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# London & Lisbon in Twelve Days: An Honest Recap
- URL: https://preethar.ghost.io/london-lisbon-in-twelve-days-an-honest-recap/
- Published: 2019-07-09T17:05:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-16T00:25:57.000Z
- Description: London and Lisbon over twelve days in 2019 — hotels, walking tours, pastries, and honest verdicts on where to eat and stay.
- Author: Sunthar Premakumar
- Tags: Portugal, Travel

*Prefer the quick, day-by-day version? Read the companion itinerary:* [*London & Lisbon, Day by Day: Our Full Itinerary*](https://preethar.ghost.io/london-lisbon-day-by-day-our-full-itinerary/)*.*

## Getting around

We took a nonstop flight from AUS to LGW on [Norwegian Airlines](https://www.norwegian.com/). They advertise their low-cost (\~$250 one-way) flight to London heavily in the Austin airport, so we decided to try it out. Norwegian is a no-frills airline — you pay extra for checked luggage, meals, and reserved seating — but the plane was great and there were no issues besides a small delay. Plan ahead and bring your own water and food (we ordered the in-flight meal and it wasn't great).

We took an Uber from Gatwick to central London (near St. Paul's Cathedral). The pickup spot was easy to find, but it took over 1.5 hours to get into the city with traffic. Once in London we mostly walked, since we stuck around Westminster; on a couple of occasions we took a taxi or Uber, both equally convenient.

We flew [British Airways](https://www.britishairways.com/) from Heathrow to Lisbon. We'd considered Ryanair for the cheaper price but went with BA — being able to choose seats made the prices comparable, and we could book with credit card points. Experience-wise it was underwhelming: we had to pay extra for a checked bag we assumed would be included at the higher fare, and there was no complimentary in-flight service, not even water.

We took a taxi from Lisbon Airport to the hotel (we tried Uber first, but finding the pickup point was frustrating and we gave up). In Lisbon we mostly walked — our hotel was very close to the main landmarks — with the occasional Uber, and the train to Sintra (5 euro) was fine.

## London (part 1)

We didn't do much pre-planning — just booked flights in and out of London, flights in and out of Lisbon, and our London hotel. We were meeting friends traveling from Germany to see us.

We'd considered Airbnb but couldn't find a reasonably priced option close to central London, so we booked through Hotwire's "Hot Rate Hotel Deal" and it worked well. We stayed at [**Club Quarters St. Paul**](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Club%20Quarters%20St.%20Paul%20London) (a 4-star hotel around $150/night), steps from St. Paul's Cathedral. The hotel was great — early check-in and nice touches like a hydration station with reusable bottles, an in-room yoga mat, and a good gym.

Even though we've frequented London, we did two [**Sandeman's**](https://www.neweuropetours.eu/) walking tours to go deeper on the history. The Free Tour of London was a great intro to Westminster and the Royal family, and the London Old City Walking Tour covered the City of London, which has a distinct history we'd barely explored before — fascinating and worth it. It even took us up to the rooftop garden of the [One New Change](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One%5FNew%5FChange) shopping mall for a beautiful view of St. Paul's dome.

We kept food basic here, since we've been to London many times. We caught [**Waitress**](https://waitressthemusical.com/) on the West End (we're fans of Sara Bareilles, who wrote the music) — great songs, great acting, a funny plot, and they even sold mini mason-jar pies at concessions. The 2019 Cricket World Cup was on while we were there, so we caught parts of games at pubs around the city (and were surprised how little the English seemed to care about cricket). We also joined friends for Sunday Mass at the London Presbyterian Church near our hotel.

## Lisbon

We didn't do much research before arriving. We'd booked a Free Walking Tour of Lisbon and a Half-Day Trip to [Sintra](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sintra) with Sandeman's, which we trust.

We booked the [**Eurostars Museum Hotel**](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Eurostars%20Museum%20Hotel%20Lisbon) for three nights on credit card points — a beautiful 5-star hotel, and we got a great rate (\~$100/night). We tried to extend but prices jumped to $350/night for July 4th weekend. It sat right on the water, a 5-minute walk from Lisbon's Commercial Square, where most tours and buses depart.

Arriving at dinner time, we asked the concierge for a recommendation and he sent us to [**Farol de Santa Luzia**](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Farol%20de%20Santa%20Luzia%20Lisbon) — one of our best meals in Lisbon. It's a 15-minute climb up a hill, but the view from the vista point next door is incredible; we had hot chocolate and watched the sunset after a tasty Portuguese meal.

On the free walking tour, our high-energy guide Chico gave a great summary of Portugal's history and introduced us to his favorite pastelaria, [**Pau de Canela**](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Pau%20de%20Canela%20Lisbon), right by Commercial Square — good, cheap, and quick, so we came back often. He even emailed us a PDF of his Lisbon food recommendations. For dinner we tried one of them, [**Sanskar**](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Sanskar%20Lisbon), a Nepalese place with good Yelp reviews — a decent Indian meal, but nothing unique.

The next day we did the Sintra tour with another guide named Chico (apparently a very popular name in Portugal), a 40-minute train ride out. We loved the Templar stories — the highlight was a well used for initiation ceremonies — and tried two traditional Sintra pastries, queijada and travesseiro.

After back-to-back tour days, we took it easy and moved to the [**LX Boutique Hotel**](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=LX%20Boutique%20Hotel%20Lisbon), a great 4-star (\~$100/night) in a perfect location with nice, trendy rooms and friendly staff. On the second Chico's recommendation, we went to [**Desnorte**](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Desnorte%20Lisbon) — probably the best place we ate in Lisbon, so good that we came back for our last meal too. They had the best croquettes (we tried a ton in Lisbon), plus traditional bacalhau à brás and picanha. We also hit the [Time Out Market](https://www.timeoutmarket.com/lisboa/en/), a touristy but excellent food hall five minutes from our hotel, three times over the trip.

On Friday we did a Tour of [Belém](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bel%C3%A9m%5F%28Lisbon%29). We tried [Pastéis de Belém](https://pasteisdebelem.pt/) — the secret-recipe custard tart the monastery's monks have made for centuries — and it did not disappoint. Belém's monuments were breathtaking; we especially enjoyed the [Jerónimos](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jer%C3%B3nimos%5FMonastery) Monastery. On Saturday we did a Tour of [Alfama](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfama), with an enthusiastic guide who explained Lisbon's gentrification and how Alfama's core is protected, letting you see some of the oldest parts of the city — it famously withstood the 1755 earthquake that destroyed most of old Lisbon. We tried ginjinha, a cherry liqueur brewed in Alfama homes, and visited beautiful cathedrals and vista points.

For our last three days we had all-access [**Yellow Bus**](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Yellow%20Bus%20Lisbon) tickets — hop-on-hop-off buses plus tram and boat routes. The Modern Lisbon bus tour showed us parts we hadn't seen. One dinner was at [**Vicente**](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Vicente%20Lisbon), a Portuguese restaurant near our hotel with very good food, friendly service, and a castle-like interior of exposed brick and stone. On Sunday we did the Tagus River boat tour — a big loop under the [25 de Abril Bridge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/25%5Fde%5FAbril%5FBridge) (which looks a lot like the Golden Gate) with amazing views of the city — followed by the Lisbon hills tram tour, and a final bite back at Desnorte.

## London (part 2)

Our flight home was out of London, so we had one more day. We booked the [**Victory House Hotel**](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Victory%20House%20Hotel%20London), new and well-located for our two planned activities. Earlier in the trip we'd wanted to try [**Hoppers**](https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Hoppers%20London), a Sri Lankan restaurant in Soho, but it was closed — so we went on the way back, and it was the best meal of our trip. They've done justice to Sri Lankan food; wish we had something like it in Austin. We closed out with last-minute tickets to [**The Book of Mormon**](https://bookofmormonbroadway.com/), which was fantastic — the perfect end to a wonderful trip.