Hi.
Hoping for some help. We are from Australia and heading to a wedding in Portugal on 1 September.
The wedding is in a garden near Belem
Staying 8 nights as I reckon 2-3 days will be tied up with wedding stuff abd we want to slowly take in the city
Am getting anxious as I booked a lovely guesthouse in Belen - Geronimos that was on the wedding brochure of hotels and it looked relaxed and comfortable. Now I’m wondering if we should be staying more centrally.
Any help gratefully received 🙏
without getting into American history, I think you mean Jerónimos.
let's put this into perspective, you are travelling all the way from Australia to Lisbon - and are wondering whether being 5km from the centre is a bit too far?? Meanwhile hundreds of people each day are travelling out to Belem just to try the Pastéis. And Belem is 5km closer to the beaches around Cascais....
Deep breath, calm down, have a nice time....
Sorry Late at night here and I think predictive txting got me with spelling!!
I know I need a chill pill but am getting lots of friends saying ‘blah blah blah! I originally picked there Jeronimos Guesthouse as it looked more relaxed, thoughtful and less bling
And am lucky. I can eat Pasteis del Nara (sure spelling wrong again) every morning!
In addition to being near the wedding location, one thing to be said about Belem....it is flat - and in Lisbon, that is almost unique. I haven't been to Lisbon since 2019, and things change of course, but my recollections from that visit are that public transportation is very good and inexpensive relative to other European cities. We had Lisboa Cards (purchased at the airport upon arrival from Bilbao) and found them very useful. I suggest investigation into that topic. At the time, the card provided entrance to a large number of attractions, included transportation use on light rail, buses and even the train to Sintra. The airport is practically downtown - but be aware of Lisbon taxi drivers. They are notorious for overcharging - especially from the airport. Your Belem location is quite a ride from the airport, so Uber may be a better option. If I were to relocate to a European city, it would be Lisbon. Don't forget to try the "green wine"!
We visited Belem and the Jerónimos Monastery via a quick and easy bus ride from the Praça do Comércio ( I think buses, trams and maybe a train too run between Lisbon and Belem), so it's not like you'll be super isolated out in Belem.
A prior visit to Lisbon had us staying in a hotel up near the Eduardo VII Park (Parque Eduardo VII) so that meant a bit of a walk from the core area each day. But our natural way of touring had us tackling several things during the day, and really only heading to the hotel before dinner to regroup, change, freshen up, and then head back into the core for dinner and our evening wandering. Probably similar to what you might do, but can maybe tweak your schedule to do your Lisbon explorations in one swoop per day, so just a short trip in and out from Belem each day you want to see Lisbon.
I bet the guesthouse you picked will be perfect, so I wouldn't sweat it too much. It really is quite close to the core of touristy Lisbon.
good point about the trains, 8 minutes to Cais do Sodre in the central area every 15 minutes weekdays, every 20 minutes weekends
https://cp.pt/info/documents/d/cp/comboios-urbanos-lisboa-cascais-1
the tram takes longer but goes deeper into the centre
