Most Lisbon guides send you to Tram 28. Don't go. It's a pickpocket's commute masquerading as a travel experience, and there's a better version of everything it shows you.
Here's the first-timer Lisbon we'd actually book you.
## The neighbourhoods worth sleeping in
**Príncipe Real** for grown-ups. Leafy, quiet, the kind of place where the neighbourhood wine bar is a wine bar the rest of the city rates too.
**Alfama** if you accept that the hill is part of the deal. Wake up to fado drifting out of open windows. Watch the morning boats on the Tagus. Lug your suitcase up 40 steps.
**Not Bairro Alto** unless you actually want to drink until 4am. It empties out beautifully at 10am but by 10pm you're in it whether you wanted to be or not.
## What to actually do
Alfama at dusk, walking, no plan. Start at Miradouro de Santa Luzia. Let the streets drop you down toward the river. Stop at São Miguel for a glass of something. Fado spills out of small rooms after 9pm — the touristy ones are Alfama, the real ones are Mouraria.
A pastéis stop that isn't Belém. **Manteigaria** in Chiado makes them fresher and the line moves faster. Eat it standing at the counter, warm, with cinnamon.
## Skip
The aquarium (fine but it's an aquarium). Rossio square at lunchtime (overpriced, under-everything). Any restaurant with a doorman trying to pull you in.
## When
April to June before it gets hot. September and October after. August is a migraine.
## One rule
Lisbon is vertical. Stay hydrated, wear shoes that grip, and accept that you'll be red in the face. Everyone is. It's fine.