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The Lay of

the Land

Portugal is a roughly drawn rectangle on Europe’s southwestern seaboard. It’s about 550km (350 miles) from north to south, 200km (110 miles) from east to west. To the north and east it’s bordered by Spain. On the south and west it’s bathed by the Atlantic Ocean. There are two Atlantic island groups: Madeira lying off the coast of Morocco; and the nine Azores islands, a third of the way to Atlantic City.

As a general rule, the landscape north of the River Tagus is hilly and often rugged, while the south has softly rolling plains. Over 80% of Portugal’s 10.5 million people live in districts bordering the ocean, while the interior is thinly populated.

Within that general picture, regions vary greatly. The Algarve occupies the southern coastal strip. Separated from the rest of the country by low forested hills, it basks in a Mediterranean-type climate that facilitates the growth of orange, lemon, fig, and almond trees and draws tourists to its sheltered, south-facing beaches.

Above it lays the Alentejo, a region that covers a third of the country. Here the endless, sun-soaked grasslands bring to mind the African savannah, but with the baobabs replaced with umbrella pine, cork oak, and olive trees, and, instead of herds of antelope, flocks of sheep or black pigs rooting around for acorns. The Alentejo’s whitewashed towns and villages are among the country’s most beautiful, and the coast here is fringed with wild surfing beaches. Even in the Alentejo there are occasional hill ranges, like the Serra de Grândola overlooking the coast or the Serra de São Mamede topped by the stunning fortified town of Marvão overlooking the Spanish border.

The River Tagus, known in Portugal as the Tejo, cuts the country in half. “Alentejo” means “beyond the Tagus.” The river rises deep in Spain and reaches the Atlantic just downstream of Lisbon. East of the capital, the flat Tagus valley is characteristic of the Ribatejo region. This is cattle country. Local festivals feature bullfights and displays of horsemanship by campinos, the local cowboys, sporting red vests and green tasseled caps. Much of the old province of Estremadura, along the coast north of Lisbon, has been rebranded as the Oeste (West). It features a gentle landscape filled with vineyards, apple and pear orchards, and hills topped with stubby white windmills. The hills of Sintra create a cool, lush microclimate that’s resulted in the growth of thick rainforest, while the Arrábida range south of Lisbon has Mediterranean weather and overlooks some of the country’s best beaches.

The Beiras form a vast region covering the center of the country. The coastal strip (Beira Litoral) is cultivated and low lying, including the marshlands of the Aveiro lagoon and the Bairrada wine region, but the Beira Interior is made up of austere landscapes of boulder-strewn plateaus and bare mountains. The mainland’s highest peaks are in the Serra da Estrella, reaching almost 2,000m (6,500 ft.). The land here has an epic grandeur. Rough-hewn villages and the few cities preserve a hearty cuisine and age-old handicraft traditions. Cutting a green swath through the region is the valley of the River Mondego, the longest wholly Portuguese river.

The far north is made up of two contrasting regions. To the northwest, the Minho is green, its hills covered with trellised vineyards and dissected by fast-flowing rivers. It’s well populated, a center for the textile and footwear industries. Farther east lies remote Trás-os-Montes, a region whose name means “beyond the mountains.” Here, life can be harsh; locals sum up the climate as “nine months of winter, three months of hell.” The high plains are bare and empty, but starkly beautiful. Girdling the north, the River Douro flows from the Spanish border to the Atlantic near Porto. Farthest east it forms the frontier and cuts a deep canyon where vultures and eagles soar. Downstream, its banks are cultivated to grow grapes, creating perhaps the world’s most beautiful wine region.

Finally, the Azores islands are nine specks of grass-covered volcanic rock rising from the Atlantic, containing Portugal’s highest mountain (the astounding volcano of Pico) and a unique variety of landscapes and culture. Subtropical Madeira enjoys a climate of year-round spring. Its mountainous interior and thick forests are a paradise for hikers.

When to Go

Summer is the most popular season, when it can seem that half of Europe is heading to Portugal’s beaches. July and August are the hottest, most expensive, and most crowded months in the Algarve and other beach destinations. Although Atlantic breezes generally keep the coast relatively cool, if you are planning to tour in the interior, it can get seriously hot—topping 100°F (40°C). Humidity, however, is usually low. You get better deals if you go in September or June, when the weather is still good.

Portugal’s climate is similar to California’s. Lisbon is Europe’s sunniest capital, and along the coast the country enjoys mild winters and warm summers. Average temperatures range from 77°F (25°C) in summer to about 58°F (14°C) in winter. Spring can be a great time to visit, when wildflowers paint Algarve clifftops, Alentejo pastures, and northern hillsides with color. Temperatures are more extreme inland. Winters in the northern hills can be bitter, snowfall is common, and there is some (limited) skiing in the Serra da Estrela mountains. Winter can also bring delights. In February, groves of almond trees are covered in snow-white blossoms in Trás-os-Montes and parts of the Algarve. Cool but sunny winter days can be best for exploring the cities or playing a round of golf on one of the Algarve’s many excellent courses.

Lisbon’s Average Daytime Temperature (°F & °C) & Monthly Rainfall (Inches)

	JAN	FEB	MAR	APR	MAY	JUNE	JULY	AUG	SEPT	OCT	NOV	DEC
Temp. (°F)	57	59	63	67	71	77	81	82	79	72	63	58
Temp. (°C)	14	15	17	19	22	25	27	28	26	22	17	14
Rainfall	4.3	3.0	4.2	2.1	1.7	0.6	0.1	0.2	1.3	2.4	3.7	4.1

Madeira has its own subtropical climate and boasts year-round springtime. When it rains on one side of the island, you can often escape to sunshine on the other side, with a short scenic drive over the mountainous interior. Weather in the Azores is mild, but unpredictable. July and August are the driest months and the best for viewing the islands’ famed hydrangea blooms.

Lisbon and Estoril enjoy 46°F (8°C) to 65°F (18°C) temperatures in winter and temperatures between 60°F (16°C) and 82°F (28°C) in summer.

Public Holidays

New Year’s Day (Jan 1); Carnival (Feb or early Mar—dates vary); Good Friday (Mar or Apr—dates vary); Freedom Day (Apr 25); Labor Day (May 1); Corpus Christi (May or June—dates vary); Portugal Day (June 10); Assumption (Aug 15); Republic Day (Oct 5); All Saints’ Day (Nov 1); Restoration of Independence (Dec 1); Immaculate Conception (Dec 8); Christmas Day (Dec 25). The Feast of St. Anthony (June 13) is a public holiday in Lisbon, and the Feast of St. John the Baptist (June 24) is a public holiday in Porto.

Events

Where Spain has its fiesta, Portugal has festa. There are countless traditional celebrations held up and down the country. Just about every village has a festa of some sort. Many have a religious origin, based on a pilgrimage (romaria) to honor a local saint. Others are feasts created around a prized local product. In the Algarve, for example, Lagos celebrates traditional almond, fig, and carob cakes in July; Portimão and Olhão hold two of the biggest food-based festivals at the height of the summer season in August, the former focused on sardines, the latter on shellfish. More modest is the Festival of Sweet Potatoes held in November in the pretty west-coast town of Aljezur. The pattern is repeated up and down the country. Some such events are humble: where villagers carry a holy statue through the streets, attend a church service, and then follow up with a communal barbecue, performance by the local folklore group, and a wine-fueled baile (dance). Others go on for several days, attracting big-name performers and crowds of visitors.

The bigger festivals are concentrated in the summer, but there is always plenty going on in Portugal. Kicking off the year, Madeira’s capital, Funchal, hosts one of Europe’s most spectacular New Year’s Eve parties, with the city streets strung with colored lights and a dazzling firework display over the bay. February sees carnival celebrations around the country. Many are rather less-glamorous imitations of Rio. Once again, Funchal’s is the biggest: Madeira islanders claim their emigrants took the carnival tradition to Brazil. For a more authentic experience, head to northern villages like Podence in Trás-os-Montes or Lazarim, near Lamego, where young men still act out pagan traditions by dressing in bizarre colored costumes, donning devilish masks, and chasing girls around the streets.

Easter is an altogether more solemn occasion, especially in the religious center of Braga, where Holy Week processions feature masked marchers and bejeweled floats along with fireworks, folk dancing, and torchlight parades. Students in Coimbra’s ancient university will paint the city red in early May with the Queima das Fitas celebrations, when they mark the end of the school year by burning the colored ribbons worn to designate their faculties, then get down to nights of serious partying.

Early May also sees the Festas das Cruzes, in Barcelos, where since 1504, women dress in gold-adorned regional costumes as part of a procession over streets strewn with millions of flower petals. May 13 sees the start of the pilgrimage season in Fátima, where many Catholics believe the Virgin Mary appeared to shepherd children in 1917. Pope Francis attended the centenary of the apparitions in 2017. Pilgrims flock to the Fátima shrine all year round, but the main gatherings are on the 13th of every month between May and October.

Recently, Portugal has emerged as a popular venue for rock festivals, drawing the biggest international names. Highlights include Nos Alive and Super Bock Super Rock, held in July near Lisbon, and the Nos Primavera Sound, held in June in Porto. The Rock in Rio festival is held every other May in Lisbon; the next is in 2020. Recent performers have included Bruce Springsteen, Ed Sheeran, and Katy Perry.

Street parties to celebrate Lisbon’s patron saint, Santo António, on June 12 and 13, are a joyous celebration. Neighborhoods compete to produce the best marcha, a musical promenade in costume down the Avenida da Liberdade, then head home to eat grilled sardines, drink red wine or sangria, and dance the night away in squares decked with fairy lights and paper decorations. Similar scenes are repeated in Porto when the second city honors São João on June 23 and 24. The Azores island of Terceira celebrates St. John with the 10-day Sanjoaninas festival in late June. Portugal’s biggest agricultural fair, the Feira Nacional da Agricultura, is held every June in Santarém, the heart of cattle country. Expect bullfights, displays of horsemanship, and opportunities to consume heaps of regional food.

Farther down the River Tagus, Vila Franca de Xira holds its Festa do Colete Encarnado, featuring Pamplona-style bull-running through the riverside streets, in early July. Portugal’s bullfighting season reaches its height in the summer. There are weekly performances at Lisbon’s exotic Campo Pequeno ring. Unlike in Spain, the bulls are not killed in Portuguese bullfighting, but the spectacle can be disturbing for animal lovers.

One of the most striking traditional events is the Festa dos Tabuleiros, held every 4 years in Tomar, which features a procession of young women in traditional costume balancing trays laden with 30 stacked loaves of bread, decorated with flowers and topped with crowns. The next is due in early summer 2023.

The Portuguese soccer season runs from August through May. Catching a clássico game between the top clubs—Benfica, Sporting Lisbon, or FC Porto—in a packed stadium of impassioned fans is a powerful experience, showing just how deeply engrained the love of club is for most Portuguese.

September sees the Romaria da Nossa Senhora festival in Nazaré, Portugal’s most famed fishing town, where a sacred statue is carried to the sea, followed by folk dancing, singing, and bullfights. A relatively recent tradition is the Santa Casa Alfama festival in September, where top fado singers perform in venues throughout Lisbon’s Alfama neighborhood.

Horse lovers should head to Golegã in early November for the Feira Nacional do Cavalo, a celebration of all things equine, where the beautiful Lusitano breed holds pride of place. Christmas (Natal) is a family affair. Midnight masses fill churches up and down the country.

Eating & Drinking

In his delectable cookbook My Lisbon, Chef Nuno Mendes gets to the heart of the Portuguese diet. “Simplicity sums up the best of Portuguese cooking: taking fantastic produce and letting its own natural flavor be the main player on the plate,” he writes. “Ours is one of the most overlooked cuisine in Europe, and I believe it is time to truly shout about the food of Portugal.”

Dining Customs Most Portuguese breakfast lightly: milky coffee with toast, fresh bread rolls with preserves, perhaps a pastry—variations on croissants are common, sometimes filled with ham and cheese, an innovation considered scandalous by the French.

Short shots of espresso, known here as bica, are ingested throughout the day, often accompanied by the sweet, sticky pastries on show in all cafes. In Lisbon, custard tarts (pasteis de nata) are the calorie fix of choice.

Lunch is often the main meal of the day, and working people fill restaurants throughout the week to tuck in. Portions in traditional restaurants are large. In all but the poshest places, it’s completely acceptable to share a main course or ask for a half-portion (meia-dose). Aside from their printed menus, most restaurants offer dishes of the day (pratos do dia), which are usually a good bet, with market-fresh products at a bargain price.

Many people will take lanche in the afternoon—a light meal with tea or coffee. Dinner is usually eaten between 8pm and 9pm, although Spanish-style late-night dining is catching on. People drink wine with both lunch and dinner.

In restaurants, waiters often bring a selection of appetizers unbidden—they can range from a few olives or bread with a pot of sardine pâté, to an array of cheeses, sausage, and seafood. Most of the time, you’ll be charged a cover fee for what you eat (so say “no” if you don’t want any of these nibbles).

Cuisine Portuguese cooking is one of Europe’s best gourmet secrets. There’s great regional variation, with a more Mediterranean feel to Algarve cuisine and heartier, meatier options as you go farther north and farther away from the coast.

The Portuguese are among the world’s biggest fish eaters. The coastal waters produce a rich variety of seafood that is served super-fresh in markets and restaurants up and down the country. One of the country’s great treats is enjoying fresh, charcoal-grilled fish—gilt-head bream (dourada) and bass (robalo) are among the most popular species—with a splash of olive oil and lemon juice and a glass of chilled white wine in a beachside restaurant. Fish served this way is usually priced by weight on the menu.

Long considered the most humble of fish, sardines (sardinhas) are grilled in the streets during the summer season, bringing a pungent scent to the old neighborhoods of Lisbon and other cities. They are eaten by the boatload during Lisbon’s Santo Antonio festival in June and are a particular specialty in the fishing ports of the Algarve. They are usually accompanied by roasted bell peppers, green salad, and boiled potatoes drenched in olive oil, and best washed down with cold beer or red wine. Fresh sardines should only be eaten during the summer season, when they are at their fattest. After the weather turns cooler, sardines come from a can.

Another much-cherished fish dish is caldeirada, the Portuguese version of bouillabaisse, a fish stew enriched with tomatoes, bell peppers, and potatoes. Hake (pescada) is eaten “boiled with everything” (cozida com todos), meaning potatoes, carrots, green beans, and a boiled egg. In Madeira and the Algarve, tuna steaks (bifes de atum) are a specialty, pan-fried in olive oil with garlic and onions.

Despite the panoply of fresh local seafood, Portugal’s favorite fish is cod, caught in the waters of Norway or Iceland and preserved by drying and salting. Bacalhau, or salt cod, is as close to the Portuguese soul as soccer or fado music. It dates back to pre-refrigeration times, when salting enabled bacalhau to become a staple on long sea journeys or deep into the interior of the country. They say Portugal has more ways of serving bacalhau than there are days in the year. Popular versions include bacalhau à brás, a Lisbon treat with scrambled eggs, olives, and fries; pastéis de bacalhau, fishcakes often served with black-eyed peas; and bacalhau com broa, crumbled with cornbread.

Shellfish is generally excellent, best enjoyed in specialist restaurants called marisqueiras, which are often bright, busy places where customers slurp cilantro-and-garlic-steamed clams (amêijoas à bulhão pato) from their shells, smash crab claws with mallets to get at the flesh within, or pry shrimp in spicy sauce from their shells with fingers sticky. There’s a tradition of finishing off a seafood feast with a steak sandwich, or prego. A classic shellfish main course is arroz de marisco, a pot of rice and seafood in broth flavored with garlic, cilantro, tomato, and just a touch of piri-piri—a fiery chili sauce of African origin that’s a favorite condiment in Portugal.

A Coffee survival guide

From Brazil to East Timor, many of Portugal’s former colonies happened to produce wonderful coffee (café), so coffee culture runs deep. The Portuguese imbibe inordinate amounts of the stuff in an array of styles. Here’s what to order:

Bica: Thimble-size shots of strong black espresso. Portugal’s default option; if you ask for café, this is what you get.

Café cheio: As above, but slightly less strong, a full espresso cup.

Café pingado: A bica with a drop of milk.

Garoto: Espresso cup of half-coffee, half-milk.

Café duplo: A double espresso.

Abatanado: Large black coffee.

Galão: Weak milky coffee like a caffe latte, served in a tall glass.

Meia de leite: Big cup of half-milk, half-espresso, like a café au lait or flat white.

Café com cheirinho: Shot of black coffee topped up with aguadente (firewater).

Piri-piri is also used to spice up spit-roasted chicken, one of Portugal’s most successful culinary exports, served in specialty restaurants known as churrasqueiras.

Portuguese pork is among some of the world’s best. Black pigs roam semi-wild in the plains of the Alentejo region, feasting on the acorns that fall from the region’s cork forests. The porco preto meat they produce is fabulous. The region’s signature dish, carne de porco à Alentejana, combines red-pepper-marinated pork with clams. The black pigs also produce superlative hams (presunto) and an array of sausages, including paprika-spiced chouriço, cumin-flavored blood puddings (morcela), and soft, smoky farinheiras. All of these porky pleasures are combined in cozido à portuguesa, an artery-stopping one-pot that’s become the national dish. It can include hunks of beef, pigs’ ears, chicken, cabbage, turnips, chick peas, carrots, potatoes, squash, and beans, as well as an array of spiced sausages.

Lamb (borrego) is another Alentejo specialty, served grilled, fried, or in hearty stews. Goat is more common in the center and north; a succulent meat, it usually comes in the form of roasted young kid (cabrito assado), although around Coimbra older goats or sheep are slow-stewed in red wine to make chanfana. Beef is good in the north; the posta Mirandesa is a succulent steak served in Trás-os-Montes, but the Atlantic island of Madeira also boasts a beefy signature dish in the shape of espetada, cubes of garlic-rubbed meat skewered on a laurel branch and roasted over hot coals.

The Portuguese have a weakness for offal. Tripe stewed with beans (tripas à moda do Porto) is Porto’s favorite dish. Lisbon prefers liver sautéed in white wine (iscas). Pig’s feet, stomachs, ears, and snouts will all find their way into hearty stews.

Soups are a common way of starting a meal. The most popular, especially in the north, is caldo verde, a green broth made from cabbage, sausage, potatoes, and olive oil. Typically southern, açorda alentejana is made from simmered bread, poached eggs, cilantro, and a ton of garlic. Sopa da pedra is a meal in itself from the Ribatejo region, combining meat, beans, sausage, and just about every conceivable ingredient except the stone (pedra) from which it gets its name.

Portuguese cheeses deserve to be better known internationally. The best is queijo da serra: Made from sheep’s milk in the high central mountains, it is rich and creamy, fabulous on freshly baked rye bread. Similar but more delicate is queijo de Azeitão from the hills south of Lisbon. Queijo de São Jorge is a hard cow’s milk cheese made in big wheels in the Azores. Soft, unaged white cheeses called queijo fresco are often served as an appetizer.

Fruit ripened in Portugal’s sunny climate is fabulous. Bananas and passion fruit from Madeira, pineapple from the Azores, cherries from the central mountains, juicy Rocha pears from the far west, and honey-sweet figs from the Algarve are just some of the treats. If your tooth is still sweeter, traditional Portuguese desserts promise calorific overload. Many are based on old convent recipes using eggs, almonds, and the cinnamon that explorers of the 15th century went to such great lengths to bring from the East.

Portugal’s ties with its former colonies have spiced up the local cuisine: Brazilian shrimp moquecas, curries from Goa, or Angolan chicken muamba are all imported additions to Lisbon menus.

Recently, a new generation of younger chefs has been building on the country’s traditional cuisine to forge modern adaptations of cherished additions and win international accolades. Leading the pack is José Avillez, whose Belcanto restaurant (p. 87) became Lisbon’s first with two Michelin stars.

Wine For years, international interest in Portuguese wine (vinho) was largely limited to cheap-and-cheerful rosé and the complex Porto and Madeira fortified wines. In recent decades, however, the world has woken up to the full range of terrific tipples made under Portugal’s unique blend of Atlantic and Mediterranean conditions.

Strong yet sophisticated reds produced from the beautiful terraced hillsides along the Douro or the rolling, sun-soaked Alentejo plains have drawn admiration from critics and drinkers around the world. Great wines are also produced in the valleys of the Dão, the coastal Bairrada region, and the flatlands flanking the Tejo River east of Lisbon. Tangy whites made from arinto grapes or sweet Moscatel dessert wines are made on the edge of Lisbon’s suburbs. Fresh white wines known as vinho verdes from the verdant hills of the northwest make an excellent partner for seafood. Even the Algarve, whose wines were once mocked as good only for unsuspecting tourists, is now producing quality reds and whites.

Port remains the most alluring of Portugal’s wines. It was invented in the age of sailing ships, when exporters added brandy to Douro wines to prevent them from spoiling during the long sea journey to England. Quality controls exist since at least the 17th century. Drier white ports are traditionally sipped as an aperitif before meals, the sweet red tawny and ruby ports are served with dessert or cheese, and rare vintage wines from selected years are saved for special occasions. Wines produced on the volcanic island of Madeira are similarly fortified and aged and also range from drier aperitifs to sweet dessert wines.

Beer & other drinks The beer (cerveja) market in Portugal has long been a duel between Lisbon’s Sagres and Porto’s Super Bock, both refreshing lagers, best served chilled. Lately, there’s been a craft beer revolution with breweries such as Sovina, Letra, and Dois Corvos edging onto the scene with some tasty thirst-quenchers.

The wine industry has a long distillery tradition resulting in fiery liquors like bagaço and bagaceira, which are clear, powerful, and similar to Italian grappa, or barrel-aged aguardente velha, at its best a wonderfully warming after-dinner tipple that can rival French cognac.

Many regions have their own special drinks: Poncha is a potent mix of local rum and lemon from Madeira; ginja is a sweet cherry liqueur knocked back in hole-in-the-wall Lisbon bars; the Algarve has a firewater made from a forest fruit called medronho; Licor Beirão is an herby liqueur from the Beiras.

Mineral water is commonly drunk, bottled from springs around the country. Waiters will inevitably ask if you want it com gas (sparkling) or sem gas (still), fresca (cold) or natural (room temperature). The Compal range of fruit drinks can make a healthier alternative to international soda brands.