Map of Portugal

This map of Portugal shows a selection of its top attractions, from beaches to wild countryside and from nightlife hot spots to fascinating museums. You can click on the icons for a brief description and perhaps a link to more information. By the way, the selection is mine and mine alone, and you may differ. What's more, I encourage you to differ - drop me a line on the Feedback form or leave a post on the forum. Now that's out of the way, I'll tell you a bit about Portugal in case you're new to the country or just want to know more about it.

Portugal is beautiful, almost all of it. And, although it faces west and is beaten by Atlantic winds, Portugal feels just as much a Mediterranean country as its neighbour Spain. Its wine and olives, sunburnt countryfolk and volubly gesticulating city dwellers, its tile-roofed, whitewashed houses and colourful tiles, all speak of the country's Mediterranean roots and heritage and the various peoples who have conquered it, built cities or trading posts there or otherwise left their cultural mark, from Phoenicians to Romans to Arabs. And again like its neighbour, modern Portugal, from Lisbon to Oporto and from the Algarve up to Braga, is as exciting, vibrant, fun-loving and inspiring as anywhere in Europe.

From the visitors' point of view, Portugal's main attractions are its beach areas: the Algarve, the Costa Azul, the Costa de Prata, the Costa Verde, and its islands, the Azores and Madeira. Its main cities, Lisbon and Oporto, are also great places to visit, historic but modern, humming with life at all times of day. And its countryside, with its picturesque towns and villages, makes it a great place for a touring holiday or more extended exploration.

Finding your way around. Portugal's geographical divisions can be confusing. Its historic provinces, such as Extremadura or Ribatejo, are no longer used for administrative purposes, though a couple, Alentejo and the Algarve, have been upgraded to regiões, regions. There are five of these in mainland Portugal: roughly from north to south, Norte, Centro, Alentejo, the Lisbon Region (for a time, Lisboa e Vale do Tajo, a term you may still find on this site), and the Algarve. Its islands, Azores and Madeira are also regiões, in their case, regiões autónomas. At a lower level, the distrito is also no longer used, but commonly referred to by ordinary Portuguese folk who are less than delighted with ugly, modern terms like "greater metropolitan areas" and "urban communities," and I often refer to them in these pages, as well.

Modern Portugal. Even if unimpressed by bureacrats messing them about, the Portuguese are also (like the Spanish) a little fed up with the old-fashioned image the country has had abroad, all peasant costumes, broad-rimmed straw hats and fado (though fado has undergone tremendous renovation in the last couple of decades and is now as relevant and up-to-date a genre as you will find anywhere). They are keen to point out that Portugal is a modern European country, and in most respects they are right. Rural Portugal, for example, has been fled, farming, especially, having been abandoned as a way of life altogether in large areas of the country. Today's Portugal, for good or bad, is as urban, apartment-living, car-owning, t-shirt-and-jeans-wearing, tv-watching and mp3-listening as most places in Europe.

Portugal is very Portuguese. Portugal's modernity doesn't mean it has lost its personality, though, far from it, it just means its personality is due to the place, not the socio-economic situation. When you are in Portugal, in the same way as when you are in Spain, you know you are there and you could not be anywhere else. Spaniards have a slightly patronising but nostalgic view of Portugal (where many Spaniards have acquired country cottages or other second homes), ofen saying it reminds them of how Spain used to be, say, fifteen or twenty-five years ago. I think this is an illusion created by the country itself, its smaller scale, its often leisurely pace, its wry approach to life. Portugal is Portugal, not Spain in miniature with the clock set back a couple of decades, but a lovely country with charming inhabitants who are almost always polite, ever willing to lend a hand, staunchly impervious to the rudeness or arrogance of others, stoic to Sphynx-like heights.

For more information, use the "Spain and Portugal" menu on the left, especially "Portugal and its Regions" which will take you sooner or later to most of the pages on this site. Or, if you are less patient, the Google search box will find all except the very newest pages here.