Features

Located in the extreme south-western corner of Portugal lies a most historic site that changed the world in the 15th and 16th centuries – Prince Henry the Navigator‘s ground-breaking Rosa dos Ventos.

For those unfamiliar with the merits of the destination, it’s always pleasing to learn that Lisbon, Portugal‘s enchanting capital city, is blessed with two glorious stretches of golden, sandy coastline, one to the north of the River Tagus (the Cascais Coast) … Read more

One particular household name that has stood the test of time is Vasco da Gama – intrepid explorer, world tradesman and Portuguese national hero.

One of the planet’s most versatile natural products, cork is a renewable raw material that has been produced in Portugal for more than 200 years.

Visitors to the picturesque Douro Valley region in the north of Portugal can enjoy a very large dose of nostalgia on one of the great railways journeys of the world along the Douro line.

Portugal is famous for the Lusitano horse, a creature renowned for its courageous character, gorgeous physique, gentle temperament, amazing agility and versatile performance.

Famed as the fastest life-form on the planet, with a recorded speed of 389 kilometres per hour (242 mph), the peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus) is regularly spotted in Portugal, particularly along the western shores of the Algarve (indicated on the … Read more

A most prominent landmark in the Tagus Estuary is the Forte do Bugio lighthouse strategically set approximately 2.5 kilometres offshore at the mouth of the river.

A unique concentration of rock etchings and settlement sites in the Douro Valley region represents some of the world’s earliest evidence of recurrent human occupation.

The levadas of Madeira are a hiker’s dream come true; hewn from the hard basalt rock, they skirt mountain ridges and descend slopes of all different gradients to offer the most spectacular views in Portugal.

Recipient of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature, José Saramago was one of the most thought-provoking and influential novelists of our age, winning a succession of prestigious awards and literary accolades during his lifetime.

With as many as 260 million speakers around the world, the majority of whom are native speakers, Portuguese is by far the most widely spoken Romance language after Spanish.

Over four million people visit a small town called Fátima in the centre of Portugal each year where three children saw the Virgin Mary more than a century ago.

The versatility of the dried salted cod known as bacalhau has long-established it as the Portuguese national dish, with options such as bacalhau assado no forno (cod roasted in the oven) and bacalhau à bras (cod fried with egg, potatoes and onions) always popular choices … Read more

Napoleon’s attempts to conquer the Iberian Peninsula came to an abrupt halt when his army under Marshall Massena encountered the Lines of Torres Vedras, a defensive stronghold designed to protect Lisbon.

None of Portugal’s kings was as forward-thinking and gifted as Dinis (1261-1325), who wrote dozens of poems of a romantic nature, including many about his wife, Elizabeth of Aragon.

Dating from the early 12th century, many rare examples of Romanesque architecture still exist in Portugal, most notably in the northern regions of the country.



Besides Portugal’s intrepid, ground-breaking explorer of the same name, another famous Vasco born in the 15th century was the master painter Vasco Fernandes, aka Grão Vasco (or Vasco the Great).

On the morning of the 25th of April 1974, a group of courageous army officers known as the Young Captains managed to seize power by overthrowing Portugal’s repressive dictatorship to trigger a new era of democratic progress.

With all the wonder of a tale from the Arabian Nights, Portugal’s long and chequered history is today still greatly evident from the many humble objects associated with the simple daily existence of the past.

Well preserved and pristine, with some important geological features, Portugal’s largely-unknown Selvagem Islands have an extremely valuable natural heritage considered of great ecological and scientific value, as well as a landscape quite unparalleled anywhere else in the world.

Evoking the Middle Ages, the grand old Castelo de Guimarães still exudes much of the boldness and pride that created the kingdom of Portugal many centuries ago.

Few places in Portugal are more welcoming and atmospheric than the Aldeias Históricas, a series of a dozen ancient and very historic villages spread out mostly along the Spanish frontier in the heart of the country.

One of the top tourist sights in the whole of the Greater Lisbon area is the Museu da Vila (Town Museum), a first-rate attraction situated in the heart of Cascais, a charming resort town located just 30 kilometres west of … Read more

Portugal’s highly-regarded and much-savoured Pastel de Belém celebrates its 187th birthday this year, but its ingredients remain a closely guarded secret.

There’s a feeling in some parts of Portugal that bread is sacred – ‘pão é sagrado’, they say – and that it sustains life like the wafer taken at Communion.

One of Portugal’s greatest literary figures, Fernando António Nogueira Pessoa is posthumously regarded as the most extraordinary poet of his generation.

Portugal’s ever-popular and intensely heartfelt national song is known as fado, which holds UNESCO’s Intangible Heritage of Humanity award and is celebrated the world over as a major performing art.

Easter is a much-celebrated occasion all over Portugal but Braga, the country’s ecclesiastical capital, transforms itself into a place of pure pilgrimage and intense religious fervour during the popular Holy Week (Semana Santa) festivities.

Manueline is the style that marks the Portuguese artistic and architectural shift away from the late Gothic during the reign of King Manuel I (1469-1521).

When the Portuguese voted for their favourite land and seascapes as part of the 7 Natural Wonders opinion poll, the outcome was a genuine showcase of the country’s most magnificent and much-loved vistas.

Europe’s south-westernmost country, Portugal, is synonymous with bird-watching – the two go hand-in-hand.

A very popular form of artistic expression in the 19th century, scrimshaw is largely synonymous with the whaling heritage of the Azores islands, but the tradition has all but disappeared due to the diminishing supply of whales’ teeth.

Lawrence’s has a history like no other place in Portugal. Arguably the second-oldest hotel establishment in Europe, and without doubt the most ancient in all the Iberian Peninsula, it is intimate enough for guests to quickly absorb its exquisite 18th-century … Read more

It seems that Portugal’s much-celebrated port wine was invented by chance. A shortage of French claret at the end of the 17th-century had wealthy wine connoisseurs searching for suitable alternatives.

To get close to Lisbon and its residents there’s nothing better than a nostalgic roller-coaster ride in an elétrico, one of the capital’s old streetcars, which are constantly rumbling through the city’s narrow streets passing old, weather-beaten façades in one of Europe’s most dignified … Read more

Charles Lindbergh might have received global recognition for his solo air crossing of the Atlantic in 1927, but it was two Portuguese pilots – Gago Coutinho and Sacadura Cabral (pictured left and right, respectively) – who had previously set the … Read more

Looking upwards on a clear night, it’s difficult not to wonder how the heavens guided Portugal’s great discoverers towards new horizons in the late Middle Ages.

Portugal’s most acclaimed piece of art is the six-panelled 15th-century painting by Nuno Gonçalves depicting a group of 58 people assembled together as a monumental representation of both the Portuguese royal family and a cross-section of the country’s high society.

The Iberian wolf might be an endangered species but several of them can be seen roaming free at the Centro de Recuperação do Lobo Ibérico (CRLI) near Mafra in central Portugal.

Portugal’s most celebrated poet, Luís Vaz de Camões (c 1524-1580), lived an extraordinarily eventful life by any stretch of the imagination.

One of the most memorable times to be visiting Portugal is late winter/early spring when the country explodes into a frenzy of song and dance as the annual carnival season gets underway.

With their striking plumage, there’s no better creature to grace the saline wetlands of the Algarve than the flamingo, one of the most iconic birds spotted in Portugal.

When King Manuel II sailed off into the sunset on the 5th of October 1910, it marked the end of the Portuguese monarchy.