LISBON, PORTUGAL
PHOTOGRAPH: JONATHAN STOKES
Make Tracks
Lisbon is a city famous for its trams: antique trams and modern trams, trams that rattle up steep hills and screech around tight corners. Keen tram-spotters should check into the new AlmaLusa hotel, overlooking tramtracks on the Baixa district – occupying a grand townhouse which, in previous incarnations, served as a military arsenal and later a bank. These days, guests deposit themselves in pared-back rooms with muted colours, vast beds and windows out of which you can hear the bells of the number 25 tram and see the neoclassical façade of the town hall. Anyone seeking to make a withdrawal from said rooms could do worse than head to the on-site Delfina restaurant – serving up traditional Portuguese dishes like bacalhau (salt cod) and alheira sausage among mismatched furniture and traditional ceramic tiled surfaces.
MAKE IT HAPPEN