When the London HouseTripiens meet the Lisbon HouseTripiens

HouseTrip Lisbon + HouseTrip London = LOVE

I was the first one to land at the Aeropuerta de Lisboa. The rest of the team : Rachel, JJ, James, Anders, and Arnaud were all going to meet me at our HouseTrip apartment.
Yes that’s what we do. When we go on a business trip, we all stay together and share a flat.
I already went to Lisbon once but stayed in a gritty hostel…Not the best memory of my life… I was just really excited about discovering how it would feel to get the keys of our own place. It was just super easy. I picked up my luggage and called my host Jose. He would meet me at front 20 minutes later. I jumped in a cab, and drove to Rua San Antonio in the heart of the old city.
When I got there Jose was already waiting for me. Just a quick note on the way, he didn’t know I was working for HouseTrip. I wanted to get the real chance of experiencing my first HouseTrip and wanted him to be 100% natural. He kindly carried up my luggage and showed me around the apartment. I already knew the place was beautiful from the pictures, but this was just the perfect place for a business team to spend a few days. It was spacious (yes we all had our own bedroom) and beautifully decorated.

The big surprise was the beautiful private roof top which offered us a 360˚ view on the whole city. Another nice surprise was a bottle of cold green wine waiting for us in the fridge. What else to ask more? Jose gave me all the possible details I needed to know about the area: where was the closest supermarket, the local bakery and where we could all have an authentic Portuguese dinner. I already felt at home… When he left, I noticed the guest book where all the past guests had left their impressions of that amazing place. The nicest review I found was:

“With all our love to the city. Lisbon is now in our heart. Thank you for the amazing welcome and the beautiful apartment”

When the rest of the team arrived “at home”, I have to admit that I was already feeling so comfortable that I had already started drinking some of that refreshing sparkling wine . We just had time for a quick diner nearby, a drink and all went to bed.
The next day, when I woke up, I could finally discover what was the view from my bedroom… Well, the streets are extremely narrow in Lisbon, so please do not think of me as a voyeur but I could actually see some of our neighbours across the street having breakfast. I opened my window; they noticed me and instantly waved at me. How cool is that? After being awake for 5 minutes, I already made some friends with people from the local community! They started chatting to me: “Oi, como você” (“Hi! How are you?”), “De onde você é” (“Where are you from?”). I’m not the real Mediterranean type – you could easily guess I’m not from there.

Everyone got ready, had a coffee. We headed to Rato where the HouseTrip office is. It was only 15 minutes away and we walked through a couple of really nice streets.

Lisbon felt peaceful and welcoming.

The office is full of light and almost feels like a real home. There is a nice kitchen with a balcony where from midday, there is always a nice smell of barbecue floating around. There is also a big lounge with a couch.
After a long meeting, Vanessa took us out for lunch to their busy local restaurant. It’s literally 30 seconds away. The owner grills the freshly picked up fish from the market in front of you and serves it as it is with boiled vegetables and salad. I was surprised by the crowd of people surrounding us. Rato is mostly a business area but this place was filled with people from all sorts of age and background: old couples, students, business people, and families with their children, all mixed up together. We were all under the charm of Lisbon.

At the end of the day, we all went for a drink in the Estrella park. It was great to finally all be together to get to know eachother better. With people from Beijing, to Stockholm, from Lausanne to Sao Polo and from Paris to Madrid, we just all click and share the same passion for authentic travel.

Next time, we’ll return you the favour and will take you around some undiscovered London spots.

Eventually, we all ended up in the old Barrio Alto area for a crazy night out. But this will not be disclosed. (now). So, just watch out for our next blog post to get a taste of the Lisbon night life.

Have a great day