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We Hate Tourism Tour Review: X Day Trip to Sintra and Cascais from Lisbon

Why “we hate tourism”.

Does “We Hate Tourism” strike you as a funny name for a tour company? There must be some reason for such a bold and controversial moniker, right?

When I first came across their website while doing online research before our arrival to Portugal, I wondered if this tour company would be a bit too hard core for us. I had never seen a tour website with so much personality before, so I was very curious to learn more. I couldn’t resist reaching out to see if they’d be willing to work with us. I was happy to receive a friendly and humorous response back to my e-mail, to which we promptly agreed (and promised not to tell anyone’s mother)!

What we didn’t realize – and it became quickly apparent during our month stay in Lisbon – was that tourism had increased  very rapidly.

Many would say that Lisbon was unprepared for the influx of visitors. Just five years ago, many restaurants were at risk of closing and business were going bankrupt. But in the span of a few years, the tourist season rapidly expanded from August and Christmas to practically all year round.

Tourism saved the city, but it’s also gotten out of control. Hotels and rental management companies started buying up properties downtown and putting them on Airbnb, which caused rents to rise for local residents. People can no longer afford to live in town and some historic neighborhoods are almost completely taken over by vacation rentals. Restaurants catering to tourists are pushing out traditional Portuguese establishments and tuk tuks – a mode of transportation purely for tourists – are now seen all over the place.

What travel restrictions and rules are in place in Lisbon? Find post-pandemic travel updates for Lisbon here: What you need to know about Lisbon travel right now

Without regulations and intentional planning, who knows what Lisbon will look like in another 5 years. But its residents are concerned, and the last thing they want is for their city to become a theme park.

So “We Hate Tourism” was started by a guy named Bruno in 2010 who needed work and loved helping people better understand his homeland. There’s actually much less of an agenda than you might imagine. It’s not about checking the main attractions off your list. They’re most focused on cultural exchange and letting people experience the real Lisbon from the perspective of a local.

About the “X Day Trip”

This could be considered the signature tour of We Hate Tourism. Departing from Lisbon by van in the morning, the next seven hours are about exploring the beauty of nearby areas like Sintra, Cascais, and Cabo da Roca. The driver serves as local guide, but they’re not there to hold your hand. At most stops, they let you loose to explore independently and set a time to regroup for transport to the next location.

Lunch and a couple samples of local treats are included. Palace entrance fee at Sintra is not included. Note that the tour does vary, adapting to weather and other conditions, so your trip may look a little different from ours.

We did the X Day Trip on a Wednesday at the beginning of November. There were two vans that day, although we really only interacted with the people in our own van – a mother and daughter from Germany and a young family of four from France.

Our driver, Nuno, was born and raised in Lisbon. He’s a musician who started doing his own walking tours in 2011 and also writes for Spotted By Locals. He recently joined the “We Hate” team part-time, and loves that he’s still encouraged to work on his personal projects.

Sintra was the first stop on our tour because it tends to get more and more crowded as the day goes on. On the drive over, Nuno explained to us how on the very same day in 1755 (All Souls Day), a devastating earthquake changed the course of Portuguese history. We were shocked that we knew so little about such a momentous event in Europe.

Nuno also explained a bit about the background of Sintra, having been discovered by neolithic peoples, then Romans, Arabians, and Christians. The verdant hills were used by royalty and nobles for their summer palaces. We were then let loose for 40 minutes to wander the small town of Sintra.

The town itself is very small, with narrow cobblestone alleys and little shops. We followed Nuno’s recommendation to try some traditional pastries at Piriquita bakery and just wandered around.

Since it was a national holiday, our first palace option – Regaleira – already had a long line at the ticket office. Rather than wait upwards of an hour to get in, Nuno opted to drive us to a neighboring palace, Monserrate.

We paid our own entrance fees (7.50 euros) and had an hour and fifteen minutes to explore the property on our own. The extensive gardens were beautiful but we were especially drawn to the old chapel ruins.

The glimpse into one of Sintra’s lesser-known palaces certainly piqued our interest. I don’t think we’re the only ones in our group who decided to return to Sintra on our own time to continue exploring.

(Most visitors go to the colorful Pena Palace at the top of the mountain, but waiting in line takes too long, so that’s why it’s not part of the X Day Trip.)

Our next stop was a weekly roadside market where we got to snack on cheese and olives. We each got a hearty chorizo sandwich, washed down with local wine. Then we drove out to Cabo da Roca.

We were lucky to avoid the usual wind chill and were able to sample queijadas and  ginjinha.  Queijadas are a sweet pastry made with“quejio fresco” (fresh cheese) and egg yokes. They have a crisp top and the inside texture made us think of sweet potato at first. Ginjinha (or ginja) is a traditional Portuguese liquor made with sour cherries and cinnamon. It’s very sweet and reminded us of Christmas.

Our final stop of the day was the seaside town of Cascais. Nuno described it as the Bel Air of Portugual, where poor fishermen and the nouveau riche live. The coastal road is very scenic with a nice long bike route and sometimes surfers out in their wetsuits. The area has a colorful history as a pirate base, the first place to use electric light, and the inspiration for the character of James Bond!

We drove back along the coast, passing the tower of Belem, as we returned to the center of Lisbon before 5pm.

All in all, the X Day Trip was a great, low-key introduction to the area surrounding Lisbon. We enjoyed all of the sights as well as talking to our driver/guide, Nuno. If you’re in Lisbon and looking for a day trip to Sintra and other beautiful spots outside the city, definitely check out We Hate Tourism tours!

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Yes I believe many popular locations have a sort of love/hate with tourists. The bring both good and bad. I’ve heard such great things about Portugal and I’ve had it on my list for a quite a while now. Maybe I should have gone before now? I hope not. And your photos are GREAT! ~Kathy

Really fabulous pictures. I think I’d like it there.

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WE HATE TOURISM TOURS: All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (with Photos)

We Hate Tourism Tours

Review Highlights

“ My wife and I did 2 separate tours, half day of Lisbon and full day of Sintra, Cascais and surrounding areas. ” in 16 reviews

“ Sintra and Cascais are beautiful and definitely worth seeing and getting to the coast was an added bonus. ” in 9 reviews

“ And last but not least, we had pasteis and port (again from the trunk of the van) while watching night fall on the tower of Belem . ” in 3 reviews

Location & Hours

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Rua Rodrigues de Faria, 103

1300-501 Lisboa

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Wonderful, amazing and irreverent tour guides and company. My wife and I did 2 separate tours, half day of Lisbon and full day of Sintra, Cascais and surrounding areas. Manuel for Lisbon and Joao for Sintra were each terrific, considerate, fun, highly educated, well informed and very independent thinkers!

Online booking was smooth. Communication and instructions were clear. Expectations were met. Requests and whims were accommodated. What else can you ask for? Friendship. Unexpected, surprising, meaningful. Mano, you are truly a treat.

Cannot say enough great things about this company! Professional, insightful, communicative, and super fun. This was my 2nd tour with WHTT, the first was in Lisbon in 2012 and most recent was in Porto in 2023. WHTT skips the boring touristy stuff and the long lines and takes you to the coolest parts of the city that often go overlooked! The tour guides are incredibly cool and know a great deal of the history of the country and how it shaped the city you see today. They give a ton of great little details that make you really appreciate the city in a new light. Bruno and Mannu were great hosts in Porto, and asked us what types of things we were interested in seeing/doing, and also what we wanted to avoid. Pro tip: book a tour with WHTT early on in your trip, because there are definitely places worth taking an extra visit after the tour is over. Muito obrigado Bruno e Mannu!

What a great Lisbon tour!! Nuno, our guide, was soooo pleasant, funny and knowledgeable. We learned so much and had a ton of fun. What could be better?! We saw, and learned about all the main attractions but also went off the beaten path to really see and get a sense of what it is like to live, and even have grown up, in Lisbon. It made all the lessons on history, architecture, food, culture, etc come to life. Have already recommended this tour to friends!!

We had the best walking tour with Teresa! She was enjoyable to be around and showed us some truly amazing spots around Porto. It was one of my favorite things we did on this trip. If you want to eat some good food and drink some good wine 10/10 recommend we hate tourism.

Visiting Lisbon? Want to see the sights and neighboring towns? Indulge in all kinds of local food? Short on time? NO WORRIES!!! The guys at We Hate Tourism Tours(crazy name right?)will take care of you! No, SERIOUSLY...While they offer all sorts of tours around town to suit your needs, the one I strongly suggest is The X-Day Trip to Sintra and Cascais...Why? It's only 57 euros per person The tour will literally last the entire day You have a local personal tour guide They'll do all the driving for you Very great deal overall. We met up with fellow travelers (pick up point assigned when you book your tour) at about 9am. Wanting to see the Quinta da Regalera, we split up into groups (the majority wanted to see Pena Palace) We set out for Sintra with our tour guide Miguel who was very funny and personable giving us a crash course on the history and culture of Portugal and answering any/all questions we could possibly have. Our day went as follows: Tour the town of Sintra(shopping, local landmarks, taste local specialities on your own) Spend time at Quinta da Regaleira Stop at a roadside market for lunch-SO GOOD! Spend time at Cabo da Roca Tour the town of Cascais-"Little Monaco" (Shopping, sightseeing, taste local specialities on your own) Drive back to Lisbon (at about 5pm) You will have more than enough time at each stop...Miguel would drop us off at each stop, offer suggestions on where to go, or places to try, then give us a meeting spot to be picked up for our next destination. Arriving back in Lisbon, Miguel was nice enough to send us off with a map covering all the places we went to and a shot of Ginja(local cherry liqueur) and even dinner suggestions as we were dropped off in the center of Lisbon where there were many great options. Great day, fun times, and I would absolutely do it all over again with We Hate Tourism Tours. ALOHA!!! Shaka Meter: \uuu/ \uuu/ \uuu/ \uuu/ \uuu/ 5

See all photos from Nelson Q. for We Hate Tourism Tours

Exceeded all expectations! Review of We Hate Tourism Tours Pending review We booked a tour in 2017 with We Hate Tourism...we had the best time ever, so we booked 3 more tours! We had the best time, Marta really helped us out with planning all the little details of our trip. I told her what we wanted to do and she came up with a very affordable itinerary! She came up with a car seat for the baby and so many other details that made our trip stress free! We just did a wine tour in the Douro Valley out of Porto. Nelson was the guide and he took us to MÃOS E IRMÃOS. We sat around a huge family dining table while they served us a home cooked meal and plenty of delicious wine! The food was excellent, the hosts were excellent and the experience far exceeded my expectations! This will be forever my favorite tour! Paulo was our tour guide in Lisboa, he also exceeded all our expectations! He was so sweet and kind. He actually bought the baby a small talking toy to help her learn Portuguese! Both of these guides were more than generous with their humor, kindness and time. None of the tours ended "on time', they both acted like we were old friends coming to see them in Portugal, they acted like they had nothing better to do then hang out with us. I can't say enough about We Hate Tourism tours! If we go back to Portugal (hopefully) there is no doubt they will be the first I will call to help arrange our tours

We did the King of the Hill Jeep Tour. No better way to travel through the hills of Lisbon than in an open air Jeep. Miguel, our passionate guide shared stories and the history of Lisbon as we toured. Fun way to see the city!

I wish we could award more than 5 stars -- if you are considering booking a tour, do it! Our tour with Nuno from We Hate Tourism Tours genuinely was a highlight of our trip! Nuno was friendly, extremely knowledgeable, and adapted the tour based on our interests and to avoid places that we had already explored in our time in Portugal. It's clear that he loves what he does. From the initial booking process to requesting an adjustment due to weather, the process was seamless and simple. Everyone we interacted with via email or in person was so kind, and we are already plotting our return trip to Portugal and can't wait to book with WHT again!

Super informative 4-hour walking tour with Nuno through some of the most interesting and historical neighborhoods of Lisbon. He introduced us to people, places and events and brought the city to life in a unique way. He is a delightful guide and even offered personal suggestions and recommendations for how to spend the rest of our time in Lisbon. Five-star all the way!

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When I heard the name of this tour company I was immediately sold. I just knew I was signing up for the anti-tourism tour and it was right on time as they were headed the same place I was. We Hate Tourism got me to Sintra and Cascais and back to Lisbon in one piece.

If you know anyone that’s been to Lisbon they’ll almost always recommend a day trip to Sintra, Cascais, or both. I say to go ahead and get both out of the way in one day, although to fully explore them, you’ll need much longer. I had planned to take the train into Sintra during my trip but when I heard there was a tour there, and it was in a small group, I was all too willing to hitch a ride and not have to navigate my way there alone.

Our uber knowledgeable and  sarcastic tour guide, Marcos, picked us up bright and early to head to Sintra. I don’t know if I’m supposed to say this but after our first stop he may or may not have provided warm, authentic Portuguese pastries. We then had the opportunity to roam a little before my friends and I stumbled into a shop mainly selling hand painted tiles. We each got one for souvenirs and I also found a small, one of kind jewelry box. I’m not just bragging, but the owner did say that the woman who paints them only paints for him, so I wouldn’t be able to find another anywhere else in the world. For that reason alone this tour was bomb dot com.

Our next stop was the gorgeous Park and Palace of Monserrate. Let me loose in a huge park and I won’t come back for hours. Because it was early in the day and a little chilly, I’m going to assume that’s why we had the entire place to ourselves. Roaming around the different gardens before finally making it to the palace was a dream. The grounds were absolutely beautiful.

When we finally made it to Cascais there was a totally different vibe. Trading the views of palaces and castles for mansions and estates wasn’t too bad, but the view of the edge of the world on the way to Cascais was by far my favorite. This was a place that I not only never knew existed, but never would have seen had it not been for Marcos and We Hate Tourism.

If you’ve followed my adventures for the last few years then you know it’s rare for me to leave a country without visiting  churches and cemeteries. Don’t ask me why, it’s just my tradition and slight obsession. Imagine my surprise when I thought we were heading to be dropped off and Marcos ends up pulling up to a cemetery. My heart skipped a beat, and it wasn’t because of the creepy windows giving us a peak into the mausoleums. We were supposed to head back to the edge of the cemetery for some great views of the city, but literally spend 98% of our time peaking into the windows at coffins and wondering why some doors were pried open. This may not be your thing but for me it was the literal highlight of my day.

Even if you plan to head to Sintra or Cascais solo please don’t hesitate to check out the wonderful folks over at  We Hate Tourism  for other tours. Marcos recommends their dinner tour and I’d personally link up with these guys again for their surf experience. I swear I’m going to return to Lisbon one day just for that. They even go so far as to offer D.I.Y. tours. What’s better than that?

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Hi, my name is Monique! Welcome to my Travel & Lifestyle blog. I write about my solo adventures around the world and my life as a nomad. Enjoy my recaps of places I've been, tips on where to stay and things to do, and why you should travel alone!

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The "Good Tourism" Blog

For diverse perspectives on sustainable tourism & responsible travel ... because travel & tourism is everyone's business., why we hate tourism tours & why you should too.

With its pro­voc­at­ive name and mav­er­ick spir­it, We Hate Tour­ism Tours (WHTT) has attrac­ted plenty of con­sumer press and travel blog atten­tion since it star­ted facil­it­at­ing authen­t­ic exper­i­ences in Lis­bon, Por­tugal eight years ago. In this “GT” Insight, WHT­T’s “philo­soph­er-in-chief”  Ricardo Oli­veira con­siders WHT­T’s unortho­dox approach in the con­text of tour­is­m’s “new reality”.

We Hate Tour­ism Tours was cre­ated in 2009, and — like the brave nav­ig­at­ors some cen­tur­ies ago — neces­sity was what moved this group for­ward. The crisis of 2008, the will to cre­ate and do some­thing that we would be proud of in the future, the ran­dom events that put us all togeth­er, and the per­sist­ence and the strength not to run away and turn our backs on our coun­try, made everything pos­sible. Today, almost a dec­ade later, we can only be proud of what we have already achieved.

Nowadays many speak about what is the role of tour­ism and its “agents” in this new real­ity. We like to believe that, back then, it was already one of the most import­ant things for us. It made no sense to cre­ate anoth­er com­pany that would take people to the same places, give them the same speech that every­one else gave them, and be part of that “mono­poly game”.

We were determ­ined to do some­thing dif­fer­ent; to give people vis­it­ing Lis­boa a true vis­ion of what liv­ing in our city and coun­try was like. So we star­ted some­thing that would change the life of many people over the next years. We don’t believe we were the first want­ing to do this, but we were for sure one of the first in Por­tugal to actu­ally achieve it.

Growth “in a sustainable way”

Some­thing that since day one was con­sidered man­dat­ory for us was to grow in a sus­tain­able way instead of the “nor­mal way” around here. And that’s exactly what we did. We star­ted with one van and one jeep. From two guys driv­ing at the start, we soon added a third. Eight years later we now have a small fleet of six vans and two jeeps that we own 100%. And we have a team of 13 people work­ing — and grow­ing — with us.

We also cre­ated a micro-cred­it facil­ity that works in a really simple and fair way. Our workers\friends let us know their pro­ject and, if we believe we can help and that it’s going to be some­thing that brings hap­pi­ness to someone, we’ll help at the start; not only with cap­it­al but also with everything we can for our small com­munity to cre­ate new and dif­fer­ent pro­jects. Pedro Dias Costa, Clas­sic Ride, Unof­fi­cial Ambas­sad­ors, and Lis­bon Sus­tain­able Tour­ism are some good examples; many more things that we are proud of and that we believe make a difference.

Tourism “probably the biggest industry of our time”

Back in 2009, tour­ism in Lis­boa was still some­thing new. We remem­ber hav­ing friends ask­ing us what tour­ists we would take with us as it was not nor­mal to find them in the streets of our neigh­bor­hoods. All the places we went to with our friends were empty, all the small shops and “tas­cos” were empty; only “loc­als” would be there. It was easy for every­one to work, and every­one was happy, because we could do what we love. Trav­el­lers would get unique and “off-the-beaten-track” exper­i­ences. And it was still pos­sible for a com­mon Por­tuguese to live in the centre of the city and enjoy their lunch out­side. But you know how human beings behave, and how greed is always present in our lives. One way or anoth­er it is up to us to deal with it.

Today, Venice and Bar­celona are being spoken about every­where. What’s hap­pen­ing is a reflex of human nature; greed is a bitch. And it is hap­pen­ing in Lis­boa as well, from the fran­chised “loc­al” cool cafes spread­ing in every corner but owned by few, to the mon­strous real estate machine that has taken over our city. The interests of people are being put aside in order for busi­ness to expand; and it will, as long as there is one per­son, or many, mak­ing profit out of it.

Tour­ism is prob­ably the biggest industry of our time, and still so many people ignore this. Tour­ism is still seen as some­thing sec­ond­ary; it brings a couple of bucks and makes people smile but no more than that. It’s incred­ible the amount of money that spins around this industry, and it’s even more incred­ible to see the power that this industry has in the world gen­er­ally, and in cit­ies and places more particularly.

“Leave them kids alone”, but not totally

Pink Floy­d’s “Anoth­er Brick in the Wall” says it all about our opin­ion on wheth­er gov­ern­ments and author­it­ies should be involved. Usu­ally when these two arrive, cre­ativ­ity is replaced by cas­tra­tion and the will to do some­thing genu­inely good for people is replaced by eco­nom­ics and num­bers. Believe us, we know it well.

We all agree that rules have to exist in order for things to work, and espe­cially in tour­ism. In a city like Lis­boa or Bar­celona, it’s man­dat­ory that they exist and there are agents that con­trol and super­vise it. But put­ting in charge gov­ern­ments that only see euros in front of them, and loc­al author­it­ies enfor­cing what they think is right — so many times without even con­sid­er­ing the needs of the people that elec­ted them — is not the way to go and we are sure of that. Fol­low­ing this road will lead to cit­ies that are noth­ing more than “theme parks”; where nobody really lives; and which are used only in the interests of some: Those who can afford to live the “trav­el­ler life­style”, which will get more and more expens­ive; and the greedy ones who want to exploit this new real­ity as much as they can.

In our opin­ion, the solu­tion is obvi­ous, lim­its have to be put in the per­cent­age of houses used only for short-term rent­als, and every­one work­ing in tour­ism should be forced to give some­thing back to the city and com­munity that it uses for work and profit.

How we are different

One could ask how or why is We Hate Tour­ism Tours different?

One pos­sible answer is: Well, we could have 60 vans, not six. We could use our jeeps every day instead of only two days a week and not care about pol­lu­tion. We could be pay­ing lousy wages to the per­sons work­ing with us. And we could keep the profits all to ourselves.

Since we don’t do these things, we believe that here lies the big dif­fer­ence. If more and more people start believ­ing that it’s pos­sible and desir­able to have a rich life , instead of being rich for its own sake, things will be much bet­ter for everyone.

We prom­ise.

Fea­tured image: Adap­ted from an image on the WHTT web­site .

About the author

Accord­ing to We Hate Tour­ism Tours founder Bruno Gomes, Ricardo Oli­veira is the “philo­soph­er-in-chief” of the out­fit : “Ricardo, is the fath­er of a beau­ti­ful little girl and a book lov­er. As a kid he used to play piano, read his books, and spend his free days help­ing his fath­er fix cars in his gar­age, car­ry­ing his oil-greased books every­where. He’s one of the co-own­ers of WHTT, and spends his days telling every­one what to do with amaz­ing long emails that are full of prose and poems, and teach­ing his little girl how to drive. And walk.”

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Lisbon’s ‘We Hate Tourism’ tours teach visitors how to travel responsibly

As the backlash against mass tourism in some european cities continues, a company in the portuguese capital is teaching visitors how to appreciate its city in a responsible way, article bookmarked.

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“I have a little surprise,” says Pedro, reaching into his bag and taking out tiny bottles of Moscatelito, a sweet fortified wine, for each of us. As we stand under the shade of a tree, Pedro tells us about what we’re sipping, and about the area we are in.

This is the “Lunch In Our Home” experience with We Hate Tourism in Lisbon . The idea is to eat with locals, to have a real experience of Portuguese culture and enjoy the food and wine, rather than seeing the city through mass tourism.

The “home” in question is not someone’s living room – it’s LX Factory in the Alcântara area under the 25th April Bridge. The former fabrics factory was abandoned for years, but after the 2008 economic crash, cheap rents and large spaces attracted studios, cafés and restaurants, as well as creative companies like We Hate Tourism.

There are seven of us – myself, a couple from Germany and one from the Netherlands, all in their twenties, plus Pedro and We Hate Tourism founder Bruno Gomes. We move indoors to Cantina, an industrial-type space which was once the factory canteen, and sit at a large round table. Furniture is mismatched and walls are filled with a fun mix of art, old signs and industrial equipment.

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Bruno pours “green wine” – a young sparkling wine – from jugs as we browse the menu. “The tour has no direction, we have the freedom of being ourselves and we welcome people who want to share time with us,” he says. Bruno founded We Hate Tourism after the 2008 crash, with the idea of sharing his love and knowledge of the city with like-minded travellers, letting people get to know Lisbon by meeting locals.

Our conversation turns to recent protests against mass tourism – particularly prominent in Barcelona and Venice – and how people seem to stomp through a city on tours, ignoring the local community. “We don’t like to point fingers,” says Bruno. “I am not against tourists or saying tour buses are bad, but we need to change. We need to be conscious of how we travel and who we are as travellers. It’s a challenge for many cities.”

After lunch, Bruno shows me places he loves that don’t attract the traditional bus tours. We drive past the crowded Belém area, where the queue outside the famous Pasteis de Belém bakery stretches along the pavement. There are more queues at Jerónimos Monastery. “I think waiting an hour in line is awful,” says Bruno. “We come here at night, to see how beautiful the buildings are but without all the tourists.”

We turn up a hill and are soon at a small chapel. “This to me is the most important place to understand Portugal and the Discoveries,” says Bruno. The Restelo Hermitage is where Vasco de Gama and his men spent their last night before setting off for the Orient in 1497. We are the only visitors and the car park is empty. Down towards the sea, we can see the Torre de Belém and its crowds. When I ask Bruno why everyone is down there and not up here, he says: “We only see what they want us to see. If we want to travel, we need to dig a little deeper.”

Bruno was working as a graphic designer before the crash; Pedro was a photographer. “We are the ‘sons of the crisis’. We have a journalist, an engineer and a psychologist,” he says. “We were unemployed or quit because we didn’t want to get exploited.” The We Hate Tourism team regard themselves as unofficial ambassadors to the city – “urban diplomats” who grew up here and use local knowledge to show the real Lisbon to visitors. They show people the city by jeep, or venture further afield to Sintra or the beaches at Cascais. The “Dinner With Us Or Starve” experience is at an authentic Portuguese restaurant followed by a night tour of Belém.

As part of its sustainable tourism ethos, We Hate Tourism uses some of the money from tours to give back to the community – they take children and the elderly out for free tours, they clean streets and neigbourhoods and paint houses.

On the drive, we pass where the city’s new cruise ship terminal is being finished, right in front of the historic Alfama district. When it opens in September, it will be able to take up to eight ships at once – and Bruno worries how these will add to the already overcrowded city. Last year Lisbon had 5.6 million visitors and figures for the first half of this year show visitor numbers are up 12.4 per cent on last year.

At Feira da Ladra (Thieves Market), we have tea at a kiosk in the park, where local men are playing the card game Sueca. Bruno says he runs We Hate Tourism to share the real perspective of what the city is – it’s not about making money. “I like to see us as reporters or the conscience of the city. We are not here to talk bad about anything going on, we are just here to bring some subjects up. This for me is the responsibility we have for the city,” he says.

“We have interesting people who are interested in travelling differently. They want to understand what is going on with the city, what it is to be Portuguese, why we are the way we are. This is what we are interested in sharing with people.”

Unlike the rest of the tourist industry, when he brings people to great places, he instructs them, “Tell your friends and those you love, but please don’t put it on TripAdvisor.” Bruno says it’s not that they don’t want the city to change – he prefers it today than it was 10 years ago – but that change happens in a conscious way and is not about greed. “What I say is, travel responsibly or stay home.”

Travel essentials

We Hate Tourism ( wehatetourismtours.com ) runs a variety of tours in and around Lisbon. Lunch In Our Home experience costs €30 per person; Dinner With Us Or Starve costs €49 per person.

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