portugal travel guide

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.

Located in the heart of south-eastern Portugal, Mértola is a fascinating old fortress town with a heritage unlike any other place in the country.



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.

Ideally situated on the southern shoreline of São Miguel Island in the Azores, Vila Franca do Campo is a natural stopover for people en route between the capital Ponta Delgada and the thermal spa town of Furnas in the north-east.

With immense geographical allure and a wealth of seafaring history, Sagres offers a taste of the real Portugal, a town famed for its maritime tradition with the unique status of being the most south-westerly place on the European mainland.

With its broad avenues, large squares and a pleasant air of prosperity, Castelo Branco is an attractive town of parks and gardens and a very good base from which to explore the border region of central Portugal.

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

Nestling a few kilometres inland from the Algarve‘s rugged west coast, Aljezur is an attractive little place of striking white houses and red roofs, surrounded by oak woods and fields emblazoned with wild flowers.

Famous for its sugar plums, Elvas is also a citadel whose Spain-facing fortifications match those of Badajoz across the border a few kilometres away.

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.

Recalling times from days gone by, Aldeia da Cuada (pictured) on Flores Island in the Azores, is a very rare accommodation treat right on the western edge of Europe.

Uniquely situated behind a long offshore sandbank, the Ria de Aveiro stretches for about 45 km between Ovar to the north and Mira to the south, reaching a width of about 10 km at its widest point.

Located 30km north of Abrantes, the small town of Vila de Rei (which means King’s Town) is a pretty place set in a wonderland of pinewoods, lakes, running streams and waterfalls right in the very heart of Portugal.

Perched on a high cliff facing the Atlantic, just 10 km west of Mafra, the pretty fishing town of Ericeira metamorphoses into a lively holiday resort during the summer months, with numerous cafés, restaurants and bars opening up alongside its … Read more

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.

Devastated by a succession of earthquakes over the centuries, Setúbal is rich in relics of the past and nowadays is one of the busiest ports on Lisbon‘s southern shoreline.

The largest place in the archipelago and capital of both São Miguel Island and the Azores since 1522, Ponta Delgada is a charming city stretched out along a wide bay on the island’s south coast.

Set on a glittering bay against a background of soaring green mountains and nestling picturesquely into the shelter of the verdant hillside, the enchanting city of Funchal attracted Madeira’s earliest settlers in the 15th century.

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.

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.

Largely unspoilt by the effects of modern development, Nordeste is a small outpost situated at the north-eastern tip of São Miguel island in the Azores, a nine-island archipelago located west of mainland Portugal in the North Atlantic.

The Baía da Barca aparthotel in the small town of Madalena on Pico island promises the warmest of welcomes for travellers in the Azores.

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).

There’s no place in Portugal quite as remote as Corvo, a single volcanic crater island set bold as brass in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

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.

Birthplace of six kings and the seat of Portugal’s first university, Coimbra is one of the most celebrated cities in southern Europe.

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.

Lisbon’s state-of-the-art Oceanário is not only the city’s top attraction but also the largest of its kind in Europe. Built as the centrepiece of the Expo ‘98 World Exposition, its aquariums represent the eco-systems of Antarctica, the Indian Ocean, Atlantic and … Read more

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

Built in the 18th century, Lisbon’s magnificent Águas Livres Aqueduct has 109 arches in all and stretches 19 kilometres (11 miles) from Caneças to the Casa de Água reservoir in the city’s Amoreiras district.

Comprising a palace, monastery and church, the vast royal edifice of Mafra is one of the largest historical buildings in Europe and a must-see monument for people visiting the Greater Lisbon area.

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

Known as the Venice of Portugal, Aveiro is surrounded by salt-flats, beaches and lagoons and dominated by the Central Canal running through the centre of town.

When visitors arrive in Lisbon‘s historic centre of Belém, the first building they see is the imposing Jerónimos Monastery, impressive for its sheer size and without doubt one of the most spectacular monuments in the whole of Europe.

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.

Facing the sheltered Sado Estuary south of Lisbon,  the old Roman port city of Cetóbriga was engulfed by the sea following a huge earthquake and subsequent tidal waves in 412 AD.

The Glória Funicular (known locally as the Ascensor da Glória) was the second of its kind to operate in the heart of the Portuguese capital.

Along with the imposing Castle of São Jorge, Lisbon’s strikingly eye-catching Tower of Belém is one of the city’s most iconic edifices.

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

In Portugal, a love of all things sweet is perhaps a lip-smacking legacy of the country’s long period of Moorish occupation, especially in the south of the country.