Hello Glynis, We have stayed in Lisbon twice and both times we stayed with hotels in the Sana group. The hotel we stoped at was the Sana Executive, this is a nice 3* near the Eduardo (Edward) VII park were you will find lots of hotels but can only speak for this one. It is near the world famous Calouste Gulbenkian Museum and just round the corner from the tube into Lisbon town centre, last time we were there it was 1.25 euro's each way. The road the hotel is on is a tree lined road with about 5 restaurants and a few cafe/bars, we found one restaurant very good on the same side of the street as the hotel it is very Portugese but the food was great although it was a Cerveja (Beer Hall) it was full most nights that always speaks for its self in my book.
If you want a hotel that is more in the town take a look at some in the Caravela book, that you can look at on line.

http://www.sanahotels.com

http://www.caravela.co.uk

I have put up a few things about our visits to Lisbon but they may be a few pages down the list by now, hope this is a bit of a help.

Dave

Thanks Dave but I'm not really into getting on tubes - just don't like them (prob after my spell many years ago of living in London) I'd rather be in the middle of things

hello glynis, my wife & i are off back to lagos in june. we also,like you, thought that we would like to get to lisbon,perhaps spend a night there before driving back next day!! would you think a weekend would be better, or during the week for driving[quieter etc:]. hope to find a nice hotel on the net before we leave set off on hols:. good luck with your holiday.

When we went up to Lisbon we stayed at the Miraparque,it was about a 20 min walk into the centre but a pleasant walk.The rooms were what you would expect in a city hotel ,the staff were very helpful.
I personally would not drive to Lisbon they are mad drivers especially the taxis .We really enjoyed the train ride through the country

Many Thanks for all your replies.........Hmm don't know what to do now about the driving bit

to put another slant on it.....if you dont drive at least you will be able to

Lisbon is not that bad for driving into and around. just like any other big city. if you take the car you can visit some of the places just outside lisbon like sintra which is about 15 k out of the ity and well worth a visit, lovely place would be a real shame to go to lisbon and not see sintra. also a bit further out say 40 mins you have some lovely places historic towns and villages.
we live an hour north from lisbon near Tomar, if you want any info

Many thanks for that.

My hubby works away so often is in London etc so I don't think he'll be too bothered about the traffic. It's more not knowing where you are and the roads system than traffic volumes.

We for instance didn't particularly like driving around Albufeira as there was a lot of one way roads - we kept passing the same shop and only wanted to be 'over there'

We have a daughter who lives in London and we definatley thought the driving standard was worse in Lisbon.We drive in London but not Lisbon also as you say it is not knowing your way around and being in the wrong lane. If you live there i suppose you get used to it

Thanks algarve addict I'll have a word with him and see what he thinks - knowing him he'll go for the driving as we prefer to up sticks when we want rather than to a timetable. If he does drive am sure he'll curse and sweat but 'won't be beaten'