Five Reasons To Visit Lisbon Now

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Offering 290 days of sunshine a year, Portugal's capital is within 30 minutes of beautiful sandy beaches where you can take full advantage of the fair weather. Lisbon is also packed with history, culture and best of all, is the birthplace of one of the most delicious sweet treats on the planet - Pasteis de Belem (custard tart). Lisbon has long been one of my favorite cities and has increasingly been at the top of best city lists. Here are five reasons to visit Lisbon now before it becomes too popular and overcrowded.

1. Gastronomy - New restaurants from young chefs: Lisbon native Diogo Correia grew up in a foodie family who own a cafe in Sintra, Búzio Café in Praia das Maçãs and his Lisbon Foodie Walks reflects his keen interest in Portuguese cuisine. We've taken a couple of his tours including an excellent walk through downtown Lisbon's patisseries, restaurants, cafes and insider places.

2. Culture - MAAT: MAAT, Lisbon's beautiful new museum of art, architecture and technology, located on the riverfront near Belem was designed by British architecture firm Amanda Levete Architects. The curved, wave-like design of the building and the cantilevered structure provides shade for visitors who can walk over, under and through the museum. After visiting the exhibitions in the galleries inside, be sure to go to the rooftop with its lovely views of Lisbon and the Tagus river.

3. Shopping - Unique Concept Stores: We found plenty of great leather products made in Portugal, ceramics and soaps in the Principe Real and Chiado areas of the city.  And concept stores seem to be popping up everywhere in Lisbon. The Feeting Room, in the middle of the historic Chiado district is one of the most interesting. Also in Chiado, a visit to A Vida Portuguesa is essential with its offering of gorgeous vintage Portuguese brands and products that were all but disappearing from the national market, when a former journalist decided to inject new life into them by opening this shop.

4. Rooftop terrace bars and restaurants: With Lisbon's sunny climate, rooftop restaurants and bars are plentiful and a great way to survey the city. Two of the newest are worth checking out. From the ninth floor Sky Bar at the Tivoli Avenida Liberdade which reopened last spring, you'll see St. Jorge's castle to the left, the River Tagus in the background and the Lisbon skyline below

5. Sintra, a Unesco World Heritage site is an easy daytrip at only an hour or so from Lisbon but we opted to stay overnight at the glorious Palacio de Seteais, a palace built in 1787 and also a Unesco World Heritage site. Perched on the mountainside of Sintra, the hotel enjoys stunning views of the Moorish Castle and famous Pena Palace.

We flew to Lisbon on TAP Air Portugal from Gatwick. The airline also flies direct to Lisbon from London City Airport, Heathrow and Manchester up to twelve times a day. For travellers coming from outside of Europe, TAP has introduced a free stopover optionprogramme where it's possible to stop in Porto or Lisbon for up to five days for free, en route to another European country. We used Lisboa cards to get around (all metro, trams and buses are included) and for access to 26 museums. A 24 hour card is very good value at 19 euros.