# Is Arroios a Good Area to Stay in Lisbon? Map & Verdict

Verdict: Mixed. Fine for some travellers, wrong for others.

Interactive map: https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-lisbon/arroios
Every Lisbon district: https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-lisbon.md

Anjos, Pena and Intendente, up Almirante Reis from Martim Moniz. The most-lived-in central parish in Lisbon, and the one the guides tell you to be careful in.

Facts: 15 min walk to the Baixa; 15 min to the airport; 45 min to the beach; price €€; best for budget, food, solo travellers, longer stays; lines Verde, Vermelha, Amarela.
Safety: Mixed after dark. The Intendente and Martim Moniz end of Almirante Reis has an established street drug trade. Regular policing has changed it substantially since 2015 and it is not violent, but you will be offered things walking home.

Arroios is the parish immediately north of the Baixa: Almirante Reis running up the middle, Intendente and Anjos at the bottom, Pena and the Campo dos Mártires da Pátria on the hill to the west. Thirty-three thousand people live in two square kilometres, which makes it the densest and the least staged part of central Lisbon.

Book here for the reason people actually live here. It is fifteen minutes on foot to Rossio, four metro stations sit inside the parish, and the eating is Nepalese, Chinese, Bangladeshi, Mozambican and Portuguese on the same block for a third of Chiado prices. Prices for a flat are well under the Baixa and the streets have shops rather than souvenir stands.

The caution is specific and it is about two streets, not the parish. Intendente and the Martim Moniz end of Almirante Reis were Lisbon's drug and prostitution district; policing has changed that a great deal since about 2015 and Intendente now has the fashionable end of it, but Wikivoyage still names the area and it still looks the part at 01:00. A block uphill into Pena, or north past Anjos, and it is an ordinary residential district.

What works:
- About 15 minutes on foot to Rossio and the Baixa, downhill all the way
- Four metro stations inside the parish on the green and red lines
- The best cheap eating in central Lisbon, and not aimed at visitors
- Flats cost well under Baixa, Chiado or Alfama for more space

What does not:
- Intendente and Martim Moniz are still named as areas to be wary of
- Almirante Reis is a six-lane road with the traffic and noise to match
- Almost none of the postcard Lisbon is here - it is a working district
- Steep from Anjos up to Pena, which you find out with luggage

Hotels in Arroios: https://www.stay22.com/allez/booking?aid=stayzones&link=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booking.com%2Fsearchresults.html%3Fdest_id%3D8216%26dest_type%3Ddistrict%26group_adults%3D2%26no_rooms%3D1

## Other districts in Lisbon

- [Santa Maria Maior](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-lisbon/santa-maria-maior): Recommended. The Baixa grid, lower Alfama and the castle hill in one freguesia. You will not buy a metro ticket for three days, and you will pay for the privilege.
- [Misericórdia](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-lisbon/misericordia): Mixed. Chiado by day, Bairro Alto by night. They share a freguesia and about two hundred metres of hill, which is the entire problem with booking here.
- [Santo António](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-lisbon/santo-antonio): Recommended. Avenida da Liberdade and the hotels along it. Flat, quiet after 23:00, and fifteen minutes downhill into the Baixa with the metro to bring you back up.
- [São Vicente](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-lisbon/sao-vicente): Mixed. Graça and the top of Alfama. The best free views in Lisbon, and you earn every one of them again on the walk back from dinner.
- [Estrela](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-lisbon/estrela): Mixed. Lapa's embassies, the Estrela garden and the Santos bars down by the river. Handsome, residential, and the nearest metro is in somebody else's district.
- [Avenidas Novas](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-lisbon/avenidas-novas): Mixed. Saldanha, the Gulbenkian and the office blocks. Two metro lines, honest prices, and no reason at all to walk anywhere after dinner.
- [Campo de Ourique](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-lisbon/campo-de-ourique): Recommended. A flat grid on the hill above Estrela, at the far end of tram 28. Lisbon's most liveable central parish, with the fewest visitors in it.
- [Penha de França](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-lisbon/penha-de-franca): Mixed. The hill behind Graça: 1930s apartment blocks, the best free viewpoints in Lisbon and a climb home that beats most people.
- [Areeiro](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-lisbon/areeiro): Mixed. Big 1940s flats around Alameda and the Areeiro roundabout. Twelve minutes from the airport, two metro lines, and no reason to walk out of the door.
- [Alcântara](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-lisbon/alcantara): Mixed. LX Factory, the docks under the bridge, and a great deal of traffic. The most photographed district in Lisbon and the one nobody thinks to sleep in.
- [Belém](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-lisbon/belem): Avoid. Two UNESCO sites, the best custard tarts in Portugal, and seven kilometres between you and dinner. Come for a morning, sleep somewhere else.
- [Parque das Nações](https://stayzones.com/where-to-stay-in-lisbon/parque-das-nacoes): Avoid. A 1998 world's fair site with a shopping centre and an aquarium. Clean, modern, well connected, and not the city you bought the flight to see.