35 min
45 min
12 min
Amarela · Vermelha · Azul
3.4 / km²
4
4
867
+8% vs city
Counted from OpenStreetMap and Inside Airbnb (CC BY 4.0)
Staying in Avenidas Novas
Avenidas Novas is where Lisbon works. Saldanha, Picoas and São Sebastião are office blocks, chain hotels and the Gulbenkian museum, laid out along broad early-20th-century avenues that were new when the name was chosen and are not new now.
The case for it is arithmetic. Rates run about a third below the historic centre for the same star rating, the yellow and red metro lines cross at Saldanha, and the airport is twelve minutes on the red line with no change. For a week-long stay, a family that wants a real supermarket, or anyone here for a conference, that adds up fast.
The case against it is everything you came for. No river, no tram, no tiled façades, no old town. It is about thirty-five minutes on foot to the Baixa and the return leg is uphill. On a Sunday the avenues are shut. Treat it as somewhere to sleep cheaply and commute from and it works; expect Lisbon out of the window and it does not.
What works
- Yellow and red lines cross at Saldanha; airport twelve minutes, no change
- Room rates about a third below the historic centre at the same star rating
- The Gulbenkian museum and its gardens are the best thing in north Lisbon
- Real supermarkets and El Corte Inglés, which the old town does not have
What does not
- It is an office district: on Sunday the avenues are shut
- Thirty-five minutes on foot to the Baixa, and uphill coming back
- Chain conference hotels, so the room is fine and the building is nothing
- No river, no tram and no tiled streets - none of the reason you came
Northern Lisbon is a district covering a large portion of Portugal's capital city. Most of the sights, restaurants, and hotels are in and around the areas known as Avenidas Novas, Sete Rios, and Campolide.