THE BEST ROOFTOPS IN LISBON

There are cities you understand at street level, and there are cities that only truly confess themselves from above. Lisbon belongs, unmistakably, to the second kind. Built on seven hills and washed in a light that painters and cinematographers have never quite managed to reproduce, this is a capital designed for the long, slow hour before sunset, when the terracotta rooftops turn to embers and the Tejo becomes a sheet of hammered gold. We have spent more evenings than we can count chasing that light, and we have come to a simple conclusion: the rooftop is Lisbon's true living room. Here is our edit of the terraces worth climbing for, from the beloved classics to the addresses we usually keep to ourselves. It is one chapter of our love letter to this country, A Paradise Called Portugal.

Park, Bairro Alto

The one that started the conversation. You enter through an unglamorous car park on Calçada do Combro, take the lift to the top and step out into a garden in the sky, all greenery and low wooden tables, with the dome of Santa Catarina church in the foreground and the Ponte 25 de Abril glowing red in the distance. Time Out still names it the city's most famous rooftop, and the sunset crowd proves the point. Come on a weekday around six, order something citrussy, and claim the western rail. In cooler months the terrace is heated, which makes it a rare year-round pleasure.

SUBA at Verride Palácio de Santa Catarina, Santa Catarina

Our quiet luxury pick. The rooftop of this restored 18th-century palace offers a 360-degree sweep over the old town and the river, and, crucially, it is open to non-guests. The mood is hushed rather than hyped: oysters, a serious wine list, cheese boards at golden hour. If Park is Lisbon's garden party, this is its private salon, five minutes and a world away. Book ahead for the front-row tables and stay until the streetlamps of Alfama begin to flicker on across the valley.

BAHR & Terrace, Bairro Alto Hotel, Chiado

Perched on the fifth floor above Praça Luís de Camões, the terrace of the Bairro Alto Hotel gives you the Tejo with both banks in a single, unobstructed frame. The kitchen takes the setting seriously, from a delicate cuttlefish starter to suckling pig with couscous, and the Sunday brunch, with its São Jorge cheese waffle, has become a small institution among Lisboetas. This is the rooftop for a proper lunch that dissolves, glass by glass, into late afternoon.

Rossio Gastrobar, Baixa

On the seventh floor of the Altis Avenida Hotel, Rossio Gastrobar looks straight down the theatre of Rossio square, up to the castle and across to the Santa Justa lift, a view Time Out calls one of the city's postcards. The cocktails are inventive, notably the Olympia, a flirtation between a margarita and a pornstar martini, and the kitchen leans on seasonal Portuguese produce, local oysters included. Arrive just before dusk, when the Baixa's limestone facades take on the colour of pale rosé.

Rossio Gastrobar, Altis Avenida

Lumi, The Lumiares, Bairro Alto

At the top of The Lumiares hotel, Lumi is the rooftop for the woman who wants dinner with her view. The dining room and terrace sit above the rooftops of Bairro Alto with the castle on the horizon, and the menu is built around seasonal Portuguese ingredients handled with a light, contemporary touch. Weekend brunch, served from 11.30, is one of the more civilised ways we know to begin a Saturday in Lisbon. Quietly polished, never showy.

Topo, Martim Moniz

Topo taught Lisbon that beauty hides in unlikely places. On the sixth floor of the Martim Moniz shopping centre, its terrace faces the tiled slopes of Mouraria and Graça with São Jorge castle presiding above them, a view that feels almost improbably intimate for the middle of the city. The crowd is young and creative, the cocktails are confident, and the plates are made for sharing. Come at dusk, when the castle walls catch the last of the sun.

Hotel Mundial Rooftop, Martim Moniz

A few steps away, the ninth-floor bar of Hotel Mundial owns what may be the most photographed castle view in Lisbon. The formula is simple and correct: petiscos, well-made cocktails and the Golden Hour Sessions, with DJs playing as the sky performs. It is livelier than Topo, more cinematic than intimate, and on a warm Friday it hums with that particular Lisbon energy, half local, half beautifully lost traveller.

Hotel Mundial

Javá, Cais do Sodré

The newer generation, and Time Out's candidate for rooftop of the summer. Above Praça Dom Luís I, close to the Time Out Market, Javá pairs a tropical, plant-filled terrace with Mediterranean cooking and fruit-forward cocktails. It sits lower than the hilltop terraces, which brings the river startlingly close; ferries slide past almost at eye level. This is where we come when the evening calls for something loose-shouldered, a kaftan-and-sandals kind of night rather than a heels one.

Mona Verde, Avenida da Liberdade

Our insider's last word. Hidden behind a discreet, speakeasy-style entrance on Rua Castilho, a lift carries you eight floors up to a tropical terrace with a wide, privileged view towards the river. The kitchen and the cocktail list flirt with Latin America, and on the right night there is live music, Cuban bands, funk, a DJ as the city lights come on. Very few visitors find it, which is precisely why we love it.

What to Wear on a Lisbon Rooftop

Lisbon's golden hour is generous to those who dress for it. Our formula is simple: light layers that move with the breeze off the Tejo, a slip dress or an easy kaftan thrown over the day's swimsuit if you have come straight from an afternoon by the water, and flat sandals for the climb, because in this city there is always a climb. Then, jewellery that answers the light. Gold-toned pieces were made for this hour; a sculptural cuff or bold earrings catch the low sun the way the river does, and suddenly the simplest linen dress is an evening look. Bring a fine knit for after sunset. The Atlantic always sends a reminder.