A First-Timer's Solo Guide to Lisbon

Lisbon is built on seven hills, which sounds exhausting until you realize the trams do most of the climbing for you. Tram 28 is the obvious one, usually packed with tourists by 10am, so take it right after breakfast or skip it for the 24 or 25 instead, which cover similar ground with a fraction of the crowd.

Base yourself in Alfama or Graça if you want narrow streets and fado drifting out of tiny restaurants at night, or Principe Real if you'd rather be near good coffee and a calmer pace. Both are walkable to the center in twenty minutes, and both feel safe to wander after dark, which matters when you're figuring out a city alone for the first time.

Four days is enough to do this properly without rushing. Spend one on the Alfama and São Jorge Castle, one on Belém for the monastery and the original pastéis de nata (the bakery is Pastéis de Belém, not the dozens of imitators nearby), one on a day trip to Sintra, and one with no plan at all, which is usually the day you remember best.

Food is where Lisbon quietly wins. A full lunch at a neighborhood tasca, the kind with a handwritten menu and no English translation, runs somewhere around 10 to 15 euros and will be better than most tourist-menu dinners costing twice that. Ginjinha, the sour cherry liqueur sold from tiny hole-in-the-wall counters near Rossio Square, is a one-euro shot and a good way to start a conversation with whoever's next to you in line.

Solo dining here is completely normal. Counter seating at a tasca or a seafood spot in Cais do Sodré means you're never the only person eating alone, you're just eating well.

The one thing worth planning ahead: cash. Card is accepted almost everywhere, but small tascas and the ginjinha stalls often aren't set up for it, so keep some euros on you.