Where to Live Near Lisbon?
Jan 20th 2020, 9:29 pm
#31
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: Dec 2019
Posts: 49
Re: Where to Live Near Lisbon?
ÓBIDOS ?
I haven't been myself yet, though am intending to do so soon.
Reason being several people, a mix of Lisboetas and English lusophiles, have recommended it as ideal for someone who wants a place which is attractive in itself, cheaper , and of course much smaller / less crowded than Lisbon, but has easy access to Lisbon for all the cultural stuff at the Gulbenkian and so on.
There is a railway station but for some reason apparently the train takes twice as long as the bus service to Lisbon.
You haven't mentioned your budget for purchase : that determines a LOT ~especially if you are determined to eschew flats in favour of full on houses.
By the way : don't for a minute assume that purchase of a house, or rental of one for that matter, means that you escape noise nuisance problems.
An awful awful lot depends on whether your house is in a street favoured by the uncontrolled, possibly wild, packs of DOGS which roam around many towns ~at least in my experience of the backstreets of Olhão.
Another important issue ( which you could perhaps clarify ) would be quite how often you expect to be relying on Lisbon for your culture fix ~ eg, would two or three days a month do it for you, the rest of the time being content to loll around doing not very much in an attractive backwater ?
If so, then you could reasonably look much further afield than just the one hour commute, with a view to staying in a cheapo hotel in Lisbon for say three nights a month. Trains are cheap enough, especially if you have the over 65s reduction ?
PS: when at Óbidos check out also Caldas da Rainha ~also highly recommended and not that far from Óbidos ( and therefore Lisbon ).
I haven't been myself yet, though am intending to do so soon.
Reason being several people, a mix of Lisboetas and English lusophiles, have recommended it as ideal for someone who wants a place which is attractive in itself, cheaper , and of course much smaller / less crowded than Lisbon, but has easy access to Lisbon for all the cultural stuff at the Gulbenkian and so on.
There is a railway station but for some reason apparently the train takes twice as long as the bus service to Lisbon.
You haven't mentioned your budget for purchase : that determines a LOT ~especially if you are determined to eschew flats in favour of full on houses.
By the way : don't for a minute assume that purchase of a house, or rental of one for that matter, means that you escape noise nuisance problems.
An awful awful lot depends on whether your house is in a street favoured by the uncontrolled, possibly wild, packs of DOGS which roam around many towns ~at least in my experience of the backstreets of Olhão.
Another important issue ( which you could perhaps clarify ) would be quite how often you expect to be relying on Lisbon for your culture fix ~ eg, would two or three days a month do it for you, the rest of the time being content to loll around doing not very much in an attractive backwater ?
If so, then you could reasonably look much further afield than just the one hour commute, with a view to staying in a cheapo hotel in Lisbon for say three nights a month. Trains are cheap enough, especially if you have the over 65s reduction ?
PS: when at Óbidos check out also Caldas da Rainha ~also highly recommended and not that far from Óbidos ( and therefore Lisbon ).
Budget is around €250,000, maybe €300k. I take your point that a house doesn't always mean quiet, but as @Moses2013 wrote, I think they're generally more so than flats - especially if you have other units on all sides. Top floor at an end might be okay. When we bought a house in the past, we visited it at all hours to see what the neighborhood is like at night, if there's loud noise from neighbors etc. Interesting about the packs of dogs - I never encountered that. Maybe it's a special feature of the Algarve?
Another factor for us is that we have a dog, and he's used to going outside at will into a fenced area. So a small garden would be ideal. As for how often we'd want access to Lisbon, my wife will want to do art courses and we'd both want to do language and possibly other regular activities that would benefit from an easy commute. We're well under 65 (especially my wife!) and being self-employed (marginally at the moment) we both work at home, but want to have the sense of having a life in the world rather than being prematurely retired if that makes sense.
Excellent question about DIY and renovations @Euroguy!
Jan 20th 2020, 10:30 pm
#32
BE Enthusiast
Joined: May 2011
Posts: 808
Re: Where to Live Near Lisbon?
Well Portuguese language courses you will find more or less everywhere : in fact many Câmaras organize them for free or low cost for new ( foreign) residents.
You would certainly find art classes in the Algarve ( Olhão has a bit of a visual arts vibe going on ) and quite possibly in many other places.
So if those are your main concerns I don't think you need to be that near Lisbon ~ you can still access it say once a month for exhibitions and what not ? Major cinema releases are not confined to Lisbon. I know Tavira has a multiplex cinema, as do other cities, and I believe they all take a feed from the National Theatre / Metropolitan Opera now and again, as well as the usual releases.
My point being : Lisbon I agree is a beautiful city, and if money were no object I would love to have a large flat on a top floor in Campo de Ourique or Lapa with a large terrace overlooking the Tagus ! However, as that amount of money is not available it is not to be. But one does not need to be in or even that near Lisbon to get a regular fix of arty stuff.
If you consider Óbidos to be a bit of a backwater : my guess is that you would find most places that sort of size to be such. Maybe you should revisit and report back on your findings .............
As for train costs : without the reduction for 'Seniors' anywhere in the Algarve to Lisbon is about €35 single, double for return. And I believe as it's much the same distance ditto for Porto to Lisbon. ( Both journeys are approx 3 hours each way. ).
You would certainly find art classes in the Algarve ( Olhão has a bit of a visual arts vibe going on ) and quite possibly in many other places.
So if those are your main concerns I don't think you need to be that near Lisbon ~ you can still access it say once a month for exhibitions and what not ? Major cinema releases are not confined to Lisbon. I know Tavira has a multiplex cinema, as do other cities, and I believe they all take a feed from the National Theatre / Metropolitan Opera now and again, as well as the usual releases.
My point being : Lisbon I agree is a beautiful city, and if money were no object I would love to have a large flat on a top floor in Campo de Ourique or Lapa with a large terrace overlooking the Tagus ! However, as that amount of money is not available it is not to be. But one does not need to be in or even that near Lisbon to get a regular fix of arty stuff.
If you consider Óbidos to be a bit of a backwater : my guess is that you would find most places that sort of size to be such. Maybe you should revisit and report back on your findings .............
As for train costs : without the reduction for 'Seniors' anywhere in the Algarve to Lisbon is about €35 single, double for return. And I believe as it's much the same distance ditto for Porto to Lisbon. ( Both journeys are approx 3 hours each way. ).
Jan 20th 2020, 11:48 pm
#33
Forum Regular
Thread Starter
Joined: Dec 2019
Posts: 49
Re: Where to Live Near Lisbon?
Well Portuguese language courses you will find more or less everywhere : in fact many Câmaras organize them for free or low cost for new ( foreign) residents.
You would certainly find art classes in the Algarve ( Olhão has a bit of a visual arts vibe going on ) and quite possibly in many other places.
So if those are your main concerns I don't think you need to be that near Lisbon ~ you can still access it say once a month for exhibitions and what not ? Major cinema releases are not confined to Lisbon. I know Tavira has a multiplex cinema, as do other cities, and I believe they all take a feed from the National Theatre / Metropolitan Opera now and again, as well as the usual releases.
My point being : Lisbon I agree is a beautiful city, and if money were no object I would love to have a large flat on a top floor in Campo de Ourique or Lapa with a large terrace overlooking the Tagus ! However, as that amount of money is not available it is not to be. But one does not need to be in or even that near Lisbon to get a regular fix of arty stuff.
If you consider Óbidos to be a bit of a backwater : my guess is that you would find most places that sort of size to be such. Maybe you should revisit and report back on your findings .............
As for train costs : without the reduction for 'Seniors' anywhere in the Algarve to Lisbon is about €35 single, double for return. And I believe as it's much the same distance ditto for Porto to Lisbon. ( Both journeys are approx 3 hours each way. ).
You would certainly find art classes in the Algarve ( Olhão has a bit of a visual arts vibe going on ) and quite possibly in many other places.
So if those are your main concerns I don't think you need to be that near Lisbon ~ you can still access it say once a month for exhibitions and what not ? Major cinema releases are not confined to Lisbon. I know Tavira has a multiplex cinema, as do other cities, and I believe they all take a feed from the National Theatre / Metropolitan Opera now and again, as well as the usual releases.
My point being : Lisbon I agree is a beautiful city, and if money were no object I would love to have a large flat on a top floor in Campo de Ourique or Lapa with a large terrace overlooking the Tagus ! However, as that amount of money is not available it is not to be. But one does not need to be in or even that near Lisbon to get a regular fix of arty stuff.
If you consider Óbidos to be a bit of a backwater : my guess is that you would find most places that sort of size to be such. Maybe you should revisit and report back on your findings .............
As for train costs : without the reduction for 'Seniors' anywhere in the Algarve to Lisbon is about €35 single, double for return. And I believe as it's much the same distance ditto for Porto to Lisbon. ( Both journeys are approx 3 hours each way. ).
Are there any other areas of the Algarve you think we should check out? Lagos is definitely on the list, and we thought we'd also check out Tavira. Faro sounds like it might be a bit too overdeveloped in the tourist department, though Olhão sounds interesting. Then again, from the bit of looking I've done online, it seems the Algarve is not much cheaper than the Lisbon area?
Weather is also a factor. I remember Lisbon being pretty damp and rainy sometimes, so I do wonder if we might be happier in the warmer south. A friend here in the US compared the two areas to San Francisco v. San Diego, and we much prefer the latter for weather.
Great to know about language courses. I know France used to have something similar, and I was hoping Portugal would as well.
We're going on the 4th of Feb for 6 weeks, so hopefully that will at least allow us to narrow down the area. I hadn't thought about Obidos, but perhaps it is worth a second visit. I just read that there's an express bus service to Lisbon that only takes an hour, with 32 departures on weekdays!
Jan 21st 2020, 7:26 am
#34
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 6,148
Re: Where to Live Near Lisbon?
For DIY you will either have some local stores, Bricomarche and like Spain Leroy Merlin.
