For our summer trip with Mel and Dave, the planning started in September. Why? It was pretty simple, Vic and Mel were in Paris, Dave was in Tokyo, and I was in Toronto. I was on YYZ Deals, found a cheap flight for Lisbon and bang, we were committed to the trip around 9 months in advance!

The background story of why Portugal was so significant:

Vic and I went to Portugal 2 years ago and fell in love. We originally landed in Lisbon, took a train to Sintra for a day trip, and then went to Porto for 4 days. To this day, if you ask either of us, we’ll both tell you that Portugal has been our absolutely favourite destination.
Dave’s family originates from Portugal and he hadn’t been back for decades, so in a sense, this was him discovering his own heritage. And of course, this was Mel’s adopted culture as well.

We organized our trip into two parts. We spent half of the trip in Lisbon, and the other half of our trip in the Algarve region (the southern part of Portugal that includes many more beaches and a relaxed lifestyle).

6 Things to do in Lisbon

1. Make sure you have everything you need to travel!

This is a major issue, no matter how experienced you are as a traveler. In my experience, there’s always one thing that you either forget or just think that you don’t need. Our most recent trips this year to Amsterdam and to New Orleans went well, but in both trips, Vic and I forgot to bring our personal first aid kit. In past trips, I forgot to pack my own sunscreen and had to borrow it from others. This time around, I was committed to making sure I had everything I need. Step 1 was to go on Ebates Canada to find myself a new laptop. At home, I use a desktop. On the road, I need somewhere to do work that comes up, and that’s where a laptop comes in handy. I went to Ebates, evaluated all the different retailers like Best Buy and Staples, and then searched each site until I found what I needed and wanted. I ended up getting a laptop from BestBuy and earning Cash Back on top of it; there’s no better feeling than having a big fat cheque come in!

The last thing I did was get some fresh clothes! Sure, I could go to the mall and look at clothing, but then I would have to deal with big crowds of people, and then bring the clothes home to try. I like to try my clothes on at home so I can get a real sense of how they feel, how they work with my wardrobe and my sneakers (of course…), and I don’t feel confined to a small change room. As I went through Ebates, I was able to earn cash back when I did my summer shopping at retailers like H&M, RW&Co, and Reebok!

2. Plan to go in June

This was a pure coincidence that it worked out in this manner, but we happened to go during the Lisbon festival. As part of the celebrations, you can experience the city at it’s liveliest. Music is bumpin’, people are dancin’, drinks are flowin’, and food is being grilled! There’s something unique and in all honesty, satisfying about having a meal that is being prepared by a person grilling right outside their home. This is what happens during the Lisbon festival; you can roam around the Alfama neighbourhood and people will have stalls set up right outside of their homes. Grilled sardines, bifana, and loads of Super Bock and Sagres for more than affordable prices, what’s there not to love!

3. Visit Miraduoro De Santa Luzia

We visited Miraduoro De Santa Luzia on multiple occasions during our trip. The view overlooks the older part of the city, so you have a beautiful lookout point from above the Aflama neighbourhood. In each of our visits, we went extremely early to avoid the crowds of people. This meant that we would bypass any lines to take photos from certain spots from the lookout. The price we had to pay, 6:00AM wake ups to be out of the house by 7:00AM. What a nice way to start the day!

4. Miradouro das Portas do Sol and the Comic Wall

The Miradouro das Portas do Sol is right up the block from the Miraduoro de Santa Luzia, approximately a 5 minute walk away. Again, you get a beautiful lookout of the city, specifically the Alfama neighbourhood. This area gets extremely busy during the day as well, and has individual stalls and vendors for people to see as well. Local artists, jewelry, and food stalls are in the area and make for a fun time to walk around. At the bottom of the stairs, you’ll discover a mural painted under a tunnel showing Portugal’s history as a naval country. Although I don’t read Portuguese (I know, how would you have guessed), it was incredible to piece it together and absorb history through a different light.

5. Make your way to Sintra

As you would expect, we repeated a few of the things we did from our previous trip. It’s a common thing to do when you travel somewhere for the second or third time, you know the lay of the land and are comfortable with some places. Sintra specifically is one of those places that brings in tourists and even more tourists. The last time we went to Sintra, we took a 3 hour hike up to Moors Castle. Needless to say, that was absolutely insane hiking uphill in the mountains for 3 hours. This time, we decided to walk to Quinta da Regaleira from the train station and then Uber up to Pena Palace when we finished. The tuktuk outside of the castle would have cost us 30 Euros (a steep price to pay for a 20 minute tuk tuk ride). We decided to Uber to Pena Palace, which took us an hour! Our driver took a completely wrong route, stating that he knew a different way that would be faster, which ended up leading us to a dead end. An HOUR of driving around in circles up and down a mountain side! But, on the other hand, the photos are great!

6. Visit Belem

Belem is not far from the city centre, and has some of the best pasteis de nata in the city. Make sure to pay a visit to Pasteis de Belem and enjoy some delicious egg tarts! The egg tarts are the food that Portugal is most known for, and Pasteis de Belem is the oldest shop that is still in business. Originating as a way for the priests from the monastery to sell their goodies, it is now run like a well-oiled machine. If you’re looking to get egg tarts to go on a busy day, you can have a massive line up of 40 people and still only spend 15 minutes all together!

We sat down for breakfast, had pastries and coffee, and enjoyed our sweet time! We visited Torre de Belem, which was historically a military watch tower before ships could enter the city. Now please excuse me as I try to re-live our Portugal journey by indulging in some pasteis de nata.

This post is sponsored by Indigo, Gap, Ebates, and CeraVe, but all thoughts and opinions are my own.