Hotels in Lisbon
Book now a hotel in Lisbon. Choose a luxury hotels in Lisbn for your holidays, or save money with budget hotels, bed and breakfast, apartments or other accomodations in Lisbon.


Lisbon
aLisbon is the capital and largest city of Portugal. It is the seat of the district of Lisbon and capital of Lisboa e Vale do Tejo region. Lisbon has a population of 564,657 and its metropolitan area has a population of 2,665,000.

Geography
Lisbon is situated at 38°43' north, 9°8' west, making it the westernmost capital in mainland Europe. It is located in the west of the country, on the Atlantic Ocean coast at the point where the river Tagus flows into the Atlantic Ocean. The city occupies an area of 84.6 km². It is important to say that, unlike most major cities, the city boundaries are narrowly defined around the historical city perimeter. This gave rise to the existence of several administratively defined cities around Lisbon, such as Loures, Odivelas, Amadora and Oeiras, which in fact are part of the metropolitan perimeter of Lisbon.
The historic centre of Lisbon is built on seven hills, making some of the city's streets too steep for motor vehicles; the city is served by three funicular services and one elevator. The western side of the city is mainly occupied by the Monsanto Natural Park, one of the largest urban parks in Europe with an area close to 10 square kilometers (almost 4 square miles).

Climate
Lisbon is one of the warmest European capitals. Spring and Summer months are usually sunny and maximum temperatures close to or above 30 °C during July and August, with low between 15 and 20 °C. Autumn and Winter are typically rainy and windy, yet sunny days are not rare either, the temperatures rarely fall below 5 °C, usually staying at an average of 10 °C. Average sunny hours per year are 3300 h/y, and 100 days with rain per year. Lisbon climate is strongly influenced by the Gulf Stream.

Culture
The heart of the city is the Baixa or downtown; this area of the city is being considered for UNESCO World Heritage Site status. The Baixa is organized in a grid-system and a network of squares built after the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, which leveled a big part of the medieval town. The Castle of São Jorge and the Santa Maria Maior Cathedral are located on one of the seven hills of Lisbon, to the east of the Baixa. The oldest district of the city is Alfama, close to the Tagus, which has made it relatively unscathed through the various earthquakes. Other monuments include:
The Castle of São Jorge, atop the tallest hill of the central city, Praça do Comércio (Commerce Square), Rossio Square, Restauradores Square, Elevador de Santa Justa, an elevator (lift) in Gothic revival style, built around 1900 to connect the Baixa and Bairro Alto. Jerónimos Monastery, Belém Tower The city of Lisbon is rich in architecture; Romanesque, Gothic, Manueline, Baroque, Traditional Portuguese, Modern and Post-Modern constructions can be found all over the city. The city is also crossed by great boulevards and monuments along these main thoroughfares, particularly in the upper districts; notable among these are the Avenida da Liberdade, Avenida Fontes Pereira de Mello, Avenida Almirante Reis and Avenida da República.
Notable among the city's museums are:
The Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga (National Museum of Ancient Art); the Museu dos Azulejos (Museum of Portuguese-style Tile Mosaics); the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian (Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, containing varied collections of ancient and modern art); the Oceanário de Lisboa (Lisbon Aquarium, largest in Europe); the Museu do Design at Centro Cultural de Belém (Design Museum); the Museu Nacional dos Coches (National Coach Museum, containing one of the largest collections of royal coaches in the world) and the Museu da Farmácia (Pharmacy Museum).
Lisbon opera house, named Teatro Nacional São Carlos, hosts a relatively active culture agenda, mainly in Autumn and Winter. Other important theatres and musical houses are the Centro Cultural de Belem, the Teatro D Maria and the Gulbenkian Foundation.
The monument to Christ the King (Cristo Rei) stands on the left side of the river, in Almada. With open arms, overlooking the whole city, it resembles the Corcovado monument in Rio de Janeiro, and was built after the World War II, as thanksgiving for Portugal being spared the horrors and destruction of the war.
Every June, there are some 5 days of popular street partying, in memory of a saint born in Lisbon — Anthony of Padua (or Santo Antonio), a wealthy Portuguese bohemian who was canonized after a life preaching to the poor, simpler people. Although Lisbon’s patron saint is Saint Vincent — whose remains are in the Cathedral (Se Catedral) — there aren't any festivities related to him.

Transportation
Though the Lisbon public transportation network is extremely far-reaching and reliable, the city still suffers from endemic severe traffic problems.
Lisbon's transportation system has the Metro as its main artery. Connecting the city centre with the upper and eastern districts. Ambitious expansion projects will increase the network by almost one third, connecting the airport, and the northern and western districts. Bus, funicular and tram services have been supplied by the Companhia de Carris de Ferro de Lisboa (Carris), for over a century.
A traditional public transportation in Lisbon is the tram. Originaly introduced in the XIX century, the trams were originaly imported from the US and called the americanos. The original trams can still be seen in the museum of the city bus and tram operator (Carris)
There are four suburban lines departing from Lisbon: the Cascais, Sintra and Azambuja lines as well as a fourth line to Setúbal crossing the Tagus river over the 25 de Abril bridge.
The city is connected to the far side of the Tagus by two important bridges:
The April 25 Bridge, inaugurated (as Ponte Salazar) August 6, 1966, and later renamed after the date of the Carnation Revolution. It is the longest suspension bridge in Europe and a replica (made by the same engineers) of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
The Vasco da Gama Bridge, inaugurated May 1998, is one of the longest in the world and the longest in Europe.
Lisbon is connected to its suburbs and the rest of Portugal by an extensive motorway network. There are three circular motorways around the city; the 2ª Circular, the CRIL and the CREL.

Wikipedia.org