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. It’s a land of fine wine, fairy-tale castles and palaces and long sandy beaches … Read more
A place of rare natural beauty in the heart of the remote Trás-os-Montes region, the verdant Alvão Natural Park (Parque Natural do Alvão) is a major highlight for people travelling around northern Portugal.
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.
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.
Founded in 1272, Vila Real (which means ‘royal town’) is a thriving agricultural centre ideally situated on an upland plateau ringed with mountains.
Named after the two mountain ranges it encompasses, Peneda-Gerês National Park (Parque Nacional da Peneda-Gerês) is an area of outstanding scenic beauty in the extreme north of Portugal.
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.
Regularly spotted in Portugal, the red kite (milvus milvus) is one of the world’s most acrobatic birds of prey and a formidable sight with its reddish-brown body, angled wings and deeply forked tail.
Located deep in the heart of Trás-os-Montes, between the city of Bragança and the Spanish frontier in northern Portugal, the Parque Natural de Montesinho remains one of southern Europe’s best-kept secrets.
Over the centuries, Chaves (a vibrant town in northern Portugal) has been fought over by the Romans, the French during the Peninsular War and repeated Spanish invaders.
Situated high on a plateau near Portugal’s north-eastern frontier with Spain, the ancient city of Bragança was once the seat of the Dukes of Bragança, the country’s fourth and final dynasty, which ruled the country from 1640 to 1910.
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.
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.
Besides enjoying Portugal’s enchanting landscape, fine wines, sandy beaches and warm year-round sunshine, the best moments for many visitors are served up in the country’s eateries, with the dining experience further enhanced by the choice of soups and other starters … Read more
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.
Europe’s south-westernmost country, Portugal, is synonymous with bird-watching – the two go hand-in-hand.
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.
Portugal is a land of pageants, processions, lively country fairs and other joyful folklore-based festivities where tourists who happen upon them by accident can expect the unexpected.
Latin but not Mediterranean, cosmopolitan but not crowded, Portugal is a country where a fair portion of the population still lives as people have always lived – in peaceful places far away from the hustle and bustle of modern life.