Lisbon can be a very noisy city.
If you like the quiet and hate sleeping with earplugs, I recommend doing a bit of research before buying or renting an apartment in Lisbon.
Where are the noisy areas of the city?
How do you identify them?
Are there any silent neighborhoods in Lisbon?
Let's have a look.
Even though Lisbon has a strategy to become a green city, cars are everywhere and you’ll find wide motorways crossing the city. Uber shares open data about traffic in Lisbon that gives you a good overview of the areas to avoid if you prefer silence.
I sent an email to Lisbon's city hall asking if they have any data about the noise and they sent me this amazing map.
🔴 Very noisy: 60+ dB(A)
🟢 Very little or no noise: >45 dB(A)
For the reference:
The red areas are the motorways or landing paths for planes.
Doesn’t the heatmap look a little like a heart?
And yes, planes are passing Alcântara, Campo Ourique, Avenidas Novas and Alvalade before they land at the Lisbon airport.
This is a tricky one. There is so much construction going on in Lisbon, especially in the city centre. Lisbon's city hall released open data sharing all the permits for the construction work in Lisbon.
It requires a bit more effort but when you are buying a new apartment, you can research if the buildings around you are under construction or if any refurbishment is planned in the area during the near future.
Some areas of Lisbon don't have a lot of construction going on, and there are no motorways and planes landing, but they are still super noisy.
The nightlife in Lisbon is not very well-regulated and often you have people in the streets partying until early hours in the morning.
You should consider this when moving to the city and whether or not you want to live in one of these neighborhoods.
Known party places include:
Before you rent longterm or buy an apartment, I recommend visiting the area on Friday night at 2 am.
So, which are the most silent neighborhoods?
However, the most silent doesn't always mean the best neighborhood to live.
I recommend playing around with some of the filters on Hoodpicker (there is one called “Not so noisy”) and choose the neighborhood based on your preferences.
Of course, this is just general advice. The best approach is to test out the area of your preferred apartment in person or ask your neighbours.