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Curated itineraries, local tips and inspiration for your next adventure in Portugal.
Once a year, when the calendar drops a Friday onto the 13th, Montalegre fills with black cloaks and burning spirits beside the castle. Here is how to do the Witches' Night right, without freezing or losing your bed.
In July, Castelo Branco turns into an oven and everyone dreams of running water and real shade. Madeira's levadas deliver, but only if you rise early, climb high and flee the scorched south. An honest guide, with the head torch you will need and the trails actually worth your time.
Everyone eats sardines on the 13th of June. Mistake: that is when the fish is still lean. The fat sardine, the one that drips on the coals, is the July one. Here is where to eat it well in Lisbon and Setúbal, without paying tourist prices.
The famous saints' festivals end in June and Viana's huge Agonia isn't until August, but July is when the Minho really parties: village arraiais announced by rockets, sardines on cornbread, caldo verde at midnight. Here's how to find them from Viana do Castelo, plus beaches for the days and fado for the quiet nights.
While half the country sweats in traffic on the road to the Algarve, Praia dos Galapinhos, named Europe's most beautiful beach in 2017, sits 45 minutes from Lisbon waiting for anyone willing to walk ten minutes. Here is how to trade July in the Algarve for the Arrábida and never look back.
In Ribeira Brava, banana terraces run downhill until they nearly touch the pebble beach, and a former cane spirit distillery now houses the island's best ethnographic museum. A sweet itinerary along Madeira's south coast, from sugar history to bolo de mel.
For over a century, Monção has organised itself around thermal water that surfaces at 49ºC right in the centre of town. Add the Ecovia riverside path, kayaking to Melgaço, and Alvarinho tasted at the gate of the estate, and you have the most underrated itinerary in the Minho.
Grilled limpets, six-month aged São Jorge cheese, Verdelho from Pico at 25 euros a bottle. A serious itinerary for an evening of petiscos in Ribeira Grande, no ceremony and no fluff.
At seven in the morning, before the northeast wind picks up, vans from Aljezur unload peaches, small melons and ripe white figs. An honest guide to buying seasonal fruit around Sagres, month by month, with real prices and what to cook after.
Summer is, despite what the brochures say, the best time to walk Funchal's levadas. Fourteen hours of daylight, cool air at 1,000 metres, and waterfalls you can swim in. But only if you leave the house before 7:30am.
Once every four years, Tomar fills with young women balancing towers of 30 loaves on their heads and streets carpeted in handmade flowers. An honest guide to seeing the Festa dos Tabuleiros without ending up sleeping in Abrantes.
Everyone passes through São João da Pesqueira on the way somewhere else. Mistake: this plateau town at 500 metres is one of the best Douro bases, with almond blossom in February, honest estates and half the tourists of Pinhão.