families, light sleepers, and travellers who want a proper hotel rather than a converted house
This is where Lisbon keeps its full-sized hotels, and if the converted townhouses and eight-room guest houses elsewhere on this page do not suit you, this is the correction. Rooms are bigger, lifts are standard, and the things that matter on a longer stay, a gym, a pool, a desk that is staffed at four in the morning, are actually present.
It is also the simplest base for getting in and out. The airport is a short ride on the red metro line with one change, or about fifteen minutes by taxi, which is the shortest airport transfer of any capital on this site. The Baixa is ten to fifteen minutes downhill on foot, and the metro runs the length of the avenue if you would rather not walk back up.
Watch out: It is the least characterful address on this page by a distance: a wide 19th-century boulevard of luxury shops and office blocks, handsome but not somewhere you will wander. You are also above and behind the old city, so everything historic is a walk downhill on the way out and a walk uphill on the way back, or a metro stop. The avenue itself carries heavy traffic.
- Splurge PortoBay Marquês A rooftop terrace with a plunge pool and a bar looking over the city, plus a sauna, a steam bath, a fitness centre and bicycles to borrow, with Rituals toiletries in the bathrooms. It is rated 9.0 across nearly a thousand reviews and stands on Rua Duque de Palmela, immediately off the top of the avenue.
- Sweet spot Hotel Britania Art Deco Lisboa Genuine 1940 art déco with cork floors, double glazing, bathrobes and Molton Brown toiletries, adults only, with a lift and bicycles available. It is rated 9.6 across more than thirteen hundred reviews, the joint highest on this page, and sits on a quiet side street off the avenue about three hundred metres from Avenida metro station.
- Budget Maxime Boutique Hotel A lift, step-free facilities, a bar, a terrace and Nespresso machines in the rooms, in the building that was one of the capitals of Lisbon nightlife in the 1940s. It has been reviewed more than three thousand six hundred times, the largest sample on this page, and stands on Praça da Alegria just off the avenue.
The monuments on the waterfront, six kilometres from everything else
Belém
Suits: Return visits, families, and anyone whose trip is really about the Age of Discovery sites
Belém is the stretch of waterfront from which the ships left, and it holds the Jerónimos Monastery, the Torre de Belém, the Padrão dos Descobrimentos and the MAAT, along with the original pastéis de Belém. If those are the reason you are coming to Portugal, staying here means seeing them before and after the coach parties rather than among them, which genuinely changes the experience.
The trade is everything else. This is the flattest and most spacious area on the page and the furthest from the city you came to see, and the return trip is along a single tram and train corridor that is busy at both ends of the day. It works well as a second base on a longer trip, or for a family who would rather have room and river air than be in the middle of things.
Watch out: You are not in Lisbon in any practical sense: the centre is a twenty-minute tram or train ride each way, and doing that twice a day eats a short trip. Belém is also quiet at night, with very little to walk out to once the museums shut and the day visitors have gone. Choose it because you want the river and the monuments, never because it looked close on a map.
- Splurge Altis Belém Hotel & Spa A Michelin-starred restaurant in Feitoria, indoor and outdoor pools, a spa, a sauna and a rooftop sun deck, in a five-star Design Hotels member sitting directly on the water at the Doca do Bom Sucesso. Rooms have Nespresso machines and panoramic waterfront views, and it rates 9.3 with a location score of 9.5.
- Sweet spot Palácio do Governador Two swimming pools, a spa, a hot tub, a garden and a fitness centre in a converted palace, which is a great deal of space for the money compared with anything central. It is rated 9.0 across more than a thousand reviews, a few minutes from the Torre de Belém and the MAAT.
- Budget Hotel Jerónimos 8 A secluded courtyard terrace, bicycles to borrow and some rooms with their own private terraces, at the lowest rate in the area. It stands directly beside the Jerónimos Monastery, which means you can be at the door before the queue forms, and it scores 9.5 for location.
When to book, and what it costs you
Two things are worth doing before you book in Lisbon that you would not bother with elsewhere. Look at where the address sits on a hill, not just how far it is from things, because the contour decides what your days actually feel like. And check the property listing for a lift, because a great many central Lisbon buildings are four or five storeys of converted townhouse with no way up but the stairs, and reception is not always on the ground floor. Beyond that, the usual applies: the good small properties in Alfama and Bairro Alto are genuinely small, often under ten rooms, so they sell out earlier than their rates suggest.
The best value is usually January and February.
Prices and availability tighten most in July and August.
The lift question deserves more than a line, because it is the most common way a Lisbon booking goes wrong. Outside the purpose-built hotels along Avenida da Liberdade, much of the central stock is converted housing on streets that were laid out before anyone imagined wheeled luggage, and in Alfama in particular a taxi frequently cannot reach the door at all. Booking.com lists an elevator under a property’s facilities when one exists, so the check takes seconds and is worth doing every time: of the fifteen properties on this page, Hotel Britania, Hotel Convento do Salvador, Bairro House and Maxime all state one explicitly, and Pousada Alfama and Maxime list step-free facilities for guests with reduced mobility. Absence from a listing is not proof there is no lift, so ask the property directly if it matters to you. It is also worth knowing that the Elevador da Glória, the funicular that used to solve the climb up to Bairro Alto, has been suspended since a fatal derailment on 3 September 2025 and is not expected back until 2029, so do not plan a stay on that hill around it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which area is best for a first visit to Lisbon?
The Baixa or Chiado, mainly because they are flat. Lisbon is a city of hills and the lower town is the one substantial piece of the centre that is not, which matters more than it sounds when you are arriving with luggage or walking home at the end of a long day. The grid also makes it easy to navigate, and the metro, trams and riverside trains all meet inside it. The trade is that it is the busiest part of the city and its buildings, handsome as they are, tend to produce narrow rooms.
Why is the centre of Lisbon a grid when the rest of the city is not?
Because it was rebuilt from nothing. An earthquake estimated at magnitude 7.7 or more struck at about 09:40 on 1 November 1755 and destroyed 85 per cent of the city’s buildings. The Marquis of Pombal directed the reconstruction of the lower town, and rather than restore the tangled streets that had been there he laid out a flat, regular grid, framed with the gaiola pombalina, a wooden lattice built to spread the force of a quake and one of the earliest earthquake-resistant designs anywhere. The models were tested by marching troops around them. Alfama, up on the slope, was not destroyed, which is why it still looks medieval.
Should I stay in Alfama?
It is the most atmospheric part of Lisbon and the most physically demanding place to sleep in it, and the decision usually comes down to luggage and stairs. The lanes are too narrow for cars to reach many addresses, so you will be carrying bags the last stretch, few buildings have lifts, and you will make the climb twice a day. Against that, it is the one district the earthquake spared and it is extraordinary to walk out into. If the stairs are a concern, base yourself in the Baixa and come up in the evening instead, or pick one of the few Alfama properties that has a lift.
Do I need to worry about the hills in Lisbon?
More than about distances, yes, and a map will not warn you. The funicular up to Bairro Alto climbs a gradient of 17.7 per cent, roughly one in 5.65, which gives you a sense of what the streets around it are doing. The practical approach is to check whether an address sits on the flat lower town or on one of the hills either side of it before you book, and to treat a short walk inland as a longer proposition than the same walk along the river. Trams, the metro and the Santa Justa lift all take some of the sting out, but they do not remove it.
Is the Elevador da Glória funicular running?
No. It has been suspended since a derailment on 3 September 2025 in which sixteen people were killed, and it is not scheduled to reopen until 2029. It had run since 24 October 1885 and is a listed national monument, and it was the usual way up from Restauradores to Bairro Alto, so its absence is worth factoring in if you are considering staying on that hill. The alternatives from the lower town are the Elevador de Santa Justa, the steps up through Chiado, or a longer way round on foot.
Checked against Wikipedia, 1755 Lisbon earthquake, Wikipedia, Pombaline Baixa, Wikipedia, Elevador da Glória. Hotel details are verified on each property’s own Booking.com listing.
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