Broad avenues, less foot traffic, and a city that doesnt perform for visitors
Príncipe Real
Quieter streets, wine bars and stronger neighbourhood life
Chiado & Baixa
More central, closer to the river and the tram lines
São Bento & Santos
Creative energy, design studios and late evenings
This part of Lisbon rewards people who already know what they want. The avenue gives you scale and elegance, wide boulevards with serious buildings and the kind of calm that comes from not being in the middle of everything. Amoreiras sits just behind it, more residential, shaped around a garden square, an aqueduct running through the back streets and mornings that belong to the people who live here. The tourists pass through. They rarely stay.
Four hotels that each find a different way into this part of the city, from a garden square boutique to a former convent with 370 rooms.
A 1913 townhouse in Amoreiras that was once the Japanese Club, now 15 rooms designed by one of Portugal’s best.
The building on Rua Rodrigo da Fonseca has been through several lives. Before becoming Sublime Lisboa in 2022, it housed the Japanese community that gathered here during the Second World War, when Portugal’s neutrality made Lisbon a refuge for people from both sides of the conflict. Rita Andringa’s interiors carry that layered history forward through preserved tiles, bold wallpapers, mustard walls, velvet and contemporary art that sits comfortably alongside the building’s original bones. No two rooms are the same. The Davvero restaurant draws locals as much as guests for Isaac Kumi’s Italian cooking with Portuguese produce.
Longer stays, design-led travellers and anyone who wants a hotel that feels genuinely embedded in its neighbourhood.
Two 18th-century silk workers’ townhouses on Jardim das Amoreiras, a square most visitors to Lisbon never find.
Pedro Oliveira grew up visiting this square as a child and spent years trying to buy the buildings. He got the first in 2016, the second in 2017, joined them together and spent five years on the renovation before opening in 2022. The square outside was planted by the Marquis of Pombal in 1759, 300 mulberry trees intended to drive a silk industry that never quite took hold. The 17 rooms and two mansard suites were designed by Oliveira himself, with Portuguese marble, velvet and art from his personal collection. Breakfast is served until noon in the courtyard under an olive tree. The number 24 tram stops outside.
A 19th-century townhouse on Avenida da Liberdade, where the walled garden belongs entirely to the people staying inside it.
Before Avenida da Liberdade became a commercial street it was a public promenade where Lisbon’s high society came to see and be seen. The concept behind Valverde has always been that older city. Inside, the building runs through antiques, artwork by Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, Braz Gil porcelain, Moorish floor tiles and heavy fabrics that give the corridors a private, slightly secretive quality. The walled garden and outdoor pool sit behind it all, entirely separate from the avenue outside. 25 rooms, each different, and a building that earns its position on one of Lisbon’s most formal streets.
Design-conscious stays, couples and travellers who want five-star quality without the scale of a large hotel.
A 17th-century Dominican convent near Marquês de Pombal, where Nuno Mendes runs the restaurant and the azulejos survived the earthquake.
The Convent of Santa Joana was established in 1699 by the Dominicans, damaged in the 1755 earthquake, repaired, and eventually closed. Post Company designed the rooms and Lázaro Rosa-Violàn handled the public spaces, working around original azulejos, vaulted ceilings and stone staircases that preservation laws kept intact. 370 rooms and apartments across nine floors, with a courtyard pool, coworking spaces, Café Castro’s and Spiritland’s first European outpost downstairs. Nuno Mendes, formerly of Chiltern Firehouse, leads the Santa Joana restaurant with a menu rooted in Portuguese tradition and local producers. Wallpaper named it Best Opening of 2024.
Inside the convent at Locke de Santa Joana, Nuno Mendes builds the menu around Portuguese tradition and a network of local farmers and growers. Slow-cooked skate, grilled Alentejo pork and heritage breads move through the room at an unhurried pace. One of the more considered tables in this part of Lisbon.
Both sit above the centre and share a similar calm, but the feeling is different. Avenida & Amoreiras gives you broader streets, a more residential pace and a part of Lisbon that most visitors pass through rather than stay in. Príncipe Real is smaller in scale, more considered in character, with better wine bars and a neighbourhood life that rewards slower movement. If you want space and quiet with easy city access, Avenida & Amoreiras works well. If you want Lisbon to feel local from the first morning, Príncipe Real usually lands better.
Chiado & Baixa
For being in the middle of everything
São Bento & Santos
For antique shops, design studios, and late evenings
Romantic Hotels in Lisbon
For stays with the right light, the right garden and the right pace
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