Most people remember that the Portuguese were the first Europeans to reach Japan and have colonies in China and India, but what’s often forgotten is that they were also the first ones to reach another Asian location — Thailand. That happened exactly 500 years ago this month and until late 2011 there will be a permanent reminder of that in Lisbon’s Belém district.
That will be a Thai pavilion made of teak (hard timber), built in Bangkok to be shipped and assembled in Lisbon. The exact location will be the gardens by the Jeronimos Monastery, it will be 22 feet high (close to seven meters), and will have Portuguese and Thai motifs. It will present exhibitions and musical shows throughout the year, and may also include a tea room. The name of the monument will be “Sala Thai,” using a word that arrived in Thailand with the Portuguese (in both countries “sala” is a living space within a building).
It will be open to the public before the end of this year but the official inauguration will be in early 2012. Although the king of Thailand apparently won’t be able to attend, he’ll send one of his daughters. The princess will therefore be the guest of honor for an event that will not only unveil a new attraction in Lisbon but also remember the first contact Thailand made with Westerners. Among the interesting results of this cultural exchange was the introduction of sweets, pastries and desserts in Thai cuisine, using eggs for the first time and incorporating sugary traditions from Portugal.
In the meantime, those interested in the Europe-meets-Asia art and culture can visit the Orient Museum in Lisbon.

Lisbon’s most surprisingly little-visited attractions are its green spaces (parks and gardens), but one you should not miss is the greenhouse of Edward VII Park. It underwent a major 1.8-million-euro renovation in the last two years and reopened just a few weeks ago. One reason why you should not overlook it in your sightseeing itinerary is because your hotel will very likely be located nearby — it’s found right in the center of the city’s main hotel district — but above all, it’s worth a stop for its wonderful collection of plants from all over the world.
You’ll feel transported to a magical wonderland created in 1933 with species from Portugal’s colonies in Asia, Africa and South America (Brazil), while others were brought from diverse locations like Australia, Mexico and Peru.
Although it’s known as “Estufa Fria” (cold greenhouse), it includes a “estufa quente” (hot greenhouse) which feels like a sauna as soon as you enter. It’s home to tropical plants and several cacti, and is perhaps the most fascinating section of the park.
Throughout the entire greenhouse (cold and hot), you’ll also see small ponds, tiny waterfalls and statues dotted around.

Medeiros e Almeida Museum
It’s celebrating its 10th anniversary on June 1st with free admission, but despite being open for a decade, only a couple of guidebooks have found it. So it remains one of Lisbon’s least-known attractions, even when holding one of its most important private collections of art. From paintings to decorative art, this is an extraordinary collection that could complement a visit to the Gulbenkian Museum.

Chiado Museum
Also celebrating a birthday, but this one with an extra zero, is the National Museum of Contemporary Art. Better known as the Chiado Museum, it is found in a very small space for such a large collection, so only part of it is on display in temporary exhibitions. Finally, at 100 years old, it will apparently expand at the end of the year. The building next to it will be vacant and the process of incorporating it into the museum will begin.

Monsanto Park
Very few know it, but Lisbon has one of the largest urban parks in the world. It’s a protected forest that’s been cleaned up in the last few years, and in addition to outdoor activities, it’s also been used as a stage for concerts. This June, on Sundays, you’ll be able to catch free concerts, part of the annual OutJazz festival that takes place in several parts of the city.

The Greenhouse
It was closed for almost two years for restoration works, and just reopened last month. This greenhouse in Edward VII Park is a wonderland of hundreds of species of plants from around the world, and with a certain magical atmosphere to relax in the middle of the city.

Sky Bar
It’s only open in the summer, and it’s now back for another season of cocktails overlooking the city. Found at the top of the Tivoli Lisboa Hotel in Avenida da Liberdade, this rooftop terrace is perfect to admire Lisbon after a day of sightseeing, and having a drink before or after dinner.

It’s one of Lisbon’s most-visited attractions and one of the world’s biggest aquariums — and it just got bigger. A recently-inaugurated 4.8-million-euro extension added space for temporary exhibitions (at the moment you can see sea turtles), a new auditorium and a new restaurant.
It reinforces the mega-aquarium‘s mission to alert its nearly 1-million visitors each year to near-extinct species and a cleaner environment, while also providing other services such as family-friendly programs in the auditorium and extra space to relax with a meal.
The new all-white restaurant is open from 10AM to 7PM and serves a kid-friendly menu: pastas, hamburgers, soups, salads, snacks.
The Oceanarium is one of only a couple of attractions in the city that never close. It’s open throughout the year, even on Christmas day. It’s an especially good destination to include in your itinerary if you’re in the city on a Monday when most of the museums and monuments are closed. It’s also perhaps the attraction most enjoyed by all age groups, and the Lisboa Card gives you reduced admission.

BASILICA DA ESTRELA
One of Lisbon’s most monumental churches never really opened itself to tourists. Its doors were only open for mass and prayer, with tourists just taking a quick look inside. But it’s now finally decided to open its terrace and dome for tourist visits, on guided tours taking place every half hour.
Many will find it overpriced (it’s 5 euros per person with no discounts available with the Lisboa Card), but anyone will enjoy the views from the top. You reach it through a dizzying spiral staircase, and may enter the dome to see the interior of the church from above.
The views from the terrace by the twin towers include the river, 25 de Abril Bridge and the castle in the distance.

ST. VINCENT MONASTERY
It’s one of the city’s main landmarks but it’s often overlooked among so many other attractions. The interior includes a fascinating series of tile panels telling La Fontaine’s fables, while the terrace offers a magnificent view of the city, including of the dome of the National Pantheon right below.

NATIONAL PANTHEON
You can see the dome of the National Pantheon from several parts of the city, and you can also lean against it as you admire a view of the city. You can do it for free on Sundays until 2PM or at any time with the Lisboa Card. Those views include the towers of St. Vincent Monastery and the river.

It’s just been announced that the neighborhood with the most cultural attractions in Lisbon will have yet another one by the end of 2013. That’s a new cultural center next to and managed by the Electricity Museum which will mostly present temporary exhibitions of contemporary art and also have an auditorium, a café and shop.
The 19-million-euro project will be designed by British architect Amanda Levete (who’s recently also been chosen for the expansion of London’s Victoria & Albert Museum), and will literally be on the river, with the water rising over the steps of the façade.
The top of the building will also be used as a big open space which you’ll be able to walk through and admire the views of the surroundings, further making this a future icon of contemporary architecture in the city.

Lisbon’s main tourism office is found in one of the arcaded buildings of Comercio Square and starting this Friday the 25th it is expanding to most of the building. That includes a courtyard that’s been closed for over a decade, but that’s just been renovated to become a cultural venue. Tourists and locals will now find two restaurants of contemporary Portuguese cuisine, a traditional ice cream shop, space for exhibitions and special events, a souvenir shop, and all the useful information about the city. It will also be the headquarters of ModaLisboa, the organization behind the local fashion industry’s regular events.
All this after an investment of over 4 million euros thought to be a vital addition to the ongoing revitalization of Lisbon’s biggest and most monumental square.

Lisbon is essentially an outdoors city, so few visit it with a long list of museums to see. That’s despite some wonderful collections such as that of the Berardo or MuDe museums (which are both free!). Most who do go to a museum, often choose the Gulbenkian, the Ancient Art or even the Coaches Museum, overlooking other smaller spaces.
But if you’re coming to Lisbon with culture in mind, you’ll likely want to see quite a number of collections (the Tile Museum is especially magnificent).
Of the smaller or least-visited museums, these are five you may want to consider:

Fado Museum

Medeiros e Almeida Museum
After Gulbenkian’s, this is Lisbon’s best private art collection. Housed in a mansion where a rich local businessman used to live, it presents European paintings by names such as Tiepolo and Rubens, as well as a Rembrandt self-portrait, classic European decorative art, and Chinese porcelain.

Fado Museum
If you’ve never heard Fado or are not a fan, you’ll surely overlook this museum. However, you just may gain a new appreciation for Lisbon’s music after a visit, or at least will leave with a better sense of the local culture. This is a very well thought-out museum, with a multilingual audio guide and multimedia displays which place the music within the social and political context of 19th and 20th-century Portugal.

Chiado Museum
This museum suffers from lack of space. Its collection is the biggest of the country’s contemporary artists, but not everything can be displayed at the same time. So it arranges thematic exhibitions with a number of the works of the permanent collection together with other temporary ones. Once a planned expansion is finally completed, it will certainly become one of Lisbon’s best museums.

Arpad Szenes – Vieira da Silva Museum
Vieira da Silva was one of Portugal’s top contemporary artists, and Arpad Szenes was her Hungarian husband. Although they spent a large part of their artistic life in Paris, they had a studio in Lisbon close to where this museum is now found. It reunites many of the husband-and-wife’s works in a former silk factory, and should not be missed by any one who enjoys contemporary art.

São Roque Museum
Created by the Jesuits in the 17th century, this museum has a small but very rich collection of sacred art, including sculptures, paintings, tapestries, and relics said to be unique in the world. Adjoining the museum is a church with a very plain façade but with an extraordinary interior, including “the world’s most expensive chapel,” built in Rome in the 18th century using only the most precious materials.

JARDIM DAS NECESSIDADES
Not only is this garden (which is more like a park) a secret to even most locals, it is also found by one of the least-known viewpoints in the city. That’s the terrace in front of the Necessidades Palace (now the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) which has the most photogenic view of 25 de Abril Bridge. After taking your photos there, enter this secret garden next to the palace. There are more views of the bridge from there, but this time framed by greenery. It is known for its large collection of cacti which are said to be the oldest in Europe. You’ll likely find it deserted and have the green water pond, lawns, and the exotic trees all for yourself.

BOTANICAL GARDEN
Years of neglect have turned this botanical garden into an enchanted forest. Once one of Europe’s most important botanical collections, it’s still a noteworthy attraction in the city and does come recommended in some guidebooks, yet it doesn’t receive that many visitors. There are plans for a major renovation, so see it as a forest before it’s turned into an immaculate garden (which will certainly raise its profile in the city’s tourist itinerary).

TROPICAL GARDEN
Beautiful and romantic, this garden is usually overlooked by the thousands of tourists who walk past its gate every year. Found between the popular Coaches Museum and the must-see Jeronimos Monastery, it still manages to be a secret and a place that’s perhaps better left undiscovered. That’s so that the flock of peacocks and geese are not disturbed as they travel around their ponds surrounded by towering palm trees.

If you choose Lisbon as your destination for the most romantic day of the year (Valentine’s Day), or if you find yourself in the city with your loved one at any other time of the year, there are several spots you should not miss. Here are ten of them:

Miradouro São Pedro de Alcântara
Forget the long name, and just remember that this is the garden-terrace also known as Bairro Alto’s viewpoint. The castle can be seen right ahead, as well as the river and a perfect backdrop for a photo of the two of you.

Miradouro das Portas do Sol
No one can resist stopping here to take pictures and admire the view. There are several viewpoints in the Alfama district but this one is perhaps the most breathtaking and arguably the city’s most beautiful.

Santa Justa Elevator
It’s one of the city’s main landmarks but this early-20th-century elevator is worth riding not just for the experience but also for the view from the top. You’ll both feel high in the clouds.

Belém Riverfront
Belém Tower is the city’s most-photographed monument and a reminder of the great voyages of Discovery when it served as a beacon to many of Portugal’s famous explorers. Now let it be the starting point of a romantic walk along the riverfront, past another city landmark, the Discoveries Monument, perhaps all the way to Docas de Santo Amaro below the monumental 25 de Abril Bridge.

Tropical Garden
Very few people visit this lovely garden and that makes a couple of hours here even more worthwhile. You’ll have it almost all for yourself, with just the variety of trees and a few swans for company.

St. George’s Castle
The city’s oldest monument is where you’ll both feel at the top of the world or the king and queen of the castle, admiring Lisbon from a bird’s-eye perspective on the ramparts.

Miradouro da Nossa Senhora do Monte
The city’s youth prefers to hang out at the café of Miradouro da Graça nearby, but walk up the hill a little further and you’ll arrive at this viewpoint with a breathtaking view of the city. Even if you’re not religious, you’ll both feel blessed by the image of the Virgin on the site, and will want to sit and relax in each other’s company (and in that of other couples too).

Pena Palace
One of Europe’s first and most important romantic constructions, this must-see fairytale is found right outside Lisbon in one of Europe’s most enchantic towns, Sintra.

Tram 25
You’ll see tram 28 recommended in every guidebook, but it’s usually so packed with tourists, that a charming experience is often irritating. So skip the 28 and hop on the 25. Its route is not as long or picturesque, but you’ll likely have more space and be able to better enjoy the romantic ride on these vintage wood-paneled vehicles.

Parque das Nações Promenade
The walk along the riverfront in Belém is romantic enough, but do the same here on the opposite side of town, in the Parque das Nações district. This 21st century neighborhood offers cable car rides for panoramic views, but you may also follow the boardwalk, past futuristic architecture, gardens and lawns, all the way to Europe’s longest bridge.