Lisbon is a special city, where the influence of the vast Atlantic mingles with the typical colors and forms of the Mediterranean. It is a city of contrasts and surprising discoveries: a landscape of hills slipping into valleys that together tumble down to the river; an architecture that sees ancient buildings stand side-by-side with the most modern construction and the city’s spirit, where tradition continues to live and thrive alongside a flourishing cosmopolitanism…
Day 1 - Arrival at Lisbon and a private transfer will take you to your city-center hotel.
Later meet your local guide and start a walking tour to discover some of the secrets of this fascinating city. The Praça do Comércio, with its elegant arches facing the Tagus, is without doubt the ideal starting point for our tour. Then you will explore the streets of the Baixa, laid out in a special, ordered design according to the urban ideals of the Enlightenment. Here, we walk through the streets immortalized by the great poet Fernando Pessoa, before ambling up to the Chiado, where cafés, shops and bookshops still evoke the way of life described by the author of The Book of Disquiet.
Walk through the historic Chiado district, where you move among quaint cafés and enticing book, fashion and design stores, all set against the backdrop of a striking contemporary restoration project by leading Portuguese architect Siza Vieira. From the city’s most famous vantage point – São Pedro de Alcântara - view allows you to appreciate the urban development of the city. Afterwards you will visit S. Roque church which has one of the city's richest interiors. Dinner will be in a nice restaurant in the lively and vibrant Bairro Alto.
Day 2 - Today takes you on a journey through the medieval origins of the city – from the heights of the Castle of São Jorge, with its magnificent views, to the ancient cathedral and then descending into the streets of Alfama, in whose narrow, labyrinthine alleys one still breaths the air of an Arab city. It was from this neighborhood that lived the seafarers who left Lisbon to discover exotic new worlds. At lunch have the opportunity to taste the world’s finest grilled sardines in a traditional restaurant. In the afternoon, a visit to the Museu de Arte Antiga will give us the chance to soak up the treasures that testify to the rich cultural encounter between West and East. This is followed by more artistic and cultural riches at the breath-taking Mosteiro dos Jerónimos–outstanding example of the exuberant Maueline style with fine carving and vaulting and and the Torre de Belém also Manueline with Moorish decoration: both monuments are listed as World Heritage sites. After this enjoy dinner in a restaurant by the river.
Day 3 - The triumph of the baroque provides inspiration for which will be spent amid magnificent palaces, beautiful private gardens and extraordinary religious architecture, including gilded wood-carved interiors and stunning ceramic tiles.
In the Espírito Santo Silva Foundation – both a museum of decorative arts and a collection of craft workshops – we will come across a treasury of artisan skills unique in Europe working carefully on the evocative restoration of Portuguese aristocratic interiors of the 18th century. After lunch you will visit Palácio da Fronteira and gardens. The decorative profusion of tiles collected here provides a special surprise – the polychromatic paintwork mixing the picaresque with the humorous to impressive effect. The fountains and baroque sculptures of the garden make it one of the most interesting examples of its kind from the 18th Century, and something not to be missed. End the day will be at the Museu Nacional do Azulejo (ceramic tiles), a superb collection of one of Portugal’s great art forms with pieces from the 15th century to the present day. Dine in a Fado restaurant to meet a new generation of artist devoted to this ancient form of art.
Day 4 - You will bid the city farewell with a surprise, at the modern Parque das Nações and its concentration of world-class contemporary architecture built for Expo ’98. Here we find architect Siza Vieira’s masterpiece, the Pavilhão de Portugal, with its pala of extraordinary lightness that appears to float on the air. Then there’s the fantastic Oceanário, the work of Peter Chermayeff and the Estação do Oriente of Santiago Calatrava among other imposing attractions. And there’s still time for a last stroll along the banks of the Tagus, so wide and golden in this area of the city that it is called the Mar da Palha, or Straw Sea. Finally a private transfer will take you to Lisbon airport.
Lisbon is a special city, where the influence of the vast Atlantic mingles with the typical colors and forms of the Mediterranean. It is a city of contrasts and surprising discoveries: a landscape of hills slipping into valleys that together tumble down to the river; an architecture that sees ancient buildings stand side-by-side with the most modern construction and the city’s spirit, where tradition continues to live and thrive alongside a flourishing cosmopolitanism…
Day 1 - Arrival at Lisbon and a private transfer will take you to your city-center hotel.
Day 2 - Today takes you on a journey through the medieval origins of the city – from the heights of the Castle of São Jorge, with its magnificent views, to the ancient cathedral and then descending into the streets of Alfama, in whose narrow, labyrinthine alleys one still breaths the air of an Arab city. It was from this neighborhood that lived the seafarers who left Lisbon to discover exotic new worlds. At lunch have the opportunity to taste the world’s finest grilled sardines in a traditional restaurant.
Day 4 - You will bid the city farewell with a surprise, at the modern Parque das Nações and its concentration of world-class contemporary architecture built for Expo ’98. Here we find architect Siza Vieira’s masterpiece, the Pavilhão de Portugal, with its pala of extraordinary lightness that appears to float on the air. Then there’s the fantastic Oceanário, the work of Peter Chermayeff and the Estação do Oriente of Santiago Calatrava among other imposing attractions. And there’s still time for a last stroll along the banks of the Tagus, so wide and golden in this area of the city that it is called the Mar da Palha, or Straw Sea. Finally a private transfer will take you to Lisbon airport.