Alcântara

Loomed over by the enormous Ponte 25 de Abril suspension bridge, the Doca de Alcântara remains the city’s main docks, with an increasing number of luxury cruise ships calling daily. After dark, its boat-bars and warehouse conversions come into their own, its clubs and bars attracting an older, more moneyed crowd than those of the Bairro Alto. Its main attraction is the Museu do Oriente, which traces the cultural links that Portugal has built up with the Orient. Housed in an enormous 1930s Estado Novo building, highlights of the extensive collection include valuable nineteenth-century Chinese porcelain, an amazing array of seventeenth-century Chinese snuff boxes and, from the same century, Japanese armour and entire carved pillars from Goa. The top floor is given over to displays on the Gods of Asia, featuring a bright collection of religious costumes and shrines used in Bali and Vietnam, together with Taoist altars, statues of Buddha, some fine Japanese Shinto masks and Indonesian shadow puppets. Vivid images of Indian gods Shiva, Ganesh the elephant god and Kali the demon are counterbalanced by some lovely Thai amulets. There is also a decent top-floor restaurant.