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PREFACE

Our first experience of walking in Portugal came during a year of European travelling, when we were captivated by the unexpectedly huge mountains, devoid of crowds, and numerous excellent walking trails. Finding out where these began or went proved to be challenging, with limited resources from the majority of tourist information offices, poor outdated maps and no guidebook in English. The solution was to do extensive research and write our own guide.

We do not pretend to have walked every single footpath in Portugal but have investigated hundreds: asking locals, going online, making enquiries at the national park, nature park and tourist information offices, poring over maps, or simply spotting the signs as we went along. From these hundreds we have walked more than a hundred, from which we have selected walks that made our hearts sing, our spirits lift and made us feel glad to be alive. This is of course entirely subjective. Wherever possible we have chosen walks along the ‘old ways’ (routes used by villagers in ancient times as their sole means of passage), sections of long-distance GR trails, and incorporating some history.

This book is designed to complement the Cicerone guide Walking in the Algarve, and has a different selection of Algarvian routes.

Simon Whitmarsh and Andrew Mok

2017

View of the town from Marvão’s castle, São Mamede (Walk 31)