Europe
Walking routes in Arrábida Natural Park
Arrábida Natural Park is a maze of tracks and paths. That’s the upside for walkers. The downside is not all of them are public ways. The trick is knowing which are and which aren’t. […]
Portugal
Europe
The view from abroad, winter woes
The depths of winter (i.e. now) in central Portugal is a yin and yang affair. Warm enough to eat lunch al fresco in the midday sunshine, as cold as my home island of Bute in Scotland at night. […]
Europe
Taking the red tourist tram in Lisbon
There are three major differences between jumping on a red tram in Lisbon and squeezing onto the iconic number 28 which shakes, rattles, and rolls its way around the streets of Portugal’s capital. […]
Douro
The best and worst of travel in 2019
Delivering training sessions about some of the destinations we’ve visited over the year prompts us to reflect on our experiences in a specific location; something which doesn’t always happen immediately after a trip as there’s nearly always somewhere else exciting to visit steaming toward us. […]
Europe
Swapping package holidays for magical mystery tours
Greece was responsible for a radical rethink regarding how we planned our precious breaks from work. I was Mr Package Holiday arguing that, with only two weeks to spare at a go, I didn’t want […]
Europe
Electric scooters, the scourge of Lisbon
It’s effortless to hit a thumbs up on facebook, a retweet on Twitter and share posts which show others just how much we care about our planet. We can do it without expending any energy whatsoever. It’s easy to be an eco-warrior when you don’t need to leave the house. […]
Alentejo
Ten scenes of the Alentejo in Portugal
Ask me two years ago what visions the word Alentejo formed in my mind and my immediate answer would have been vast golden plains; a landscape devoid of people save for a handful of settlements, […]
Algarve
Where to go warm winter walking in Europe
This is the time of year when there are regular travel articles about warm winter walking. Generally they’ll feature the same handful of locations. […]
Hiking
Choosing hiking destinations and inexperienced hikers
My source for much travel related pondering, Tripadvisor, highlighted the potential minefield new walkers especially have to negotiate when deciding on walking destinations. […]
Aveiro
Into the north, a Portuguese road trip
This was meant to showcase why Portugal is such a popular holiday destination. But not everything went exactly to plan. […]
Alentejo
Rock and Soul in Beja
I didn’t expect this. Covering almost all of the gable end of a house is a huge blue and red rooster made from discarded pieces of metal. Portugal seems to have a thing at the moment for oversized ‘rubbish’ animals. The rooster’s tail feathers block part of a window whilst a stray metal breast feather juts out over a door […]
Europe
Beauty or a blight? Urban art in Lisbon
Where they see squalor and a depressed urban landscape in some raggedy streets and obscure alleys, I see a raw, gritty, honest beauty – a down to earth yin to the yang of the city’s grand architecture. This Jekyll and Hyde character partly makes Lisbon the compelling city it is. […]
Alentejo
It is simply Alentejo, not the new Tuscany
Driving through an endless savanna where mounds rather than hills rolled lazily toward infinity, a travel article I’d read in The Guardian a couple of years ago popped into my head. It was called ‘A foodie tour of Portugal’s Alentejo’ and claimed that Portugal’s largest region was being touted as the new Tuscany. […]
Europe
What is the couvert in Portugal?
The first time we encountered a couvert was in Porto when it a waiter brought a tray of small dishes to our table. We weren’t sure if they were a complimentary amuse-bouche or we’d have to pay. […]
Algarve
Golden beaches and strawberry trees, walking in the Algarve
There’s a diversity to Portugal’s countryside that surprises us on a regular basis. Where the Algarve’s resort scene doesn’t appeal, the range of walking that exists in the region is a different matter. […]