INTRODUCTION
Portugal is an astonishingly beautiful country; the rivers, forests and lush valleys of the north are a splendid contrast to its contorted southern coastline of beaches, cliffs and coves. If you’ve come from the arid plains of central Spain, Portugal’s dry southern Alentejo region doesn’t promise any immediate relief, but – unlike Spain – you don’t have to travel very far to witness so total a contrast that it’s hard, at first, to take in. Suddenly the landscape is infinitely softer and greener, with flowers and trees everywhere. Life also seems easier-paced and the people more courteous; the Portuguese talk of their nation as a land of brandos costumes – gentle ways.
For so small a country, Portugal sports a tremendous cultural diversity. There are highly sophisticated resorts along the coast around Lisbon and on the well-developed Algarve in the south, upon which European tourists have been descending for over forty years. Lisbon itself, in its idiosyncratic, rather old-fashioned way, has enough diversions to please most city devotees; the massive development projects that accompanied the 1998 Lisbon Expo firmly locked it into modern Europe without quite jettisoning its most endearing, ramshackle qualities. But in the rural areas – the Alentejo, the mountainous Beiras, or northern Trás-os-Montes – this is often still a conspicuously underdeveloped country. Tourism and European Union membership have changed many regions – most notably in the north, where new road building scythes through the countryside – but for anyone wanting to get off the beaten track, there are limitless opportunities to experience smaller towns and rural areas that still seem rooted in the last century.
In terms of population and customs, differences between the north and south are particularly striking. Above a roughly sketched line, more or less corresponding with the course of the Rio Tejo (River Tagus), the people are of predominantly Celtic and Germanic stock. It was here, in the north at Guimarães, that the Lusitanian nation was born, in the wake of the Christian reconquest from the North African Moors. South of the Tagus, where the Roman, and then the Moorish, civilizations were most established, people tend to be darker-skinned (moreno) and maintain more of a Mediterranean lifestyle (though the Portuguese coastline is, in fact, entirely Atlantic). Agriculture reflects this divide as well, with oranges, figs and cork in the south, and more elemental corn and potatoes in the north. Indeed, in places in the north the methods of farming date back to pre-Christian days, based on a mass of tiny plots divided and subdivided over the generations.
More recent events are also woven into the pattern. The 1974 Revolution, which brought to an end 48 years of dictatorship, came from the south – an area of vast estates, rich landowners and a dependent workforce – while the later conservative backlash came from the north, with its powerful religious authorities and individual smallholders wary of change. But more profoundly even than the Revolution, it is emigration that has altered people’s attitudes and the appearance of the countryside. After Lisbon, the largest Portuguese community is in Paris, and there are migrant workers spread throughout France, Germany and North America. Returning, these emigrants have brought in modern ideas and challenged many traditional rural values. New ideas and cultural influences have arrived, too, through Portugal’s own immigrants from the old African colonies of Cape Verde, Mozambique and Angola, while the country’s close ties with Brazil are also conspicuously obvious.
The greatest of all Portuguese influences, however, is the sea. The Atlantic dominates the land not only physically, producing the consistently temperate climate, but mentally and historically, too. The Portuguese are very conscious of themselves as a seafaring race; mariners like Vasco da Gama led the way in the discovery of Africa and the New World, and until comparatively recently Portugal remained a colonial power, albeit one in deep crisis. Such links long ago brought African and South American strands into the country’s culture: in the distinctive music of fado, blues-like songs heard in Lisbon and Coimbra, for example, or the Moorish-influenced Manueline or Baroque Discovery, the style of architecture that provides the country’s most distinctive monuments.
This "glorious" history has also led to the peculiar national characteristic of saudade: a slightly resigned, nostalgic air, and a feeling that the past will always overshadow the possibilities of the future. The years of isolation under the dictator Salazar, which yielded to democracy after the 1974 Revolution, reinforced such feelings, as the ruling elite spurned influences from the rest of Europe. Only in the last two decades or so, with Portugal’s entry into the European Union, have things really begun to change and the Portuguese are becoming increasingly geared toward Lisbon and the cities. For those who have stayed in the countryside, however, life remains traditional – disarmingly so to outsiders – and social mores seem fixed in the past. Women still wear black if their husbands are absent, as many are, working in France, or Germany, or at sea.
WHERE TO GO
The obvious place to start a visit to Portugal is the capital Lisbon, which contains a selection of just about everything the country has to offer within its vicinity: historical monuments from the Golden Age, superb beaches nearby and a cool hilltop retreat just north in Sintra, along with neighbourhood grill houses, hip nightclubs and traditional village quarters. Further north on the River Duoro, and best known for its port wine lodges and soccer teams, Porto is the country s second city and the economic heart of the nation. It certainly beats to a faster work rhythm than the rest of the country but the city nevertheless retains an earthy, typically Portuguese welcome for outsiders.
These are the only cities of any size in Portugal, but the country s cultural and historical past is also reflected in smaller towns, especially the university towns of Coimbra and Évora; Guimarães, the country s first capital; and Braga, the religious centre. But, with its miles of Atlantic coastline, Portugal is most famous for its beaches. The safest and most alluring of these are in the Algarve, and though this has led to large-scale development, you can still escape the crowds in the east of the region on the offshore islands around Tavira and along the west coast north of Sagres. Other less-developed but more exposed beaches can be found up the entire west coast of Portugal, with small-scale, thoroughly Portuguese resorts such as Milfontes on the Alentejo coast, Nazaré and the Pinhal de Leiria resorts in Estremadura, and the Costa da Prata resorts in the Beira Literal. Crowds are even thinner along the Costa Verde around Viana do Castelo, but by the time you are this far north the sea is decidedly chilly for much of the year.
Most of Portugal s population lives on the coastline and to see a more rural, traditional side of Portugal involves heading inland. The most dramatic and verdant scenery lies in the north around the sensational gorge and valley of the river Douro and in the wild mountainous national parks of the Serra da Estrela, Peneda-Gerês and Montesinho. Some of the rural villages in Trás-os-Montes, Beira Alta and Beira Baixa still live a startlingly traditional existence firmly rooted in subsistence farming. By contrast, the wide-open plains of the flat Alentejo are an agricultural area of endless olive and cork groves scattered with some of Portugal s prettiest whitewashed villages. Here the fierce sun and parched landscape promotes a far more laid-back lifestyle than in the greener hills of the north and centre. All along the border with Spain you ll find fantastic fortified border settlements, from Valença in the north to Elvas and Monsaraz in the south, most of them barely touched by tourism.
WHEN TO GO
A weather map of endless suns sums up the situation across the whole of Portugal in summer, certainly between June and September, when the only daytime variation across the country is a degree or two further up the scale from 30ºC. At this time, and especially in July and August, Portugal s coastal resorts are at their busiest and prices correspondingly reach their peak.
But, with such a verdant landscape, it should be no real surprise that Portugal also has a fairly high level of rainfall, most of it from November to March. The north of Portugal is particularly wet, and in the higher areas showers are possible more or less throughout the year. In central and southern Portugal, especially on the coast, it is mild all year round and, although it can be cloudy in winter, when the sun does break through it is delightfully warm.
Perhaps the best times of year to visit are in late spring for the dazzling flowers and early autumn, when the weather is warm but not too hot and the summer crowds have thinned out. Swimmers, however, should note that the official swimming season in Portugal lasts from around June to mid-September; outside these months, outdoor pools close and few beaches are manned with lifeguards. Some hotels, restaurants, campsites and water parks also only open from around Easter to September.
In winter, in the north things can get pretty chilly, especially inland where snow is common along the mountainous border areas in January and February. But, if you don t mind the odd tourist facility being closed, crisp, sharp sunshine makes winter a highly appealing time to visit the middle and south of the country. In Lisbon, the Alentejo and Algarve there are dramatic reductions in hotel prices and, in February, the almond blossom lights up the countryside. This is the time when you ll see the country at its most Portuguese, with virtually no tourists around.
