The Breathtaking City That Feels Like Europe's San Francisco, According To Rick Steves

Portugal's sunny coastal capital Lisbon is known for its colorful old buildings, Gothic cathedral, and history as one of the great seafaring powers of Europe — so it may come as a surprise to hear that travel expert and acclaimed TV host Rick Steves has said that the city it most reminds him of is California's Golden City: San Francisco. While you won't find any castles in San Francisco (unless you count the Armory) there are some interesting similarities between these two ocean cities. As Steves explained on his website, Rick Steves' Europe, both Lisbon and San Francisco are known for fog, trolleys, and a long suspension bridge, and both cities have architecture and city planning that was largely shaped by a devastating earthquake in its past.

While being familiar with San Francisco won't help you know how to transfer from the Red Line to the Blue Line as soon as you hop off the plane in Lisbon, Steves makes a compelling argument for the similarities between the two — and he's not the only one who sees it. Believe it or not, plenty of travelers have noted the similarities between these two distant cities, from its geography and climate to its transportation and architecture.

While you won't find San Francisco's iconic revolving restaurant in European foodie destination Lisbon, there are a surprising number of connections between the two cities — including several of their most iconic tourist destinations. As Rick Steves noted on his website, these two cities seem to have a lot in common, including some of the reasons why people travel to them in the first place. One of the most famous symbols of San Francisco is its cable cars, and if you're traveling to Lisbon, you can plan to enjoy a ride on a tram there, too. Tourists in Lisbon can jump on a bright yellow vintage streetcar, which is both an adorable and effective way of getting around the city.

The most surprising similarity between the two cities, however, might be their bridges. If there is a symbol of San Francisco more famous than the cable car, it's the Golden Gate Bridge. In Lisbon, you can find a visually similar (but not identical) orange suspension bridge called the 25th of April Bridge. The similarity is not a coincidence — while they are across the world from each other, these bridges had the same designers: the American Bridge Company.

While you wouldn't know it walking around the beautiful hilly city streets and looking out at blissful views of the bay, one of the things that Rick Steves highlighted on his website that Lisbon and San Francisco have in common is that they were both at one time rocked by devastating earthquakes. In 1755, Lisbon was hit by a magnitude 8.5 earthquake and followed by a terrible tsunami, which combined killed tens of thousands. A significant amount of its cultural history was lost, as well as a majority of the city itself. Lisbon was rebuilt, almost from the ground up. Today, when you walk down the city's broad avenues and admire its fascinating architecture, you can think of the Marquis de Pombal who handled the reconstruction, ruled the city, and controversially rebuilt Lisbon to match his enlightenment ideals.

Today, San Francisco is known as the least-stressed city in America, but just like Lisbon, it was struck by its own devastating earthquake. A century and a half after Lisbon's reconstruction, the disaster that struck San Francisco also shaped the city that we know it today. In 1906, thousands were killed by the earthquake and the subsequent fires that burned through the city. Just like in Lisbon, much of the city had to be rebuilt, meaning that it was also redesigned and given a new structure in the wake of disaster.