We are looking into booking a hotel in the Alfama district for our first trip to Lisbon. It seems like a lot of new boutique hotels are popping up in the Alfama district, which was a former (grim) shipyard area. Is this a decent area to base our Lisbon activity out of? Is it easy to find transportation (e.g., taxis or subway) to get to the other more popular sightseeing areas? The other hotel choice we like is also in a trendy bairro, the Príncipe Real. Which is the better for our base camp? Any thoughts? Thanks.
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Cascais, Portugal
1824 posts
Alfama is one of the oldest parts of Lisbon and is very picturesque with narrow winding streets and LOTS of hills! It doesn't have metro stops but you would be able to find taxis, which are quite reasonably priced. There are lots of view points over the city and it's a very popular area with tourists.
I'm not as familiar with the other area.
Lisbon Lux is a website you might want to visit. You can get more info on both locations (and lots of other things in Lisbon) to help you make your decision. If you don't mind the hills and needing to use taxis, trams or walk - Alfama would be a more unique location IMO.