Setúbal

Working port city 50 km south of Lisbon, with the Arrábida beaches, resident dolphins in the Sado, and the best fried cuttlefish in Portugal.

Setúbal is a proper city — 120,000 people, a container port, a fishing fleet, a cement works on the edge of town — and it is not remotely trying to charm you. That is why it is cheap and why it is good. It sits fifty kilometres south of Lisbon at the mouth of the Sado, with the Serra da Arrábida rising green and limestone-white to the west, and it delivers three things Lisbon cannot: beaches you would swim at in September, wild dolphins that live in the estuary year-round, and food prices that have not moved much in a decade.

The single best hour here is spent in the Mercado do Livramento on Avenida Luísa Todi. It is a fish market first — the tiled panels around the walls are worth the trip alone — and it is at full volume by eight in the morning, closed Mondays. Afterwards walk two hundred metres to eat choco frito, strips of cuttlefish fried in a light batter, which is Setúbal's dish and is done properly at Casa Santiago on the same avenue for about €12 with a beer. Order it once and you will order it again.

The old centre between Avenida Luísa Todi and Praça de Bocage is small, faded, and reviving unevenly. The Igreja de Jesus on Rua do Balneário Paula Borba has the twisted rope columns that arguably invented the Manueline style, and it is free or close to it. At nine on a Friday the bars around Rua Álvaro Castelões and the avenue fill with a local crowd and stay busy until one; there is no visitor scene, which some people will find refreshing and others will find lonely.

Come here if you want the Arrábida — Figueirinha, Galapos, Galapinhos, Portinho — without paying Cascais rates, and if you will use a car or the ferry. Skip it if you expect Lisbon prettiness: much of Setúbal is 1970s concrete, and the walk from the train station to the water passes through the dull part. Skip it too in deep winter, when the beach restaurants shut and there is not enough left.

Where to sleep

Base yourself in the grid between Avenida Luísa Todi and Praça de Bocage — Rua Arronches Junqueiro, Rua Álvaro Castelões, Rua Antão Girão — where small guesthouses and three-stars run €50 to €80 a night most of the year and €90 to €120 in August. You are then five minutes from the market, the fish restaurants and the Tróia ferry pier. Two upgrades are worth considering: the pousada inside the Castelo de São Filipe, high above the city with the whole estuary laid out below, and the hotels out at Praia da Saúde towards Albarquel if you want the water at your door. Avoid the cheap places clustered north of the train station around Avenida 5 de Outubro — it is a twenty-minute uninteresting walk into town and there is nothing to eat nearby. Also avoid anything in the industrial belt east towards Praias do Sado.

The essentials

Market to castle viewpoint (4 km)

Start at Mercado do Livramento, walk east along Avenida Luísa Todi to Praça de Bocage and the old streets behind it, then north to Igreja de Jesus. Cut back west and begin the climb up Rua São Filipe to the Castelo de São Filipe, a Spanish-built star fort now part pousada. From the ramparts you see the whole Sado, Tróia and the Arrábida ridge. Return downhill via Albarquel.

Getting there & around

From Lisbon, Fertagus trains run from Roma-Areeiro, Entrecampos, Sete Rios and Campolide across the 25 de Abril bridge to Setúbal in fifty to sixty minutes, roughly €5 each way, every half hour. From the airport, take the red metro to Saldanha, walk or ride to Entrecampos, and pick up Fertagus — about ninety minutes total. TST coaches from Praça de Espanha are a similar time. By car it is the A2 then A12, forty-five minutes without traffic, plus bridge toll. In town you walk the centre in fifteen minutes; the Arrábida beaches need a car or the summer shuttle, and Azeitão is served by the 561.