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Places I've been
Places I'd like to visit
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The peaks of the Serra da Estrela – the highest mountains in Portugal – rise to the southwest of Guarda. The range is basically a high alpine plateau cut by valleys, from within which emanate two of the country’s […]3 months, 1 week ago -
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From its high plateau, the dignified city of VISEU surveys the surrounding countryside with the air of a feudal overlord. There was a Roman town here, and on the northern outskirts are the remains of an encampment […]3 months, 1 week ago -
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SAGRES and its wild and windswept cape, Cabo de São Vicente, were considered by the Portuguese as the far limit of the world. It was on these headlands in the fifteenth century that Prince Henry the Navigator made […]3 months, 1 week ago -
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Eighteen kilometres northeast of Portimão, SILVES – the medieval residence and capital of the Moorish kings of the al-Gharb – merits a half-day’s detour. It has a superb castle and a highly dramatic approach, with […]3 months, 1 week ago -
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Six kilometres east of Tavira – past the golf course at Benamor – lies CABANAS, named after the fishermen’s cabanas (huts) that were the original settlement. Today a kernel of backstreets is still made up of […]3 months, 1 week ago -
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Situated 30km east of Faro, TAVIRA is one of the most beautiful towns in the Algarve and a clear winner if you are looking for a base on the eastern stretch. It’s sited on both sides of the broad Rio Gilão, which […]3 months, 1 week ago -
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ARMAÇÃO DE PÊRA, 15km west of Albufeira, fronts one of the largest beaches in the Algarve, which spreads east all the way to Galé. Beach aside, it is not the greatest looking of resorts; high-rise buildings and […]3 months, 1 week ago -
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ALBUFEIRA tops the list of package-tour destinations in the Algarve – and it’s easy to see why. The old centre is highly picturesque, with narrow, twisting lanes of whitewashed houses crisscrossing the high […]3 months, 1 week ago -
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With its international airport, impressive shopping centre and ring of high-rise apartments, FARO has something of a big city feel. However, the central area is a manageable size, boasting attractive mosaic-paved […]3 months, 1 week ago -
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By the time you’ve negotiated the winding road up to MARVÃO you’re ready for sensational panoramas, and the remote border outpost doesn’t disappoint. From the dramatically sited rocky outcrop high above the […]3 months, 1 week ago -
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ESTREMOZ, 46km northeast of Évora, is the largest, liveliest and most enjoyable of the three so-called “marble towns” – nearby Borba and Vila Viçosa are the others. The area is so rich in marble that it is used […]3 months, 1 week ago -
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ÉVORA is one of the most impressive and enjoyable cities in Portugal. A Roman temple, Moorish alleys, a circuit of medieval walls, and a grand ensemble of sixteenth-century palaces and mansions are all under […]3 months, 1 week ago -
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Halfway between Aveiro and Porto lies SANTA MARIA DA FEIRA (or, more simply, Feira), sporting one of the most spectacular castles in Portugal. Feira itself is filling up fast with commuters, but there’s a small […]3 months, 1 week ago -
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The coastline immediately north of Figueira da Foz consists of a virtually deserted thirty-five-kilometre stretch of low-lying dunes. The sands are only easily accessible at a couple of points – Praia de Quiaios […]3 months, 1 week ago -
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FIGUEIRA DA FOZ is one of the liveliest towns on the west coast, a major resort and deep-sea fishing port (population 60,000) sited at the mouth of the Rio Mondego. Roughly equidistant from Lisbon and Porto, and […]3 months, 1 week ago -
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North of Caramulo, and just beyond the fast Aveiro-Viseu road (IP5), VOUZELA is an attractive Beira town with a palpable sense of civic pride. It’s set on the beautiful Rio Vouga and makes a fine destination if […]3 months, 1 week ago -
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Thirty-two kilometres west of Coimbra, the keep and crenellated silhouette of the castle at MONTEMOR-O-VELHO brood over the flood plain of the Mondego. After it was taken back from the Moors at the end of the […]3 months, 1 week ago -
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For an authentic picture of contemporary town life in the Terra Fria, look no further than the old frontier fortress of MOGADOURO, on the fringes of the Parque Natural do Douro Internacional. With the winding […]3 months, 1 week ago -
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The historic frontier town of MONTALEGRE – 45km west of Chaves, and a ten-kilometre detour off the N103 – is the entry point to the eastern stretches of the Peneda-Gerês national park. It’s a side trip worth […]3 months, 1 week ago -
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The Parque Natural do Douro Internacional (w) covers a long, thin 120-kilometre stretch of the Rio Douro as it flows along the border between Portugal and Spain. On the Portuguese side, the park runs […]3 months, 1 week ago -
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One of the most attractive towns in Trás-os-Montes, riverside CHAVES stands just 12km from the Spanish border and its name, which means “keys”, reflects a strategic history of occupation and ownership. It’s also a […]3 months, 1 week ago -
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There are still a few places in Portugal that truly feel like the middle of nowhere, and the Parque Natural de Montesinho is one of them. Occupying the northeastern tip of the country, hard up against the Spanish […]3 months, 1 week ago -
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On a dark hillock above BRAGANÇA, the distant capital of Trás-os-Montes, stands a circle of perfectly preserved walls, enclosing a medieval village and castle keep. Known as the Cidadela, it’s the embodiment of […]3 months, 1 week ago -
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The Rio Lima, whose valley is one of the most beautiful in Portugal, was thought by the Romans to be the Lethe, the mythical River of Oblivion. Beyond it, they imagined, lay the Elysian Fields; to cross would mean […]3 months, 1 week ago -
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The Minho’s long sandy coastline is promoted as the Costa Verde (green coast), but the vegetation is green for a reason: it can be overcast and rainy even in summer and the Atlantic here is never too warm. […]3 months, 1 week ago -
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MELGAÇO – the country’s northernmost outpost – is a small border town sitting high above the Rio Minho, 23km from Monçao (served by four weekday buses, two at weekends). It has a pretty traditional centre […]3 months, 1 week ago -
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The must-see town along the Minho is VALENÇA DO MINHO (or just Valença), 17km northeast of Vila Nova de Cerveira, an absurdly quaint old town clumped amid perfectly preserved seventeenth-century double ramparts on […]3 months, 1 week ago -
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The old spa town of MONÇÃO, 16km east of Valença, still boasts a high defensive walkway that runs along the northern, river-facing side of town, offering superb views across the deep Minho valley into Spain. It’s […]3 months, 1 week ago -
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Thirty-five kilometres north of Alcobaça, a royal castle hangs almost vertically above LEIRIA, whose graceful old town is a place of cobbled streets, attractive gardens and fine old squares – cocooned within […]3 months, 1 week ago -
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After years of advertising itself as the most picturesque seaside town in Portugal, NAZARÉ has more or less destroyed itself. In summer, the crowds are far too heavy for the place to cope with and the enduring […]3 months, 1 week ago -
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Impressively enclosed by ramparts, PENICHE is one of Portugal’s most active fishing ports. As late as the fifteenth century the town was an island, but the area has silted up and is now joined to the mainland by a […]3 months, 1 week ago -
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The Mosteiro de Santa Maria da Vitória, better known as Batalha (Battle Abbey), is the supreme achievement of Portuguese architecture – the dazzling richness and originality of its Manueline decoration rivalled […]3 months, 1 week ago -
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Perched on a rocky ledge 30m above a series of fine sandy beaches, ERICEIRA offers one of the few natural harbours between Cascais and Peniche. During the nineteenth century boats left from here to trade with […]3 months, 1 week ago -
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Portugal’s second city, Porto, is dramatically situated at the mouth of the Rio Douro, its old quarters scrambling up the rocky north bank in tangled tiers. It’s the de facto capital of the north, and a massively […] -
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Sitting high above the Côa valley, 60km southeast of Pinhão, the small town of VILA NOVA DE FOZ CÔA would attract no interest at all had it not been for the discovery in 1992 of the most extensive array of outdoor […]3 months, 1 week ago -
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At PENAFIEL, 35km east of Porto, you enter vinho verde country. The wine’s origins lie with the Benedictine monks, who were famed in this region for their laborious terracing of the valley slopes. The Benedictine […]3 months, 1 week ago -
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As with Lisbon, it’s hard not to like PORTO. A large city, maybe, but it’s also a beguiling one, with a lengthy history – it was known in Roman times as Portus Cale (the “sheltered port”). However, there the […]3 months, 1 week ago