Best hotels in Lisbon: eight places on the right side of the hill

The corner where Chiado meets Bairro Alto

The hotel stands on Praça Luís de Camões, exactly where Chiado ends and Bairro Alto begins, in a building that has been a hotel since the nineteenth century. From the roof terrace you look down over the Chiado rooftops to the Tagus and across to the bridge, and the bar up there is as much for locals as for guests.

We recommend it to first-time visitors: Baixa is five minutes downhill, Bairro Alto two minutes up, and tram 28 stops outside. Rooms are elegant in dark wood and muted colours, and those facing the square hear the city all night. Ask for the back if you sleep lightly.

The view from the edge of the pool

The hotel is on a steep street in Príncipe Real, just above the garden with the great cedar tree, and it is built in terraces down the slope so that nearly every room and the pool on the terrace face the city and the river. The interiors are contemporary Portuguese, with tiles, cork and pale timber.

You stay for the design and for the calm of one of the city's most lived-in neighbourhoods, with antique dealers and restaurants you will not find in the tourist streets. The drawback is the hill: it is steep down to Chiado and steeper back up. You can walk to most things, but your calves will know about it.

Red pool, white city

The hotel hides in an alley just below the cathedral, and you barely find it before you are standing at reception. The terrace with its small red pool hangs over the Alfama rooftops with the Tagus and the cruise ships directly below, and it is one of the most photographed views in the city for good reason.

This is the hotel for a weekend for two, with Alfama in the evening and the terrace in the morning. Rooms are small and simple in white and wood; it is the view and the district you pay for. Taxis stop some way off, and a suitcase over the cobbles is part of arriving. Not one for bad knees.

The palace under the castle wall

Santiago de Alfama occupies a restored fifteenth-century palace directly below the walls of São Jorge castle, with a small square in front where the café tables stand. Inside are white walls, old stone arches and a mix of antiques and modern Portuguese design, and every room is different.

Stay here if you want history and quiet and do not mind walking. The castle is just above, the Portas do Sol viewpoint just below, and tram 28 stops nearby. Rooms are more spacious than at Memmo Alfama, but the hills are the same. Poorly suited to pushchairs and heavy luggage.

The grand hotel by Rossio

Avenida Palace sits between Rossio square and Restauradores, wall to wall with the old Rossio railway station, and has looked much as it does now since it opened around the turn of the last century. The lobby is marble and chandeliers, with a drawing room where afternoon tea is served.

This is the hotel for anyone who wants old-world grandeur at a price below the new luxury hotels, and wants to stay flat and central with Metro and trains on the doorstep. Rooms are classic and large, some a little heavy in style. The square outside is busy round the clock, so ask for a room deeper into the building.

The park in the window

The Ritz stands at the top of Avenida da Liberdade beside Parque Eduardo VII, and it is Lisbon's classic luxury hotel of the 1950s. Inside are Portuguese art and tapestries from the time it was built, and on the roof there is a running track with a view across the whole city down to the river.

Stay here if you want big, quiet and thoroughly done, with a spa, a restaurant and service that has seen everything. It appeals to anyone who wants the hotel to be a destination in itself. The catch is distance: the centre is ten minutes by Metro or a long walk down the avenue, and the neighbourhood is more offices than cafés.

The rooftop bar everyone mentions

The Tivoli sits halfway along Avenida da Liberdade and is one of the city's oldest grand hotels, recently refurbished, with a garden and a pool behind the building. The Sky Bar on the roof is why many people know the hotel, with views over the avenue, the hills and the river, and it is full every evening in season.

This suits anyone who wants a grand hotel with a pool and some life, and likes having the avenue's shops outside. Rooms are classic and well updated. The location is flat and practical, but the avenue is busy with traffic and Chiado is a quarter of an hour on foot. If you want silence, look at Valverde a few hundred metres away.

The town house with a courtyard pool

Valverde is in a town house on Avenida da Liberdade, but you forget the avenue once you are inside. The hotel is furnished like a private home, with sitting rooms, a library and an inner courtyard with a small pool and restaurant, and that courtyard is where you retreat after a day on the hills.

We recommend Valverde to families and to anyone who wants peace without staying far out. Rooms are warm and personal, with fabrics and art rather than hotel standard issue, and some connect. It is small, so book early, and it is not the place for anyone who wants the anonymity of a big hotel.