Hey, do you like seafood? See food. That old child lunchroom joke probably wouldn’t go too far in Portugal. The joke would die at the setup. To not like seafood is unthinkable. It’s woven into the national heritage and identity. You will have no trouble finding fish, mollusks and cephalopods on menus. If your family […]
THE PORTUGUESE TABLE: A PRIMER Read More »
Lisbon is the sunniest capital city in Europe. You can expect bright sun and clear skies over 300 days per year. This means that even the dregs of winter can be punctuated with sunny afternoons. But, it also means LOTS of people are finding their way over to Lisbon for a double dose of culture
LISBON: THE LAUNCH Read More »
Lisbon has an appealing, timeless aesthetic. With so much of its historic core intact, it can give the impression that everything has been there forever: tiles on building façades, the intricate calçada sidewalk mosaics and the ubiquitous quiosques de refrescos (refreshment kiosks) that pop up in plazas and gardens.  The kiosks serve beer, wine,
CUCKOO FOR QUIOSQUES Read More »
Sometimes you have to tell travelers what they don’t want to hear. So forgive me as I grab you by the lapels, look you in the eye and tell you that you may want to reconsider taking a ride on Lisbon’s most famous trolley, the #28 tram.  How can the opening scenes of every
THE FOLLY OF THE TROLLEY Read More »
I often overhear tourists kicking around the idea of going to Belém, as if it’s some place to go on a whim. Sure, technically you can go there whenever you like. But, EFTF has a plan to get you in and out of Belém before most people have thought about going for the day. Kids
A BIG DAY IN BELÉM Read More »
Admittedly, we at EFTF can get so caught up in vetting a tourist site’s appropriateness level for children, that we can forget to investigate the inverse scenario. What about the places explicitly designed for children that adults will like too? In the case of Parque das Nações your family can spend an entire day in
FOR THE CHILDREN IN ALL OF US Read More »
When we first set foot in the Time Out Market Lisboa in 2017, our jaws dropped to the ground. Here was a curated round up of all the best restaurants and food purveyors from Lisbon all under one roof. Our first thought was, why doesn’t every city do this? (This is where Singapore might chime
It’s hard to resist falling in love with the azulejos (tiles) adorning the buildings of Lisbon. It seems cliché and obvious, but those tiles are ubiquitous and will overwhelm you with the sheer number of façades. Only a cold heart is impervious to their charm. And, most can be easily viewed from street level while
THE MAGNIFICENT TILE Read More »