Is Lisbon Worth Visiting?

The short answer, both ways

Most answers to this question are a list of reasons to go. The honest version has two sides, because Lisbon is an excellent city for some trips and a frustrating one for others.

What Lisbon does better than anywhere else in Iberia

Lisbon’s strengths are not the headline monuments. They are the things you do between them.

1. The viewpoints are free. Portas do Sol, Santa Luzia, Senhora do Monte and São Pedro de Alcântara are public terraces, and collectively they are what visitors remember.
2. The old quarters are lived in. Alfama is a neighbourhood with washing on the balconies, not a museum district.
3. The river is part of the city. Baixa opens onto the Tagus, and Belém runs along it.
4. Sintra is forty minutes away by train, which puts one of the best day trips in Portugal within reach of a three-day trip.

What disappoints people about Lisbon

The disappointments are predictable, and most of them come from treating Lisbon like a flat city with a checklist.

1. The hills. Lisbon is spread across seven of them, and the walk between two points is often steeper than the map suggests.
2. Tram 28. In season the queue at Martim Moniz is often forty minutes, the carriage is packed, and pickpocketing concentrates on it.
3. The famous queues. The takeaway line at Pastéis de Belém and the queue for the Torre de Belém are often longer than the visit.
4. The rain. November averages 133.9 mm and October 110.6 mm, and the polished stone pavements are slippery when wet.
5. The heat on the climbs. August averages 27.4 days above 25°C, and the steepest streets are in the oldest quarters.

Lisbon or Porto?

This is the comparison most people are really making. Both are worth visiting; they suit different trips.

Rainfall figures are the 1991-2020 IPMA climate normals. With a week in Portugal, most people do both — three days in Porto and four in Lisbon.

When Lisbon is not worth it

The city is open all year, but the same trip is a different experience in different months. These are the 1991-2020 climate normals for Lisboa / Instituto Geofísico from IPMA.

1. November is the wettest month of the Lisbon year at 133.9 mm — the hills and the stone pavements make rain matter more here than in a flat city.
2. August is the hardest month for walking, with 27.4 days above 25°C and 10.2 above 30°C.
3. June and September are when Lisbon is most worth it: highs of about 26°C, little rain, and long evenings on the viewpoints.
4. December to February are mild, with highs of 15-16°C, but wet — worth it for a quiet, cheap city break rather than for the viewpoints.

How to make Lisbon worth it

Most of what makes Lisbon disappointing can be avoided with how the days are planned rather than where you go.

1. Walk every hill from the top down, and use the funiculars and trams for the climbs.
2. Give Belém its own morning, and walk past the takeaway queue at Pastéis de Belém to the tables inside.
3. Board Tram 28 at Campo de Ourique, or walk the same streets through Alfama.
4. Give Sintra a full day, or leave it out.
5. Travel in June or September if the dates are flexible.