Cais do Ginjal

A hauntingly beautiful riverside quay of ruined fish-canning warehouses on the Almada bank of the Tagus, looking straight back at Lisbon. Bring a picnic and a blanket for sunset by the little garden near the Boca do Vento lift, then wander Almada’s old town. Reach it by ferry from Cais do Sodré to Cacilhas.

The quay runs for barely 800 metres along the Almada bank, and the view is the whole point: the Lisbon skyline, the 25 de Abril Bridge and Cristo-Rei all in one sweep. Between the ferry terminal and the restaurants sit the shells of nineteenth-century fish-canning warehouses, roofless and grown through with weeds.

Check before you go. The municipality closed the quay on 3 April 2025 after inspectors found gaping holes in the paving. Demolition crews spent four months taking down structures at risk of collapse and stripping asbestos roofing, and the promenade reopened on 31 July 2025 with anti-slip decking, reinforced railings and low LED lighting. The council still describes the fix as transitório – temporary – and says barriers can return if monitors detect subsidence.

See it before the cranes. Around ninety per cent of the land belongs to a developer whose €300 million master plan, approved in 2020, covers 90,000 square metres: roughly 300 apartments, a 160-room hotel, shops and a 500-space car park. Ground-breaking was expected in 2026 and completion is targeted for 2033. The first row of nineteenth-century facades is meant to survive. The bohemian, half-ruined version you can walk today will not.

Getting there and eating. Take the ferry from Cais do Sodré to Cacilhas – about ten minutes – then turn right along the water. Ponto Final, with its tables almost in the river, and Atira-te-ao-Rio are the two long-standing places to eat on the quay; both are worth booking at sunset. The Boca do Vento lift climbs the cliff from the quay up to Almada Velha if you would rather not walk back.