I get around 2-3 DMs a week asking for Lisbon recommendations, and while I’m more than happy to share my favourite spots in this gorgeous city (seriously, hit me up), I thought it would be useful to share where I’m getting my info from.

Here are a few small things I’ve been doing these past few months to familiarise myself with our new city:

Reading: 

Lisboeta: Recipes from Portugal’s City of Light by Nuno Mendes (filled with stunning on-location photography from Andrew Montgomery). There’s so much more to this beautiful tome than recipes; it’s a love letter from Michelin-star chef Nuno Mendes to his hometown. We’ve also picked up Monocle’s Lisbon travel guide, great for getting a lay of the land and I’ll often pick up a copy of Time Out – even if it’s in Portuguese – as it’s often one of the first publications to feature new spots. 

Following: 

More and more, I’m finding that new places might only have an Instagram presence when they first open up. A few fave accounts for discovering some of the yummiest eats in the city in Lisbon include @lisboa.come, @ibrandling and @heyandiehey  – I’ve found some great places through these gorgeous feeds, including Ground Burger and Amelias. (you can also find me ‘gramming about the city at @natlisbonloves).

Whether it’s Lisbon or elsewhere, what I’ll often do when researching a city is look for like-minded creatives (photographers, stylists, bloggers, independent store owners etc) and see where they have been spending their time. I add anything that catches my eye to an Instagram collection (so cool that you can do that now), and from there add that to a custom Google Map that Ben and I download to our phones so we can easily open it up while wandering and see if anything we bookmarked is nearby.

 Downloading: 
Cafés de Lisboa by Sanda Vuckovic Pagaimo (aka Little Upsidedown Cake) on Pathport, who create travel guides by “Instagram’s most inspiring travellers and lifestyle experts”. This is a lovely guide to some of the coolest cafes in Lisbon, featuring gorgeous photography and a google maps link to all the places listed. There are lots of other destinations on Pathport, if you’re heading elsewhere. 

There are of course wonderful serendipitous discoveries, found as we explored – places like Crafty Corner (great craft beer), Luc Duc (yum ice cream) and A Janela (insanely good value brunch). We got some great recommendations from local peeps (Joana put us on to this great pizza place near Santa Apolonioa, lovely Gonzo introduced us to his favourite neighbourhood restaurant, Stop do Barrio and their amazing signature dish, Arroz Tamboril) and the usual Google searches (“best baos in Lisbon” and “best tacos in Lisbon” were two early ones, leading to yum dinners at Boa Bao and Pistola y Corazon respectively).

Ben and I have Google Map of our favourite places that we share with friends or family who come to visit, so hopefully we can flesh those out into some sort of mini guide and to share here soon 🙂