P O R T U G A L
Please Click on the underlined text below here to navigate up and down the page for information on each area.
| Obidus | Madeira | Algarve | Oporto | Cascais |
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(Click to got back up the page) Once the wedding present of a queen, the preserved medieval town of Óbidos lying 100 km north of Lisbon is without doubt one of Portugal's most classic walled settlements. Walking the ramparts, visitors can enjoy views of windmills, vineyards and surrounding farmlands. In the residential area below, narrow cobblestone streets are lined with whitewashed houses sporting terracotta roofs. The shops are piled high with local handicrafts, while in spring the town is ablaze with geraniums, morning glories and bougainvillaea.
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Madeira island is one of Europe's oldest travel locations and many thousands of tourists return year after year. Why? |
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The Algarve is holiday heaven - sunshine, natural bays, dramatic cliffs and warm seas. Sagres is small and sweet, while Lagos is the good-looking carnival queen of the resorts. There are unspoilt islands in the Parque Natural da Ria Formosa, fascinating old towns at Tavira and Silves (the former Moorish capital), and lovely wooded hills in the interior.
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The World Heritage city of Oporto is one of Europe's most fascinating but least known travel destinations. It's magnificent architecture and spectacular location overlooking the River Douro make Oporto one of the world's most dramatic and memorable city landscapes. An important seaport and traditionally a city of merchants and commerce, it's many elegant buildings are testament to the enterprise and vision of it's industrious and independently-minded inhabitants, with their distinctive accent, quick sense of humor and famously welcoming nature. Oporto is a striking combination of the old and the new. Although in the past It's prosperity was based on commerce and manufacturing, Oporto's economy is fast diversifying. A centre of medical excellence and world class scientific research and an IT industry supplying global software solutions thrive alongside businesses, such as the Port Wine houses, which have been successful for over three hundred years. However, it is not the modern but the historic city of Oporto which holds the greatest fascination for the visitor. This is above all a city of hidden delights, of intimate squares and gardens, traditional markets and unusual museums. It is a city of districts and quarters, each with its own special and authentic character. Stylish, eccentric, elegant or romantic, Oporto's many faces now find their reflection in The Yeatman, the hotel which defines the city
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A short train ride along the shore from Lisbon's Cais do Sodré station leads to Cascais, a formerly quaint fishing village that became (along with neighboringEstoril) a popular resort favored by European nobility and kings in the early 20th century. Today it is a colorful cosmopolitan town with elegant pedestrian streets, luxuriant villas, fashionable shops, restaurants and bars. Elements of its fishing village roots can still be felt at the lively fish auction that takes place every afternoon by the main beach and its brightly painted fishing boats, and the story of old Cascais is told by old photographs, paintings, and other items at the small "Museu do Mar" (Museum of the Sea). |
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