5 days in Lisbon

Some of the sights we saw in and around Lisbon included:

Castelo de Sao Jorge
The "Sé" (Lisbon Cathedral), which has an archeological dig/ruins in the cloisters
The Colonizers' Monument (more commonly known as the 'Discoverers' Monument) and the nearby Belem Tower and Jeronimos Monastery (a favourite of mine)
The Pantheon
Sintra (visited the Pena Palace, the Moorish castle ruins, and the Town (National) Palace). Sintra is a short ride by train from Lisbon.
Cascais-a lovely beach town that is also a short ride by train from Lisbon
A ride on Tram 28 to the Estrela Basilica. Visit it and the lovely park across the street.
Walk around the castle district and the downtown/harbourfront area.

Have heard great things about the Tile Museum. The Gulbenkian Museum is quite lovely. The Oceanário (Aquarium) is the largest in Europe, and really excellent. The ruins of the Carmo Convent (rendered roofless in the 1755 earthquake) are well worth seeing.

I really enjoyed the tile musuem, more than I expected from what I had read about it. It is a short tram ride - about 20 minutes- along the waterfront to get there- you don't need to taxi it there despite what it says it in the guide books. If you go to the Jeronimo monastery make sure you are in the right line for tickets. A museum is right beside it and it also had a ticket line. I spent about 30 minutes in the wrong line and when I finally had a ticket for the monastery the line up to get in was long. I crossed the street to go to the modern art museum for a few hours and when I was finished there, the line up at the monastery was gone and I had a nice time wandering around there without a huge crowd. I also enjoyed the Gulbenkian and the National Musuem (?) - not the one beside the monastery.

There are lines for the San Justa elevator- personally I don't think it's worth it for the wait and for the $. If you are at the Carmo convent are you can walk across to the upper platform of it.

I didn't think the Sao Jorge castle ruins were very exciting but the view of the Tagus estuary from that hill is incredible. The tower of Belem is interesting but not a must - again line up and you will understand why they limit the entry numbers- the stairwell to the top is so narrow they control the timing for going up and down.

I enjoyed a day trip to Sintra to see Pena Palace and the house with the unusual gardens - forgetting the name of it. You can walk down from Pena Palace through Pena park to the town. To see all the main sites in 1 day would be a lot in my opinion. I didn't see the Moorish castle ruins or the other palace (?) in Sintra. Sintra is a ~30 minute commuter train ride from the city central station.

One day I took a guided walking food and culture tour - it was about 3-4 hours - you stop at about 5 restaurants throughout the city and get a small portion and learn about the city. The guide was excellent - the only turn off was at the end on the tour the guide was pressing us heavily to leave a review on websites. When I was booking the tour I had the impression that they weren't the best known or "top "tour company.

I was in Lisbon for a week in 2019 and for 2 days in 2018.

Sintra, the Explorers Monument, and the Aquarium are the only things that stood out for me in Lisbon.