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Itineraries, places and ideas for your next escape. Find inspiration and practical details to travel at your own pace.
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Everyone knows Mateus Palace, but Vila Real hides 130 hectares of free botanical garden, an 1871 viewpoint that's almost always empty, and the best covilhetes in Trás-os-Montes. Leave the main avenue and walk down to the river.
On Rua da Barbacã, five coppersmiths still hammer copper by hand. At the Casa da Empreita, Maria Odete Rocha has been weaving palm since age seven. Loulé's 1908 Municipal Market anchors a craft tradition that refuses to become a museum piece.
Vila Viçosa is the perfect base for exploring central Alentejo. From Borba 10 minutes away to Portalegre an hour north, these five day trips cover marble quarries, centuries-old markets, UNESCO fortresses, and the region's most underrated mountain range.
Vila Viçosa has three distinct zones to stay in: the monumental center by the Ducal Palace, the medieval Castle hill, and the outskirts with marble hotels and rural estates. Each offers a different version of the Alentejo, and the choice completely changes the experience.
From Borba to Monsaraz, Estremoz to Elvas: five day trips from Vila Viçosa that show the best of inland Alentejo. With transport tips, markets and wine.
Vila Viçosa has no beach, and that's exactly why it's the perfect summer destination. Less than 30 minutes away, the Alqueva's river beaches offer warm water, Blue Flag quality, and almost nobody around. While the Algarve suffocates, inland Alentejo breathes.
Vila Viçosa packs a festival calendar that runs from convent pastry fairs in January to 150-year-old bull runs in September, with Renaissance reenactments and independence ceremonies at the exact palace where it all happened. Here's when to go and what to expect.
May is the Douro's secret month: vines bursting green, estates without queues, and restaurants with open tables. Peso da Régua offers everything a beach can't: green terraces, wine by the glass for €3, and the quiet of a valley that hasn't woken up for summer yet.
Arcos de Valdevez has five Romanesque monuments scattered across villages where two cars can barely pass. From Ermelo to Távora, a route for those who prefer 12th-century capitals to tourist queues.
Madeira isn't the most obvious family destination, but Ribeira Brava has sea pools, a compact market full of tropical fruit, and a playground next to a 16th-century church. An honest guide for those travelling with kids.
Ribeira Brava has no water parks or bouncy castles. It has a beach with free pools, a museum kids won't hate, and black scabbard fish with fried banana. Sometimes, that's all a family needs.
Most visitors pass through Ribeira Brava in forty-five minutes flat. But this is one of Madeira's oldest settlements, home to a church with Brussels-exhibited art, a distillery turned ethnographic museum, and the best glass of poncha on the island just ten minutes up the road.