Portugal has had a decade of being everyone’s favourite European recommendation, and the consequence is visible: Lisbon and Porto’s centres in July are as crowded as anywhere on the continent, and both cities have serious housing pressure that visitors are part of.
The country is also small, cheap to move around, and largely empty forty minutes outside those two cities. What follows is the rest of it.
The Alentejo
The third of Portugal south-east of Lisbon: cork oaks, wheat, whitewashed hill towns, and an emptiness that is startling for western Europe. It is one of the least densely populated regions in the EU.
Évora is the anchor — a walled town with a Roman temple in the middle, a cathedral, a university from 1559 and a chapel lined with the bones of five thousand people. UNESCO-listed and manageable in a day, but better as a base.
Monsaraz, a walled village on a hill above a reservoir with some of the darkest skies in Europe — it is a certified Dark Sky reserve and the observatories run night sessions.
Marvão and Castelo de Vide, on the Spanish border, are two of the most beautiful villages in the country and see almost no foreign visitors.
The food is the heaviest and best in Portugal: porco preto from acorn-fed black pigs, migas, bread stews, and the wine, which is now among the country’s most interesting.
The Douro
The oldest demarcated wine region in the world, terraced up impossibly steep schist slopes above a river.
The train from Porto to Pocinho runs the last 70km directly along the water and is one of the great cheap rail journeys in Europe — a few euros, no booking, and better views than any of the cruises.
Pinhão is the base. Quinta visits for port and increasingly for excellent table wine. Harvest is late September.
Stay at a quinta rather than in a town; several of the wine estates take guests, and waking up in the middle of the terraces is the point.
The north-east and the mountains
Serra da Estrela, mainland Portugal’s highest range, with hiking, a ski station of sorts, and the sheep’s cheese that is the country’s best.
Peneda-Gerês, the only national park, on the Spanish border: granite, waterfalls, wild ponies and Roman roads.
The historic villages — Monsanto, built among and under enormous granite boulders; Piódão, slate-built into a valley side; Sortelha, walled. A circuit of these is a week and you will see very few other foreigners.
The coast that is not the Algarve
The Costa Vicentina — the Algarve’s west-facing Atlantic coast and the south-west Alentejo — is a protected natural park of cliffs, empty beaches and cold, serious surf. Odeceixe, Arrifana, Carrapateira. It is a different country from the Algarve’s southern strip.
The Rota Vicentina and the Fishermen’s Trail run along it for 200km and are among the best coastal walks in Europe.
Nazaré, further north, has the largest surfable waves on earth in winter — a submarine canyon focuses the swell — and watching them from the fort in December is genuinely alarming.
The islands
Madeira is a volcanic island with a network of levada walks along irrigation channels cut into cliff faces, and a subtropical climate that makes it a year-round destination. Not a beach island.
The Azores, nine islands in the mid-Atlantic: volcanic lakes, whale watching, hot springs and hydrangeas. São Miguel is the easiest; Pico, Faial and Flores are quieter. Weather is changeable in any month.
Getting around
Trains cover the coast well and the interior poorly. The Lisbon–Porto line is fast and cheap.
Buses reach the towns the train does not.
A car is necessary for the Alentejo villages, the historic villages and the Costa Vicentina. Roads are good and quiet, and the motorway tolls are electronic — arrange a transponder with the rental company or you will get a bill later.
Seasons and costs
May–June and September–October are the right months everywhere.
July–August is very hot inland — the Alentejo regularly exceeds 40°C — and the coast is full.
Winter is mild in the south and wet in the north, and Lisbon in February is one of the best-value city breaks in Europe.
Portugal is no longer the bargain it was, particularly in the two cities, but the interior remains among the cheapest travel in western Europe.
A route that ties it together
Ten days, by car, from Porto: two nights in the Douro at a quinta; two in Serra da Estrela or the historic villages; two in Évora for the Alentejo; two on the Costa Vicentina; and two in Lisbon at the end rather than the beginning, so the city is a finish rather than a filter.
Two weeks by train and bus: Porto, the Douro line to Pinhão, back through Coimbra, Évora and Lisbon, then the train south to Lagos and a bus up the west coast.
What people get wrong
Underestimating the north. Most first trips do Lisbon, Sintra and the Algarve, which is the most crowded and least characteristic third of the country.
Sintra on a weekend, which is a queue in the rain. Go midweek, go early, and book Pena Palace in advance.
Treating the Algarve as one place. The eastern and central stretches are heavily developed; the western end and the Costa Vicentina are a protected natural park.
Assuming Portuguese is Spanish. It is not, and Spanish spoken at a Portuguese person is noticed. English is very widely spoken; a few words of Portuguese are appreciated out of proportion.