Living Like a Local in Lisbon: Traveler Elaine Krugman Shares Her Month with The Good Life Abroad

Published: October 22nd, 2026

Living Like a Local in Lisbon: Traveler Elaine Krugman Shares Her Month with The Good Life Abroad

Elaine Krugman had been on ten small group tours before she found The Good Life Abroad. She enjoyed them all. But a few days in each city never felt like enough, so when a friend from one of those tours booked a month in Paris with TGLA, Elaine went to our Community Facebook page to see what other travelers were saying. After reading a lot of posts, she and her husband Bruce booked a month in Lisbon, from September 13 to October 13, 2026.

Now she’s writing about it on her blog, Elaine-iaK’s Travels, in a series called “Loving Living Like a Local in Lisbon.” The first three posts are up, and they’re well worth reading.

Going Full Circle

In her first post, Elaine writes that the trip felt like a return to something. Right after college, in 1984, she spent a year backpacking through the South Pacific and even worked in Australia along the way. She missed that kind of immersion. This time she wanted it with an apartment instead of youth hostels. Her only previous visit to Lisbon was one day off a cruise ship. As she puts it, “Bruce and I prefer to be travelers.”

She also walks readers through how the month actually worked. Her group of 14 lived in two buildings in the Chiado neighborhood, looking out over Praça Luís de Camões. Their community manager, Jen, showed everyone how to use the metro on day one, handed out loaded transit cards, and kept the group in touch through WhatsApp. Each week had a simple rhythm: Tuesday dinners in a different neighborhood, a Wednesday cultural outing such as a market tour with a cooking class or a tile painting workshop, and Thursday happy hour. The last happy hour was a sunset cruise. The other four days were theirs to explore.

A Neighborhood That Never Slows Down

Her second post is about Chiado itself, which was a big change from the quiet community she and Bruce live in at home. “And that’s exactly what we loved about it!” she writes. The grocery store was up the street, a great dinner spot was across the alley, and a bakery with chocolate tartlets was a short walk away. The yellow trams stopped right outside their door. Elaine often went out on her own to take photos while Bruce rested, and when they were home, they watched the street from their balcony.

Parks, Pink Street, and a Rooftop Welcome

The third post goes a little farther. To the north is Príncipe Real, where Elaine and Bruce spent a sunny afternoon at a park table listening to a band play classic rock, right after lunch on a terrace Jen had recommended. Elaine calls it one of their favorite memories, and “the perfect way to cap off our afternoon.” To the south is Pink Street, which she photographed early in the morning before the nightlife crowd arrived. The post ends with the group’s welcome party on a rooftop bar, which is where the month really began.

More posts are on the way, and we’ll be reading every one.

Read Elaine’s Lisbon Series on Elaine-iaK’s Travels

Interested in a month like Elaine’s? Lisbon is one of our Month-Long Signature Programs. If you’d like to try a shorter stay first, our two-week Short Stay in Porto is a good way to start in Portugal. Explore the Lisbon program here.