Amarante

The A4 motorway has made it a quick sixty-kilometre drive from Porto to the beautiful riverside town of AMARANTE, immaculately set in a gorge of the Rio Tâmega, with the wooden balconies of its old houses leaning over the water. Much of the town’s history revolves around the thirteenth-century hermit Gonçalo, later São Gonçalo – most of the attractions bear his name or have some link to him – while the town has been “discovered” in recent years by weekenders from Porto and foreign visitors. There’s a definite air of prosperity about, and it’s certainly a fine place to spend the night, with a wide choice of accommodation.