Birthday celebrations in Lisbon

Hi all,

We will be in Lisbon on our next cruise on the day of my 30th birthday.

We've been before and hired a taxi which took us to the usual touristy places, Sintra, Cascais etc.

This time we want to spend some time shopping, having a nice lunch to celebrate my birthday.

I've heard that the transfer from port into town is very expensive. Is this true?

Any suggestions where we should head for shops and restaurants (I'm thinking pandora, clothes shops that kind of thing).

Thanks for any info :)

"I've heard that the transfer from port into town is very expensive. Is this true?"

Not true as both docks (St.Appolonia & Alcantara) are in Lisbon. If by "town" you mean center of Lisbon (Praca Commercio or Rossio) taxi should be no more than 6-8€.

"Any suggestions where we should head for shops and restaurants (I'm thinking pandora, clothes shops that kind of thing)."

If you are looking at shops like Pandora & other brand name shops head to big shopping centers Colombo http://www.colombo.pt (metro:Colégio Militar) & Vasco da Gama http://www.centrovascodagama.pt/ (Metro: Oriente). Colombo is a bigger mall

If you are into seafood I can recommend Sea Me

http://www.peixariamoderna.com/ Lots of good reviews on Tripadvisor.

Clara's em Castillo is our favorite restaurant in Lisbon. It is run by a Frenchman who runs the front and his lovely Portuguese wife who does the cooking. It is very small so reservations are a must. It is also very reasonably priced.

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Thanks both for your responses :)

Shopping is not my thing, so I can't comment much about that. In center city, closest to the port area, shopping seems to be centered in the Chiado area, and there is the smallish Armazens Mall there, too.

We recently paid less than 8 euros (forget the actual amount) for a taxi from the Rossio area to Santa Apolonia port near Alfama, including a small tip. It was on a holiday, and I believe taxis can charge a bit more that day. Therefore, your journey may be a little less expensive. Taxis are metered, and I don't believe tipping is very common or expected. We gave a little bit of a tip but not a lot.

I know you mentioned you had already seen the sights, but for something truly different, you may want to revisit some of them using "Bike My Side" (bikemyside.com; also is a Facebook page) - touring in a motorcycle sidecar. It's lots of fun, not terribly expensive for 2 people, and you could request to be taken places that are different from the places you've already visited. He can pick you up from the port and drop you back 3 hours later. Two weeks ago I surprised my husband with a 3 hour tour of Lisbon for his early birthday present, and he's still raving about our experience. If you're interested, I would not wait until the last minute to book a tour, however, as there is just one fantastic person doing the Lisbon tours and he could get booked up early.

Taxi fares are determined by law. In Lisbon there are two main fares up until 4 passengers, one for working days (6AM to 21H). and the other for the working days (night period), weekends, and holidays.

Sometimes or most of the times people do tip taxi drivers - well that's my experience at least, to round prices when it's a matter of cents.

Commerce in Lisbon can be found anywhere but there are clearly some different zones so it's up to your preferences.

If you want to spend your time in only one building with more than hundred stores, movie theaters and many restaurants, go to the big shopping malls, like those two mentioned before or others like the classic Amoreiras. Plenty of options there - 30 years ago people only had one (Amoreiras), but they are now in most regions of the city, so i think they are now more a regional thing. I'm talking about Amoreiras because it's an emblematic building of the city. Colombo's Mall is quite interesting too, because it was made like a small city with the theme of discoveries - so each sector is named after something related to it (navigator, king, and so on).

If you prefer walking, taking some sun and wind, then you have the expensive avenues like Av. Liberdade or special areas like the downtown or Chiado, where there many shops in every streets and alleys. I'm no expert on clothes shops :D, so i cannot help you that much.

By the way, about Pandora's shops, i've search them and if is about that jewelry lines and all their different types of stores there are 23 that sells the brand.