Where to Stay in Lisbon: A Spacious Two-Bedroom With a Leafy Garden and Azulejo Tiles

09.08.2023 - 13:45 / cntraveler.com

Earlier this summer, I decided to do something totally unoriginal—I joined the hordes of Americans working remotely from Lisbon. I had a wedding in Tuscany to attend, and my flight home on TAP offered me a free stopover for up to 10 nights. I decided I'd stay a week and get a taste of life in Portugal. How could I resist?

The only hangup was that I needed somewhere to stay for that time, and I had a few criteria. I needed fantastic Wi-Fi. I needed somewhere I could comfortably move from room to room if I got antsy throughout the workday (more space than a hotel room). I hoped to have a usable kitchen where I could cook my own breakfast. And, I wanted to immerse myself in a neighborhood far from umbrella-waving tour groups, where I'd be forced to practice my very rusty Portuguese. I wanted what we all want, which is to feel like a local for just a few days. 

Plum Guide, a booking platform that has a curated selection of rentals, guarantees great design and coveted features like fast Wi-Fi. 

A colleague directed me to Plum Guide, a UK-based booking platform that has a few fans in our London office. From the first glance, I could tell using the service would make my search easier. Their criteria for listings on the site include strong Wi-Fi and functional kitchens, for starters. But the listings are also consistently gorgeous—as if you applied an “aesthetically pleasing” filter. 

I landed on a home promising a leafy terrace right in the Lapa neighborhood, which would give me easy access to the popular Chiado and Bairro Alto neighborhoods, while requiring me to explore lesser-known areas too. (The listing even told me how long the walk would be to various points of interest.) Fast forward to the end of my trip, and it felt like I had spent the week at a family friend's home in the city. 

The rental, in Lisbon's Lapa neighborhood, had a leafy, shaded terrace—perfect for working al fresco. 

Check-in was friendly, with a message from my host Constança on Whatsapp a few days before arrival, letting me know her son would be there to let us in. Fresh flowers were in the bedroom when we arrived, and my partner and I were guided through the family home, as every feature was covered in detail—the two bedrooms, the three bathrooms, the A/C, the skeleton keys for the front door. It was clear the house had been in the family for years, with vintage-feeling furniture in the front bedroom. But velvet armchairs, bookshelves stocked with colorful novels, and rattan headboards showed me this family knew how to approach the rental game with style. (I promise, there were no “Live, Laugh, Love” signs in sight.) Also underscoring the family element: We were given a friendly heads up that we might bump into the grandfather in