coast

Spurred by Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460), the Portuguese discovered precisely what Columbus was seeking – the fabled Indies. They also charted new sea routes halfway around the world to destinations as far as Japan.

Once visited, never forgotten. It’s little wonder that the enchanting island of Madeira attracts more repeat visitors than any other part of the country.

The history of Portugal’s ground-breaking association with the seas spanned a hundred years from 1415-1515. Widely labelled as the Age of Discovery, this epoch-making period saw Portuguese navigators sail across uncharted seas to break out of the confines of Europe and … Read more

One of Portugal’s lesser-known but much-savoured wines is vinho verde, so called because the grapes are picked young and the wine is mostly drunk just a year or two after bottling.

Roughly rectangular in shape, Santa Maria Island is both the most easterly and southerly of the remote Azores archipelago, and the first of nine to have been discovered by Portuguese navigators in the 15th century.

Lying just 3 km to the west of the Algarve’s sprawling frontier town, Vila Real de Santo António, the once sleepy fishing village of Monte Gordo is the last in a long line of popular beach resorts gracing Portugal’s southern … 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.

Set high on a hill looking over the seafront, Porto Moniz is a remote coastal town located at the north-westernmost point of Madeira, well sheltered by a narrow peninsula that points toward a picturesque islet called Ilhéu Mole.

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.

Situated on the River Leça just north of the city of Porto, Matosinhos is a bustling beach town mostly famous for its large port and high-quality fish and seafood restaurants.

This pretty stone cottage with its lovely garden is in fact a restaurant located in the idyllic seaside hamlet of Fajãzinha on the west coast of Flores Island in the Azores, right on the western edge of Europe.

A pleasant town on Madeira‘s southern shoreline, Calheta (also known as Estreito da Calheta) is the island’s main centre of banana plantations, vineyards and sugar-cane production.

The Berlengas form an archipelago of extraordinary red rock formations located twelve kilometres off the coast of Peniche in central Portugal.

For independent visitors travelling under their own steam, there are several routes to the Portuguese capital from the Spanish frontier and other outlying areas of the country, each offering a wide variety of sightseeing opportunities along the way.

Blessed with a prime location on Europe’s south-west coast, Portugal offers visitors a great variety of leisure options with a wide range of sports activities to match, not to mention a temperate climate with plenty of year-round sunshine.

Named after St Anne, mother of the Virgin Mary, Santana is a village of hedgerows and flowers on the north coast of Madeira Island.

Portugal is very highly ranked on the list of Europe’s top beach destinations with 432 of the country’s beaches and marinas currently flying the coveted Blue Flag for cleanliness and quality.