Least walkable city tourists say left their ‘backsides screaming’

If you’ve got a European holiday coming up soon, you’ll want to make sure you’ve packed your comfy trainers as well as your dancing shoes.

While a number of places are perfect locations to amble around, taking in the sights as you stroll down quaint cobbled streets, and around historic old towns, some places are a bit… well, steeper.

Yes, you could find that your chilled trip suddenly feels a bit more like an intense workout after a day of taking in the sights in Hamburg, or Oslo, which have been revealed as some of the least walkable cities in Europe.

However, the worst one is said to be so hilly that tourists claimed it left their ‘backsides screaming’.

We’re talking about Lisbon in Portugal. The coastal capital will certainly keep holidaymakers active, with plenty of steep hills and slopes to climb up and down — after all it’s not known as the ‘City of Seven Hills’ for nothing!

And the city really does have seven notable hills; São Jorge, São Roque, São Vicente, Santo André, Santa Catarina, Sant’Ana, and Chagas.

It’s perhaps for this reason that it was just named as the worst in Europe for walking by Preply, an online language tutor platform.

The team researched the walking distance between the top five tourist attractions in Lisbon and claimed that the hike between Oceanarium, Jerónimos Monastery, the historic slopes of the Alfama region, the Praca do Comercio square and the vibrant street art of Bairro Alto requires at least 31,500 steps in total, which is the equivalent of 15 hilly miles. Yikes!

And they aren’t the only ones who think walking around the city is a pretty strenuous task. On Tripadvisor, a number of people who have visited also attested to it being extremely taxing to tackle on foot.

One reviewer, known only as Fisherman’s Wife, said: ‘It is very hilly and my backside was screaming for a stop for a coffee or a wine every half hour, but it was worth the agony! It reminded me of San Francisco!’

Meanwhile, Winds Light To Variable replied: ‘Lisbon is so hilly that even Chuck Norris doesn’t walk when he visits!!’

And a third, Alface, posted: ‘Extremely hilly and very very steep hills too, much worse than Budapest (picture Buda hill multiplied by seven hills some of them much worse than Buda).

‘That being said it’s a gorgeous city with very cheap taxis, trams, funiculars, lifts, metro and buses.’

‘It seems in this city if you aren’t walking down, you’re walking up,’ added Carly B.

Other spots that were ranked as some of the hardest to explore on food included Zagreb in Croatia and Munich in Germany.

At the other end of the scale, Seville in Spain was deemed the most walkable city, with five of its biggest tourist attractions all located within a short walking distance from one another.

Visitors here can wander through the impressive Plaza de Espana public square onto the UNESCO listed palace of Real Alcazar and Seville Cathedral, then explore the maze of alleys in the picturesque Barrio Santa Cruz neighbourhood and admire the Torre Giralda bell tower looming above, all within a 20-minute stroll. Dreamy!

Venice, Porto, Florence, and Athens, all ranked within the top five most walkable places in Europe, with Amsterdam, Milan and Rome also featuring in the top 10.