Lisbon Excursions

[Old Traveler]

My wife and I will be visiting Lisbon in Sept 2008 and the Splendor. We are considering the following day excursions. Can anyone who has taken them provide comments?

a) Evora (7 hours)
b) Alfama on Foot & Funicular (3.5 hours)
c) Sintra & Cascais (4 hours)

We enjoy walking and are considering just going up to Castelo Sao Jorge on our own and walking back down to the ship via the Alfama District.

[JuCo]

Oh, lucky you! Lisbon is just a lovely, lovely place.
If you only have one day, I'd say just wander Lisbon. The Castelo Sao Jorge is nice, you get a view of the city and there are great little restaurants and cafes down along the hillside. There's so much to see (not to mention eat & drink...)

If you have another day, I recommend Sintra & Cascais, with the understanding that Sintra is on a very steep hill. Cascais is calm and pretty, too. Less walking, but maybe after Sintra that'll be fine!

[Jill SC]

I'm going to be in Lisbon on a cruise in April. Here is a walking tour I found through the Alfama area and up to the Castelo. It includes a map. There is also another walking tour on this site.

Frommers has other walking tours in other cities. We used one in Rome through the ruins last year.


http://www.frommers.com/destinations...054020033.html

[Old Traveler]

Hi Jill, thanks for the comments on Lisbon. We will be stopping there while on a 12 day Dover to Civitavecchia cruise on the CCL Splendor in September. We were there several years ago on a land tour but only spent two days there and we missed a lot of the city. I looked at the walking tour you noted on Frommers' website. It looks pretty good and I will check their site for other walking tours for some of our other stops.

After our cruise, we are being picked up at the port and taken to Siena for 7 days in Tuscany. Found a local tour company with a great offering. But since this a cruise forum, I won't get into it.

[Destin Mom]

Hi Traveler. I'm not as big of a Lisbon fan but I will tell you the highlights of our week long stay there were the fado at a small cafe just past the entrance to St George's castle and walking through the Alfama. We did go to Sintra and Cascais during our Lisbon stay. If you were already planning to go to Puerto Banus/ Marbella, I would do a walking tour and St Georges. Sintra and Cascais are very pretty but sort of like the not as pretty younger sister of Marbella/ Puerto Banus...she has a really nice personality though.

[Sonny V]

My wife and I will be in Lisbon on Arpil 22nd. We be there from 9am to 5pm and we were thinking about walking around or doing a walking tour. Is there anything we shouldn't miss? We really don't have much time and want to make the best of the time we have in Lisbon. We'll be on the Navigator of the Seas.

Sonny

[Jill SC]

Lisbon and area have lots to see. Two areas of interest are the Belem area which has the Belem Tower, the Jeronimos Monastery, the presidential palace and the coach museum. Another great area is to climb up through the Alfama (old city with the narrow streets) to St. Jorge castle.
And if you are into museums, the Gulbenkian museum is fabulous. A little bit of everything in it.
The above frommers link has lots of suggestions but this wilitravel site has info about getting around and the cost of admission.

http://wikitravel.org/en/Lisbon#Get_around