If you love craft beer, this post is for you! Read on to find the best places to quench your thirst and discover new spots in Barcelona, Dublin, Munich, Amsterdam and Prague.

Urban beaches, idyllic little coves, rolling hills, mountainous landscape, lunar landscape, sunsets, forests, mountains, fairy-tale paths and friendly locals. The Canaries have it all!

Por Tensi Sánchez de Actitudes Magazine

Lisbon is without doubt one of the most beautiful and magical cities in Europe. As soon as you arrive, you feel immersed in a world of new sensations that only Lisbon can offer.  Historic Lisbon stands in perfect harmony alongside the more modern features of this vanguard city, where its wide range of leisure activities and cultural options have made it a highly fashionable destination.  Each area of the city offers a vast array of attractions to make sure you’ll always have plenty to do and the streets are teeming with ambience both day and night.

Lisbon’s winding and sometimes steep streets can make it difficult to get around the city, but the public transport services and even taxis are not expensive.

Here are some useful travel tips that don’t appear in many guidebooks.

Port – Santa Apolonia area

This is a fairly new part of the city that has attracted many new restaurants and shops to set up in old port warehouses, creating some unique and spectacular spaces. Be sure to visit the excellent delicatessens or have breakfast at Gourmet Deli Deluxe, try the international dishes at Bica do Sapato restaurant and the  vintage furniture shop known as Loja da Talaia.

This area also boasts some fabulous nightspots, including the famous LUX discotheque, but if you’re not on the “guest list” or you know someone who can get you in, the queues outside are horrendous, though it’s well worth the hassle.

Bairro Alto – Principe Real area

Barrio Alto is home to the Principe Real area, an old residential district next to the Botanical Gardens and where you’ll find many of the city’s most modern shops and restaurants, including trend-setting  concept stores  Espacio B,  21 pr Concept Store, Real and  Fabrico Infinito.

If you love fashion, be sure to visit such shops as  Nuno Gama,  Alexandra Moura, Kolovrat, Ricardo Preto and Nuno Baltazar. These top designers all attend Moda Lisboa, Portugal’s most important biannual fashion show that is becoming increasingly famous the world over.

Next on our route is Poison d’amour, a cake shop that is sure to make your mouth water, boasting a wonderful terrace where you can enjoy a moment of pure magic. The terrace of the Lost In café-bar, which has an Indian-style decor, offers breathtaking views over the city. For some authentic Portuguese home-cooking, we highly recommend Tasca Do Urso at 32 Rua Do Monte Olivete. And last but not least, theFacto Royale hair salon with its exquisite decor and reputation as one of the finest in the city.

Baixa and Chiado area.

A great way to spend the afternoon is to stroll through the streets of Baixa and Chiado, taking in the most authentic side of Lisbon, its houses, cafés, streets… this is home to a shop called Pelcor, famous throughout Portugal for its cork fashion accessories and incredible handbags. Along Rua Nova do Carvalho you’ll find a bar called Sol y Pesca where you can enjoy a glass of fine wine, then go for a cocktail in the pub known as Pensao Amor, a former brothel that has managed to preserve much of its original decor and boasting a replica of the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Don’t miss even the smallest detail!
Close by is the restaurant  La Velha Senhora offering superb local cuisine at affordable prices.

Alcántara area

Another of Lisbon’s lesser known gems, this area is home to some of the city’s coolest shops, cafés and restaurants, alongside the trendiest advertising agencies and photographic studios.
It’s like a small city in itself, a dream factory where everything is ad hoc and created for LX Factory.

Sunday is the perfect time to visit this area and check out the LX Market where you can find fabulous porcelain, books, clothes, live music, etc.…All the shops and businesses have managed to preserve the essence and decor of the industrial spaces they once were.  There are over one hundred unique premises, such as the stunning  Achimpa bookshop,  La Cantina restaurant and even a press kiosk inside a container called Mag. All this and so much more is available in LX Factory.

Olivais area

Another fascinating area to see is the so-called  new Lisbon which arose from the EXPO 1998 World Exhibition. If you like architecture, you’ll love the Portuguese Pavilion by Álvaro Siza, winner of the Pritzker prize, along with many others. The area is fully inhabited and all the pavilions have been reused. A fine example of urban renewal that other European cities would do well to copy.

The Expo area gives shape to the Olivais district, which is linked to the city via underground, Vasco da Gama Bridge (the longest in Europe), and the intermodal station designed by Santiago Calatrava.

Must-do

*Try the best sweet in the city (and it’s not the famous Bethlehem Cake) at the cake shop called Pastelería do restelo “Careca” on Rua Duarte Pacheco Pereira. The delicious Palmees do Careca!

*Admire the work of a possible future Pritzer prize winner,  Charles Correa, the Champalimaud Foundation building and have lunch in the incredible Darwin restaurant on Avenida de Brasilia.

*Choose a good hotel such as Eurostars Das Letras offering first-class service to make your stay even more enjoyable.

*Visit the MUDE museum of fashion and design, a building dating to the 1950s and former headquarters of Banco Nacional Ultramarino. Its original use can still be appreciated thanks to the decadent industrial ambience that makes it all the more fascinating.

By Tensi Sánchez from Actitudes Magazine

Photos by Rubén Seco

If you feel like going to discover hidden Lisbon reserve your Vueling?

The Alsace Wine Route is speckled with numerous wine cellars where you can taste the famed wines of this French region. And, if you’re travelling with family, friends or your partner, you can opt to discover the world of winemaking through a series of leisure activities in a number of delightful towns and villages, some of them regarded as among the most beautiful in France. You will also come across an endless array of restaurants, from Michelin-starred establishments to the typical winstubs, a kind of bistro offering traditional cuisine from locally sourced products in a relaxed setting. And, seated at a terrace café, to wit. Take note of these venues, which we can highly recommend.

La Nouvelle Auberge
This former post office is located between the cities of Colmar and Munster. The ground floor features a bistro offering market cuisine at moderate prices. The first floor is given over to an acclaimed, award-winning gourmet restaurant, with the subtle creations of a chef who combines cutting-edge technique with simple Alsatian recipes, conditioned solely by seasonality and in line with the slow-food movement, of which La Nouvelle Auberge is a member. They offer four tasting menus with different dishes every day, depending on what the freshest produce from local producers happens to be. Some of their specialities include snail soup with garlic and parsley, oxtail consommé, smoked river fish fillet in red wine sauce and snail paté on toast, all paired with local wines. The interior design is that of a traditional, half-timbered Alsatian home, while the establishment boasts a pleasant, quiet, shady terrace set in natural surroundings.

Avenue 294
A comfortable, inviting establishment with refined decor where the chef crafts new suggestions every day, over and above a menu which is both contemporary and traditionally inspired. Special mention goes to the homemade desserts – watch out for the seasonal fruit tarts – and their wine list, extensive and with acclaimed local wines. As soon as the morning sun peeps through, they open a terrace behind the lovely red house that is Avenue 294. They have comfortable easy chairs and a plant-fringed area suited to having a last drink, for example. Pleasant ambient music accompanies the experience. A gourmet venue in a perfect setting you won’t want to leave.

Hôtel Beauséjour
A five minutes’ walk from the centre of the picturesque city that is Colmar – also known as “Little Venice” for its canals – you can relax in the garden-terrace of this establishment, owned by the Keller family, the fifth generation of restaurateurs. Their cuisine, based on seasonal products, is refined and very Alsatian, as evinced in the homemade foie gras with Gewürztraminer wine gelatine, or their organic five-meat sauerkraut. However, the standout feature of this restaurant-hotel is the interior patio, sited in a garden full of trees and flowers, totally cut off from the rest of the city.

Wistub Brenner
A genuine old-time Alsatian winstub located in the heart of Colmar. They offer the authentic – most compelling – local dishes, including sauerkraut, onion tart, Munster cheese salad and duck magret, cream cheese and potatoes and beef tripe with Riesling. We loved their beautiful, flower-filled urban terrace where you needn’t hesitate to spend a long after-meal sipping those fabulous white wines from Alsace, served in glasses with a green foot.

Le Cerf
Marlenheim, the first town you come to on the Alsace Wine Route if you start off from Strasbourg, has some great wine cellars and a great restaurant – Le Cerf. This establishment, which doubles as a hotel, has been run by the Husser family since 1930. It combines rustic interior design with avant-garde cuisine, which has earned it a Michelin star. Theirs is top-drawer cuisine, featuring regional dishes crafted using contemporary techniques, attested by the likes of sauerkraut or bouchées à la reine (stuffed vol-au-vent), and such international dishes as ravioli au foie gras or oxtail sashimi ramen, served up amid surrounding vineyards. Their terrace is a central patio where local red geraniums lend a touch of charm.

Book your Vueling to Basel, an hour and a half from the start of the Alsace Wine Route, and be sure to soak up the views in some of these magnificent terraces while tasting their delicious cuisine.

Text by Laia Zieger de Gastronomistas