Getting back
We didn't want to risk getting a flight delay or cancellation on our way to Lisbon so we decided to fly back at least one day before our flight back to the US. I found a direct flight from Valencia to Lisbon in the evening. We also bought the family fare which includes checked in luggage and because we bought this a few weeks ahead of time we got a very low fare of about $50 per person.
Jeronimos Monastery
We had not visited the Monastery so we took an Uber that way. We purchased our tickets ahead of time. The monastery is gorgeous from the inside so I do recommend going it if you have time. You can also get a nice view of the inside of the church of Santa Maria de Belem while you are there.
After the visit, we got in line to enter the Church of Santa Maria de Belem which is next door. That entrance is free, and you do have to exit the Monastery in order to get in. The line wasn't too bad and it is also worth a visit. The tomb of Vasco de Gama is inside the church, you will see it when your way out the church.
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| Santa Maria de Belem Church (view from inside the Monastery) |
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| Vasco de Gama tomb |
Torre de Belem
We couldn't live Lisbon without visiting Torre de Belem, which is 1km away from the Monastery. We read that the best view of the tower is from the outside, so we chose not to enter.
Where to eat
We had so many places where we want to eat our second to last meal in Lisbon. One of them was Ramiro which was highly recommended but we chose to leave that for our next visit. A second choice was Portugalia Cervejaira which has multiple locations. We ended up going for a less conventional location which turned out to be a great choice. The name of the restaurant is Rosa da Rua. This was a small buffet restaurant and we definitely recommend it.
Church of Sao Roque
We had been exploring most of East hills of downtown Lisbon where the Cathedral is located, but we had not been on the west hills, which also have some very nice views from Miradouro de Sao Pedro de Alcantara. We also discovered by chance the Church of Sao Roque which is one of the earliest Jesuit churches in the world.
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| View from Miradouro de Sao Pedro de Alcantara |
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| Church of Sao Roque |
St Anthony's Church
Heading back
Afterwards we chose to have our last dinner at Fabrica de Nata and we stopped for one more sunset at Cais das Colunas before heading back to our hotel. Our flight departed the next morning. Luckily the US had just dropped their COVID test requirement so that was one less logistic to worry about. The airport lines were not too bad, including the Passport Control line, which was about 20 minutes, but something to account for.
This concludes our trip. We really enjoyed this visit to Portugal and Spain. We would certainly love to go back to Lisbon in the near future. I would say it is an underrated tourist destination that deserves more praise. I hope you enjoyed my tips and hope you are able to leverage some recommendations. Do not hesitate to comment or ask for more details if you are venturing that way!
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