region

With its remote beauty and strong, independently-minded people, Trás-os-Montes (meaning ‘beyond the mountains’) is one of the most isolated and genuinely unspoilt parts of southern Europe.

Iberia’s third longest river, the majestic Rio Douro, gathers waters from over fifty major tributaries to form the peninsula’s largest river basin.

Perhaps the most striking of all the marble towns in the Alentejo region, Vila Viçosa might be small in stature but it’s an immense place in the overall context of Portugal’s long and chequered history.

Legend attributes the founding of Lisbon and the derivation of its name to the heroes of Greek myth Ulysses, Lisa and Elixa. History, however, traces the city back to the Phoenicians, who settled in the port they named Alisubbo (balmy … Read more

Surrounded by vineyards, orchards and pine-forests, the charming city of Viseu has been a major crossroads since the time of the Romans who chose its site for a military camp, one of the largest in the Iberian Peninsula.

To many people, the Beiras region of central Portugal is the most quintessential part of the country, a land of vineyards and fortress towns characterising the area with long sandy beaches embroidering its extensive Atlantic coastline.

With a height of 1,993 metres, Estrela (meaning star) is by far the highest and most imposing of all the mountains on the Portuguese mainland.

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.

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.

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.

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

Crying out to be traversed and fully explored, the Minho region in the north-western corner of Portugal is the oldest and arguably the most characteristic part of the country.

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.

The attractive little town of Luso on the north-west slope of the Serra do Buçaco lies just 3 km from the northern tip of Buçaco Forest, one of the jewels in the central Portugal‘s tourism crown.

Although Portuguese architecture is said to have officially commenced with the start of the monarchy, there was already a large scattering of ancient buildings in existence all over the country, most notably the Visigoth temple of Balsemão, the Mozarab church of … Read more

With its colourful vistas, wide-open roads and dazzling whitewashed villages, the great expanse of the Alentejo is perhaps the most vivid of Portugal’s landscapes.

The Portuguese have a very strong attachment to their beliefs, customs and capabilities, which thankfully means that Portugal’s traditional art of handicrafts hasn’t been discarded as a result of the country’s rapid modernisation since the 1974 revolution.

The green and pleasant north of Portugal is a place of traditional merry-making where annual festivals are ablaze with colourful costumes, lively processions and frenetic folk-dancing followed by a feast of fireworks.

Roughly rectangular in shape and with a population of around ten million people, Portugal has much to offer the modern visitor – young and old alike.

Concentrating on a person’s health rather than how they look, Portugal‘s wide-ranging thermal spa experience is far more therapeutic than many other destinations, with the majority built around mineral-rich springs set in strikingly picturesque locations.

Boating in the Alentejo on Alqueva Lake, Europe’s largest reservoir, is an immensely pleasurable experience, but it’s the eeriest of feelings cruising leisurely over the top of a once-vibrant village now completely submerged by water.