10 Things You Wish You Would Have Known Before Moving to Lisbon

We know that Portugal and especially Lisbon is the hype now when it comes to digital nomads and remote workers. However, there are some things that no one tells you about Portugal and Lisbon that might be useful to understand the place, the culture, and the people. This is the reason why we created this list of things you wished you knew before moving to Lisbon, but we will tell you all of them beforehand.

1. A slower pace of life: even though Lisbon is a “big city” within the country, this is still a very Portuguese thing that also happens in the capital. People in Portugal are not much-stressed thanks to the slower pace of life they follow as part of their culture, which can be a bit hard to swallow for people from other nationalities. Here people are relaxed and most probably you’ll need to be patient, in everything, especially when it comes to bureaucracy, don’t worry in the end everything will work out fine.
2. Portuguese Time: punctuality is not a thing in Portugal and things usually don’t start on time, because it is known that people are used to and feel “allowed” to be at least 10 minutes late for everything.
3. Language won’t be a barrier: you probably know that Portuguese is the language of Portugal, just for you to know, it is similar but not the same as the one in Brazil. Despite this, you won’t need to be fluent in Portuguese to move or go to Portugal, most people can speak English, especially in Lisbon and other touristic areas. However, it will always be useful and polite to learn at least the basics.
4. No high heels are recommended: a very important thing to know about Lisbon is that there are many steep hills and also the streets in the city are very slippery, especially when it rains. For these reasons, if you want to avoid falling, we recommend you to wear the most comfortable, and hopefully not slippery, shoes or sneakers to walk around the city.
5. It is hard to find a place: during the past years, since Lisbon has become a mainstream European capital, the demand for apartments and rooms has increased considerably and this can make it very challenging to find a place to rent, but not impossible.
6. Winter hits differently: it is definitely not like in other central European capitals, it doesn’t snow at all in Lisbon during winter, and temperatures will never drop below zero degrees but it is still cold, and even though it rains it is not that much. Considering this, most of the houses and apartments in Lisbon don’t have a heating system so you better buy good blankets and an electric heater because it might be colder indoors than outside.
7. The cold ocean: for some people, this is very surprising but it makes total sense, we are not talking about the Mediterranean Sea but the Atlantic Ocean, so yes, the water is quite cold, but when it is summer and the weather is very hot you will be thankful for the cold water in the sea.
8. Late dinners: you might be used to having dinner around 6 pm, and of course, you can eat and have dinner at the time you want, but in Portugal, it is very common to have dinner late in the evening, around 9 to 10 pm, as locals do.
9. Walk the city: you might think that it is easier and faster to take public transport, taxi, uber, or rent a car to go around Lisbon, but no. The best and fastest way to discover the city is by foot since the capital is quite small and the tourist places are mostly in a central location, also because the city and its tiny streets are not made for cars and the traffic gets quite crazy for the same reason.
10. Good quality of life: We guess this is the main reason for people moving to Lisbon. The weather is great and there are many sunny days all year round, there are very nice beaches 30 minutes away from downtown, people are friendly and super chill, there is always something to do and different events going on, and of course, Lisbon itself is beautiful and picturesque.

We just want you to be aware of some things that no one tells you about moving to Lisbon, but we encourage you to experience it yourself, we guarantee that you are going to love the city anyways and enjoy it to the fullest!