They’re hanging everywhere, but my wife assures me that it tastes good when properly prepared. I’ll take her word. 
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So we booked - at least one way. Turns out, similar to the free stop over on TAP, Iberia has one too in Madrid - but they require a round trip and TAP requires a one way. And it sounds like Lisbon might be more “adventurous” than Madrid anyway. I’m sure we’ll get buy - I mean, they’ll have pastries and fruit 
Arrive 5:45 AM on July 21st - so not sure what we do the first day but hopefully we find somewhere to store our bags.
Go to Tel Aviv on the 25th at night - so have 4.5 days in Lisbon.
We’ll spend 8 days in Tel Aviv and then go to Athens - my wife wants to check out Greece - so we’ll go to Greece for four or five days.
Haven’t booked a trip home yet - it’s pricey to come from Greece - but I found a flight through Madrid with a 9 hour layover - which seems nuts - til I read that if you have 9 hours, you can take the train in town, go to this one area, have lunch, and get back…so maybe the 9 hours is a blessing in disguise.
But it’s coming together - so a good 4 days in Portugal and a bit more!!!
Thanks all - for your notes - and I’ll starve b4 I eat salty cod (or any cod) - but maybe that’s the key to a diet!!!
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Your hotel will hold your luggage even if you can’t officially check in.
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If you don’t like seafood, give this little restaurant a try, Bonjardim Lisboa. The best entree is their roasted chicken. I was looking for a place to eat the first day. Almost all restaurants were empty, except for this one. I wasn’t sure what to order, but saw everyone ordered roasted chicken and French fries. It was so good I went back again.
If you want some Italian food, Pizzeria Mezzogiorno has very good food. It is in a pretty courtyard at a busy shopping area. I was doing some major shopping and was happy to pop in to a peaceful/quiet place for a glass of wine and some unexpected good Italian food.
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Agree the hotel will hold your luggage even if they can’t give you a room until later. That early in the morning I’d take a cab rather than wait for public transit. The airport is close to the city. I also never ate bacalao and ate well in Lisbon! (But I like fish). With 4.5 days I’d go to sintra one day, maybe Evora and/or one of the seaside towns as well as just soaking up Lisbon — have fun! Madrid is a big city though you can’t beat the art museums, Lisbon is smaller and friendlier
I’ve been to both and thought Morocco was amazing. But I agree that with only three days Portugal is a better bet. Morocco is a big country. If all you did was Marrakech (Fez is actually much more interesting), it might work, but flying direct to the US from Morocco is only possible via Royal Air Maroc, from Casablanca. I don’t honestly think Casablanca is worth three days.
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Lisbon will be great for three days. We were just there for 10 days and didn’t feel like we turned over every rock.
Stay in the Baixa/Chiado area.
Nicolau is a great little breakfast place. Be prepared to wait.
You’d think that all egg tarts would be the same, but no one can replicate the way Pasteis de Belem does them. It’s worth the trip. I wouldn’t order anything else, because it all pales compared to the pastel de Belem. They invented it in the mid-1800s. It is worth trying others if you like baked goods, just to compare.
Time Out Market has a bunch of very good food options.
Taberna Sal Grosso is an excellent, hidden gem, that the local foodies love. The menu changes all the time, and features a lot of fish, but there are many non-fish items too.
Sinatra and Palace Peña in particular are worth a day trip. It’s crowded, but very cool. You need advanced reservations at the palace.
Lastly, I wouldn’t get a car. We had one for a bit, but it is challenging and expensive to park in the city. You can walk or take mass transit everywhere you’ll want to go, including Sintra.
Have fun!
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I did this one day tour outside of Lisbon. It was a small group of 8 people. The guide was excellent and no waiting in line.
https://www.getyourguide.com/lisbon-l42/from-lisbon-sintra-highlights-and-pena-palace-full-day-tour-t212688/
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Could you say more about this? We’ll be hitting Morocco this summer as a jump from Spain. We’ll have 3 days basically. Given this constraint, what would you do, where would you go in/out from, etc? TIA
With only 3 days stay in Portugal
Awesome. Thx !!
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I don’t actually have a ton more to say because oddly I don’t remember that part of the trip that well (remember the Spain part better). It was more than 20 years ago and we decided to go to Morocco almost on a whim (ah, to be young again). I guess we must have taken the ferry to Tangier and then we took the train to Fez. I do remember the old market in fez and you definitely should think about a guide for that - especially if you’re not used to that kind of hard sell (my friend and I had both spent time in India and we still found it a bit overwhelming but that might have been because we were two women; I annoyed our guide by doing some serious bargaining with the shopkeepers - in retrospect I assume he got a cut). The market is fascinating. I just don’t remember much else, except drinking mint tea at cafes, I’m not sure why. It was interesting and different. I usually plan trips pretty exhaustively so this one was a bit different. That’s why I think if I’d spent more time planning in advance I might have enjoyed it more? I do remember we were delayed for hours on the return ferry - waiting in the terminal - can’t remember why. Sorry not more help!
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This is actually super helpful, thank you!
I can’t stand fish but I had no trouble finding great food in Portugal. There are many options.
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