Your First Night in Lisbon, Alone: An Hour-by-Hour Plan

Your flight lands at two. By the time you've found the metro, found the guesthouse, wrestled your bag up a hill that seemed reasonable on the map, and had the shower you've been thinking about since the gate, it's five-thirty. You're in one of the best cities in Europe, it's your first night, and you have no idea what to do with it.

First nights set the tone for a whole trip. Go to bed at nine after a sad sandwich and day two starts on the back foot. Get out, eat well and talk to one person, and the city opens up.

So here's a first night in Lisbon, hour by hour, built for one person.

6:00pm: Get high (up)

Lisbon is built on hills, and every hill has a miradouro, a public viewpoint, usually with a kiosk selling drinks and a low wall to sit on. These are the best places in the city to spend your first hour, because the whole point is to stand around looking at the same thing as everyone else.

Pick one near where you're staying. São Pedro de Alcântara sits right at the edge of Bairro Alto, so it's ideal if you want to roll on into the evening. Senhora do Monte, above Graça, is the highest and the quietest, and it's worth the climb if you've got the legs. Santa Luzia, down in Alfama, gives you terracotta roofs and the river.

Buy a drink from the kiosk, find a spot on the wall, and watch the light. Ask someone to take your photo; it's an easy way to start a conversation. Somebody nearby is also alone, also on their first night, also pretending to be very interested in their phone.

7:30pm: A cherry liqueur and a wander

Walk down towards Rossio and find one of the tiny ginjinha bars: hole-in-the-wall counters that serve a sour cherry liqueur in a small cup for a couple of euros. You drink it standing on the pavement, because there's nowhere to sit, and so does everyone else. The crowd outside is always a mix of locals on their way home and travelers who read the same blog you did.

Then walk. Lisbon in the blue hour is the city at its best, and it doesn't need a plan: Baixa's grid, up through Chiado, or the long way round along the river. Wear proper shoes. The beautiful white stone pavements, the calçada, are also slippery, and you'll see more than one tourist find that out the hard way.

8:30pm: Dinner, the way Lisbon does it

Lisbon eats later than you're probably used to, but not as late as Madrid. 8:30 is normal and 9 is fine. You have two good options for a solo first dinner.

A tasca. A small, unfussy neighbourhood restaurant with a handwritten menu, paper tablecloths and grilled fish. Many of them have a counter or small tables close together, so you're never the lonely table in the middle of the room. Order whatever's on the board, ask what the person at the next table is having, and take the house wine. Steer clear of the restaurants on the main tourist drags where someone's handing out menus on the pavement. The tascas one or two streets back are better and cheaper.

Time Out Market, in the old Mercado da Ribeira at Cais do Sodré. It's a food hall, it's touristy, and it's useful on a first night anyway, because the seating is long communal tables. A one-person dinner at a shared table doesn't feel like a one-person dinner. Get a bifana (a pork sandwich, simpler than it sounds and better than it should be) or a plate of something from one of the chef stalls, and sit wherever there's a gap.

Finish with a pastel de nata. This isn't optional.

10:30pm: Fado, if you want a quiet night

Fado is Lisbon's music: one voice, two guitars, a lot of longing. It's best heard in a small room in Alfama or Mouraria, and the night is still early enough for it.

Some fado houses are polished dinner shows with a minimum spend. Others are fado vadio, amateur nights where locals take turns singing and you can get in for the price of a drink. The second kind is better on your own. It's crowded, close and informal, and the person squeezed next to you on the bench will happily explain what's going on between songs. Fado has one rule: silence while they sing. Stop talking, put your phone away, and listen.

11:30pm: Or Bairro Alto, if you want a loud one

Bairro Alto is a grid of narrow streets that's quiet in the daytime and absolutely packed after eleven. Its bars are tiny, so the drinking happens in the street, which makes it one of the most socially frictionless nightlife districts in Europe. Nobody's inside, so nobody is "alone at the bar". Rules on street drinking and late takeaway sales have tightened in recent years, so watch what the locals are doing and follow along.

If you'd rather keep going later, walk down the hill to Cais do Sodré and the street they painted pink, Rua Nova do Carvalho, where the bars stay open later and the crowd gets younger.

A few things to know

• Tram 28 is beautiful and full of pickpockets. Ride it on a weekday morning if you must. Not on your first night with your phone in your back pocket.
• Someone will offer you "hashish" in Baixa. It's usually bay leaves and almost always a scam. A polite "no, thanks" and keep walking is all you need.
• The hills are steeper than the map. If you're tired, the funiculars and a rideshare cost very little. Your night doesn't have to include climbing.
• Book a free walking tour for day two. Do it tonight before bed. Waking up to a plan with other people already in it is the best possible start to day two.

The real goal of night one

You don't have to make a best friend on your first night. You just need to end it knowing the city a little, having eaten something great, and having spoken to at least one person who isn't a waiter. Do that and Lisbon is yours for the rest of the week.

If you'd rather not leave the "speaking to one person" part to chance, Suppertime shows you small plans other solo travelers in Lisbon are making right now: a sunset at a miradouro, a tasca dinner at nine, a drink in Bairro Alto. Join one, or post your own and see who turns up. It's free on iOS. See what's on in Lisbon →