Visiting Lisbon differently and its Riviera in October is the ideal season to discover the south of Portugal without hordes of tourists. We visited Lisbon's Riviera and its chic seaside resorts during a day's road trip in a Land Rover under beautiful blue skies.
We went to discover the westernmost point of the European continent but also surf spots. An impression of the end of the world at only 2h30 flight from Paris. We also had the chance to taste the unique experience of an ultra-fast catamaran race, the Extreme Sailing Series, which this year is making a stopover in the Portuguese capital. A very rare opportunity to visit Lisbon at the same time. All this with temperatures approaching 25 degrees!
We invite you to relive our adventures in Lisbon around gastronomy and road trips in the vicinity of the Portuguese capital in this new post of our travel blog with as a bonus our tips and good plans to enjoy the atmosphere of southern Portugal out of season.
Visit Lisbon differently and its Riviera
We had already come to visit Lisbon 9 years ago in the middle of summer. The atmosphere in Lisbon in October is really more local. And that is something we can't help but appreciate. And then, new places to eat well have opened their doors since our first stay. It's an opportunity for us to rediscover the city from a new angle: gastronomy.
Visiting Lisbon in a different way
Easily accessible from all European cities, enjoying a more than privileged climate where summer seems to go on forever, with a nightlife that has nothing to envy to Barcelona or Prague that we know well and a gastronomy that has reinvented its classics, Lisbon has become a cheap and unmissable destination in Europe.
To get around, you can take a taxi or walk, but the tramway is an excellent way to visit Lisbon because there are many hills in the city and walking is not always relaxing.
Contrary to our habits, we are not going to detail here all the visits to do in Lisbon because we had already done the must-do's during our previous stay like the visit of the famous Saint George's castle built on the highest hill of the Portuguese capital and which allows to enjoy an exceptional panoramic view of the whole city.
However, we returned to the famous Belem Tower built on the banks of the Tagus estuary to taste some delicious local specialities, the pasteis de nata, just a stone's throw from the city's emblematic monument.
All tourists go to the Antiga Confeitaria de Belém at 84-92 route de Belém, a local institution. We preferred to taste them accompanied by a good coffee 50m from the torre de Belém on the banks of the Tagus at the Confeitaria Nacional Belém founded in 1829. The view on the monument and the famous bridge of April 25th which looks like the one in San Francisco is really worth it. What's more, the racing village of the Extreme Sailing Series catamarans is only a few hundred metres from the site.
In this article, we'll start by giving you some good places to eat local in Lisbon. Another way to visit Lisbon, isn't it?
In the evening, we spent some time in the Bairro Alto district with its cobbled streets full of shops and restaurants.
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