We stayed here for six nights in mid April. We had a great time in this
apartment which was immaculate, very clean and situated in the heart of the Alfama , which is a warren of steep alleys set on a hillside.
A word of warning; if you’re used to hills, then Alfama is the place for you, if you’re not then I recommend you go for a less vibrant and steep area.
To get to the apartment from the main coastal road leading from Santa Apollonia station, which is about 8- 10 mins level walk away , you then have to turn inland where there are four sets of steep steps (with handrails) and two cobbled slopes to negotiate in order to access this apartment.
There is no way you can get a taxi to this apartment;
everyone has to walk, (we watched an old lady being moved from her house with her belongings as every item of furniture was carried manually down the hill to the removal van).
This is an area which is undergoing rapid gentrification, unfortunately, the local authority haven’t caught up yet because the refuse collection system is certainly not in keeping.
At the point where you turn inland along the alley to the apartment from the main road, there was huge pile of mixed refuse which was always there, even when we saw the refuse collectors clear the space, two hours later it was piled up metre high with plastic carrier bags of rubbish again.
As the area is so steep all the residents and restaurants must have to carry the rubbish downhill for the rubbish collectors. Surprisingly, there were no large commercial sized bins for the many restaurants and bars, just a small bin always surrounded and covered by a 1metre high pile of plastic carrier bags.
Finally,
I was disappointed that an apartment described on Airbnb as two bedroomed was a one bedroom apartment with a windowless spare room., (apparently called an interior bedroom in Portugal).
As the second bedroom did not have a window, there was a glass panel installed between this room and the bedroom proper which meant that there was some daylight penetration into this interior room but no fresh air.
The downside is that at night any light in one room shone into the bedroom next door, so you might as well be in the same room as the people next door to you. Cosy!