Belém

A look around

What you’ll be living next to. Swipe through.

1/6

Where it sits

The circle is Belém and roughly a 10-minute walk around it.

How far is everything?

From the middle of this area to the city's headline sights — pick your own on the city page and these become your list.

• Time Out Market — done right16 min taxi5.3 km
• Santa Justa Lift & the Carmo ruins18 min taxi6.0 km
• Tram 28, early or late18 min taxi6.0 km
• A ginjinha, standing up18 min taxi6.1 km
• São Jorge Castle at opening20 min taxi6.6 km
• Sunset at Senhora do Monte20 min taxi6.8 km
• Fado in a small room20 min taxi6.8 km
• Feira da Ladra flea market22 min taxi7.3 km

On your doorstep

What you’re living next to if you stay here.

• 2.Jerónimos Monastery — Manueline stone carved like rope and coral, paid for with pepper money, holding Vasco da Gama's tomb. The cloister is the single most beautiful room in Portugal — book online and go at opening.
• 3.Pastéis de Belém, at the source — The original custard tart, made to a sealed recipe since 1837, still warm, cinnamon on top. The takeaway queue moves fast — or sit in the blue-tiled warren inside. Two minimum; you'll want three.
• 7.Belém Tower — The fortified lighthouse that waved the explorers off — Manueline stone lace standing in the river. Seeing it from the water's edge at golden hour is the point; going inside is optional.
• 9.LX Factory — A 19th-century industrial complex under the bridge, reborn as bookshops, studios and rooftop bars — including a bookstore built inside a former printing works that people cross town for. Sunday brings a small makers' market.
• 17.Pena Palace, Sintra — A candy-coloured fairytale palace on a misty hilltop, half an hour by train — turrets, tiles and a jungle of a garden. The best day trip in Portugal, bar none.
• 20.MAAT & the riverfront — A sleek wave of white tiles you can walk right over, art inside, the 25 de Abril bridge beside it. The prettiest stretch of the Belém waterfront.