The most visited part of the city, and still the easiest place to understand why people come.
Most people end up in Chiado eventually. The trams bring them, the bookshops keep them, and the hills on either side mean every walk leads back down to the same streets. Baixa is flat and legible, a grid the Marquis of Pombal drew from scratch after the 1755 earthquake. Chiado climbs away from it, narrower and older, the ruins of the Carmo Convent still open to the sky above the rooftops. Neither neighbourhood is quiet, and neither pretends to be. For a first visit to Lisbon, very little puts you more immediately inside the city than staying here.
Príncipe Real
Quieter streets, better wine bars and a neighbourhood at its own pace
São Bento & Santos
More local, closer to the river, with design studios and antique shops
Avenida & Amoreiras
Broader streets, calmer pace and a more residential side of Lisbon
Chiado and Baixa have a pull to them that the rest of Lisbon doesn’t quite match. The bookshops, the theatres, the hilltop ruins of the Carmo Convent open to the sky, the cafés that have been on the same corners for decades. Bertrand on Rua Garrett has been selling books since 1732. People who stay elsewhere in the city still find themselves back here by the evening, drawn down to the river at the bottom of the hill or up into the narrower streets of Chiado where the pace changes almost immediately. For a first visit especially, staying here removes a layer of effort the city would otherwise require.
Four hotels that each find a different way into the historic centre, from a converted convent to a boutique townhouse on one of Baixa’s finest squares.
A Pombaline building on Praça do Município that began as the city’s arsenal, now 28 rooms designed around the bones of what was already there.
The building on Praça do Município has been here since the 17th century, when it served as Lisbon’s arsenal before the earthquake changed the shape of everything around it. Designer Giano Gonçalves let the constraints of the protected landmark guide the renovation, keeping original flagstone floors and antique fireplaces intact alongside contemporary Portuguese craft and materials. 28 rooms and suites, each feeling specific to the building rather than generic to the category. Delfina Cantina Portuguesa downstairs mixes guests with locals over traditional Portuguese cooking and regional wines. The square outside is one most visitors walk past without stopping.
A former radio station in Chiado, named after two Portuguese explorers who spent 42 days lost in the African jungle.
Roberto Ivens and Hermenegildo Capelo spent years mapping the unknown interior of Africa in the 1880s, returning with drawings, fossils, plants and animals that changed what Europe understood of the continent. The hotel sits on the corner of the two streets that bear their names, inside the building that once housed Rádio Renascença. Lázaro Rosa-Violàn’s public spaces lean fully into that world, tropical plants, macaws, animal-print armchairs, dark wood bookshelves and velvet that fill the lobby with the atmosphere of a Victorian explorer’s club. The rooms pull back into something quieter. A jazz club downstairs keeps things running later.
Design-led stays and curious travellers who want a hotel with a genuine point of view.
A pistachio-green building in Baixa where dark corridors, Eames chairs and Marshall amps sit inside an 18th-century facade.
The building on Rua da Assunção has overlooked Baixa since the 18th century. Inside, dark moody corridors lead to 84 rooms fitted with furniture by Eames, Jacobsen and Saarinen alongside statement wallpapers, Roberts radios and Marshall amps for streaming playlists. The renovation kept the building’s original weight intact while giving the interiors a sharper contemporary edge. The bar and brasserie downstairs pull in locals alongside guests, red booths and floor-to-ceiling windows giving the room more energy than most hotel restaurants manage. All the main sights sit within walking distance. The trams handle everything else.
First visits and city-break travellers who want central Lisbon with stronger design behind it.
A Dominican convent in Baixa commissioned by King Sancho II in 1242, open to guests again from 2023.
The Convento de São Domingos has been here since 1242, hosted Portuguese royal weddings, survived the 1755 earthquake and spent centuries largely closed to the city around it. GRCA’s restoration kept the open-air cloister at the centre, cobblestones, fire pits and sky above, while Artica’s interiors work with 17th-century tiles, vaulted ceilings and pink marble bathrooms across 121 rooms. The Capítulo restaurant occupies the convent’s original chapter room, serving Portuguese cooking with herbs drawn from the cloisters. The hotel earns its position in Baixa through the quality of its architecture rather than the weight of its marketing.
Príncipe Real
Calmer streets, a weekend market, and the best wine bars in central Lisbon.
São Bento & Santos
For antique shops, design studios, and late evenings.
Romantic Hotels in Lisbon
For stays with atmosphere, scale and the kind of quiet Chiado makes possible by contrast
Our perspective
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