Sunny Lisbon

Well it’s true, I been away for a while, and the blog has been kept frozen and I’m sorry for that. But a recent comment from rika asking information about the Novotel Lisboa hotel, has prompted me to write a new post. So here it goes, hope you enjoyed it and for rika, I hope that it turns out useful.

First, you can check this hotel prices here.

Location

Novotel Lisboa is an  hotel located in the José Malhoa street, between the Sete Rios area (where you can find the city Zoo) and the Praça de Espanha. This area has a lot of hotels of bank headquarters, and it’s a quite modern part of the city, with high and modern buildings. Still it’s a nice place to stay, with great transportation to get to and from the airport, to Sintra or to Lisbon downtown area.

You can check it’s location on Google Maps.

From and To The Airport

The AeroShuttle has two bus stops at Av. José Malhoa, which is the street where the hotel is located.

Transportation

The hotel has a good access to public transportation. The street where the hotel is located is only served by buses (Carris), but you have a train station close by (Sete Rios) and two subway stations at the each end on the street (Jardim Zoologico and Praça de Espanha). The Sete Rios train station provides direct trains to Sintra, the south margin of the Tagus river or Oriente, from where you can take long course trains to the North of the country.

Getting To…

• Downtown – You can get to downtown using the subway. Take the blue line in Jardim Zoologico or Praça de Espanha, taking the Baixa-Chiado direction and exiting the subway in the station with the same name. If you share my opinion and prefer to avoid subways (sorry but dirty underground walls are not my scene), you can take the 205 bus (Cais do Sodré direction)  and exit on the Rossio square.You have to take that bus on Av. Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro, which is a parallel to the José Malhoa one.
• Belém Area – The quickest way should be to take the train in Sete Rios to Alcantara-Terra, and from there take another train to Belém. Using the same line you can also reach Cascais and Estoril.
• Sintra – You have direct trains from the Sete Rios train station.

Surroundings

It’s an office and hotel street, but still with a lot of commerce. Don’t expect to find here souvenirs or postcards, since this is not a tourist district.

On a short walking distance you can find the Twin Tower shopping center, which is not a big place to shop but it’s close by. Also very close, you can find the El Corte Ingles shopping. Close by you also have the Zoo (Sete Rios direction) and the Caloust Gulbenkian museum, one of Lisbon finest art collections (close to Praça de Espanha). On the José Malhoa street you can also find the Mesquita de Lisboa, the principal muslim temple in Lisbon.

This is a safe neighborhood, so security shouldn’t be a problem.

Would I Stay There?

Yes. The only downside of this location is that it is not on the downtown area, which is more touristic and has a more lively nightlife, specially after dinner time. Still, using the bus, subway or even a taxi can take you from a place to the other in less than 20 minutes.