Originally Posted by
theshaun
We visited Lisbon earlier this summer. The Uber driver that took us in to Belem was furious that the city decided summer was the best time to work on the tower. In his opinion, the best tourist stop in the city. In truth we didn't really care for Lisbon overall. Just another city in our opinion. We did a tuk tuk tour on arrival and that was a great way to hit all the sights that seemed worth seeing.
There is always going to be a degree of similarity to major European Capital cities. They have their palaces, government houses and major museums. They have large areas that are essentially tourist theme parks.
Unfortunately many of the unique sites in Lisbon were closed when I was there (trip was planned before this was known). Most notably, the Belem tower, the funiculars and the elevator.
But the custard tarts didn't disappoint and the tile museum was a unique place, so I don't regret it.
As always with travel for me, the overall experience is more than the sum of its parts.
The experiences of the airports and the public transport systems definitely feels like it has added to the experience rather than just an evil to be endured. I know a lot of FTers will never take public transport and prefer organised tours, but I love getting lost and sometimes discovering hidden gems, even if it costs me a lot of shoe leather. As someone who is usually pretty sedentary, I probably need the exercise anyway.