I took my first solo trip last spring — ten days in Portugal — and I’m still thinking about it. It was genuinely one of the best trips I’ve taken, but I also made some easily avoidable mistakes that I’m going to save you from making. Here’s what I’d tell myself going back.
1. Lisbon Is Hillier Than It Looks on a Map
I knew Lisbon had hills. I did not fully internalize what that meant for daily walking. The cobblestone streets are beautiful and also merciless on your knees and ankles by day three. Pack real walking shoes — not sneakers you bought two weeks ago, actually broken-in shoes. I got a blister on day two that followed me for the rest of the trip. Also: the trams are charming but extremely crowded and slow. Sometimes walking is faster, which is either a feature or a bug depending on your mood.
2. Eat Lunch at the Restaurants, Not Dinner
A lot of sit-down restaurants in Portugal do a lunch special — a “prato do dia” or dish of the day — that is genuinely excellent food for about €10-12 including a drink. The same meal at dinner can be two or three times the price. I ate most of my big meals at lunch and had light dinners from bakeries and markets. Ate incredibly well. Spent almost nothing on food.
3. Go to Setúbal, Not Just Sintra
Everyone goes to Sintra and yes, it’s gorgeous. But it is absolutely overrun with tourists, especially in the warmer months. Setúbal is about 45 minutes south of Lisbon by bus, sits on a beautiful estuary, has almost no tourists, and has some of the best seafood I ate on the entire trip. Highly recommend it as a day trip if you want to get away from the crowds without going far.
4. The Train System Is Great — Use It
Getting from Lisbon to Porto by train is easy, cheap, and the fast train takes about three hours. I don’t know why people bother renting cars for the Lisbon-Porto leg. The train drops you right in the city center in both directions. Trains to Cascais and Sintra from Lisbon are also very affordable and run frequently. The transit infrastructure is genuinely good and I relied on it almost entirely.
5. You Don’t Need to Speak Portuguese, But Learn a Few Words
Almost everyone in tourism-facing roles in major cities speaks English. But I found that making even a small effort — “bom dia,” “obrigado,” asking if someone speaks English before launching into it — changed the energy of interactions immediately. People were warm and patient and genuinely seemed to appreciate it. It’s a small thing but it matters.
Portugal genuinely surprised me. It felt like a version of Europe that hadn’t been completely smoothed over and commodified yet, though I know that’s changing fast. If you’ve been thinking about going, go sooner rather than later.