Top Sites You Should Not Miss When You Visit Portugal

 

Fado

Born in a working-class Lisbon neighbourhood, the melancholic music of fado has been around for centuries. Despite its years, fado remains a living art, heard in tiny family-run restaurants, like A Baîuca, and elegant music halls alike. A lone, powerful voice coupled with the 12-string Portuguese guitarra are all the tools needed to bring some listeners to tears, as songs recall broken hearts, unfulfilled dreams and the lost days of youth. In fado, raw emotion often conveys more than mere lyrics can; even non-Portuguese speakers find themselves moved by great fadistas.

Ilha de Tavira

Ilha de Tavira has the lot for sunseekers, beach bums, nature lovers (and naturists): kilometre after kilometre of golden beach (think sand, sand, sand, as far as the eye can see), a designated nudist area, transport via miniature train, busy restaurants and a campground. To top it off, it’s part of the protected Parque Natural da Ria Formosa. Outside the high season, the island feels wonderfully remote and empty, but be warned: during high season (July and August) the hordes descend.

Parque Natural da Ria Formosa

This special spot feels like it’s in the middle of the wilderness, yet it’s right off the Algarvian coast. Enclosing a vast area of sapais (marshes), salinas (salt pans), creeks and dune islands, the protected lagoon system stretches for an incredible 60km and encompasses 18,000 hectares. And it’s all accessible from various towns – have a boat drop you at a deserted beach, or amble along the nature trail among the precious wetland bird life.

Megaliths Around Évora

Spiritual, magical, historical, incredible – the many ancient megaliths around Évora will make your hair stand on end. As a traveller, you will more often than not have these sites to yourself – and what better way to ponder the mysteries of places so ancient they cannot fully be explained? How did such massive rocks get hauled into place? Were they fertility symbols or proprietorial land boundaries? They beg questions, yet – refreshingly in a world of reasoning – provide few answers. Somehow, their appeal lies in not knowing.

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