Lisbon

Lisbon doesn't flatten out for you the way Barcelona or Paris does. The city runs across seven hills next to the Tagus, and you feel every one of them walking between Alfama and Bairro Alto — which is exactly why the yellow trams exist, and why Tram 28 gets photographed more than most of the actual monuments it passes.

The center splits into a few distinct moods rather than one continuous old town. Alfama is the oldest slice: narrow, uneven, laundry strung between buildings, fado drifting out of small restaurants after dark. Baixa is the flat grid rebuilt after the 1755 earthquake, all wide squares and pedestrian streets, functional rather than pretty. Above it, Chiado and Bairro Alto mix bookshops and cafés by day with the city's densest concentration of bars once the sun goes down. Most first-time visitors base themselves in Baixa or Chiado for the simple reason that it's flat enough to actually walk between the other two.

Food is where Lisbon quietly outperforms its reputation. Grilled sardines are the cliché, but a better meal is often a simple bacalhau dish at a tasca with plastic chairs and no English menu — ask what's fresh and let the kitchen decide. Pastéis de nata are everywhere, but the ones from Manteigaria or the original Pastéis de Belém are worth the short detour over the versions sold near the main squares. Ginjinha, the sour cherry liqueur sold from hole-in-the-wall counters near Rossio, is a one-euro shot and a good way to end a night walking rather than start one.

Sintra deserves its own mention because most visitors underestimate how much of a full day it eats. The palaces are spread across a hillside, not clustered together, and the train from Rossio station only gets you to the town center — from there it's buses or a very long walk up. Go early or you'll spend more time in ticket lines than inside anything.

Portuguese is the local language, but English gets you through almost any tourist-facing interaction without friction. Locals appreciate a "bom dia" or "obrigado," even if the conversation immediately switches back to English after that.