Lisbon rising

Tuesday, 20 July 2010 00:00

Today, Lisbon, is considered one of Europe’s most exciting destinations, with an assortment of awards along the way. Last year Lisbon took three of the World Travel Awards’ most coveted categories: ‘Europe’s Leading Destination 2009’, ‘Europe’s Leading Cruise Destination 2009’, and ‘Europe’s Leading City Break Destination 2009’. Lisbon has been re-nominated for all three of the  categories, as well as being put forward for ‘Europe’s Leading Cruise Port’. In 2008 Lisbon won the title of ‘Europe’s Leading Tourist Board.’ In January 2010, for the second year in a row, the city won the award for ‘World’s Best Hostel’ at the eighth annual Hoscar (HOStelworld Customer Annual Ratings) Awards ceremony. In April, Lisbon was voted ‘Europe’s Best Vacation Destination’ in a survey conducted by the European Consumers Organization, which described “the wonderful city” as “the most beautiful place to go [in Europe] for a trip or a week”. Lisbon beat out competition from  Barcelona, London, Copenhagen, Bilbao, Lyon, Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague and Helsinki, which together, and in that order, formed the top ten for 2010. Also, travel website Lonely Planet, described Lisbon as a “seductive mermaid” and ranked the Portuguese capital as one of the ten-top cities to visit. In 2009, Yahoo Travel also placed Lisbon as third in its top-ten list of cities to visit. Just this month, Lisbon was voted by one of the world’s leading travel advice websites as Europe’s ‘Most Affordable’ holiday destination. According to a survey conducted online by  TripAdvisor, Lisbon  is the most affordable for people looking to take a break in Europe.  According to the nearly 3,000 people who took part in the survey, Lisbon is more cost-friendly than Prague (Czech Republic) and Istanbul (Turkey), which take second and third place respectively.