You earmarked Sintra as a day trip from Lisbon. But, you can’t do it all in one day. Now what? Sintra is a fairytale setting. As a green oasis on a mountain, Sintra has been the summer retreat for royalty and their hangers-on for centuries. Now, it is the most popular day trip destination […]
PRIORITIZING THE SIGHTS IN SINTRA Read More »
Porto is a great city to play “Guess How Many Steps?” at dinner. You can cover a lot of ground (and elevation) in a day walking around this magical city, so a guess northwards of 20k steps isn’t crazy. Central Porto is pedestrian-friendly with sidewalks, promenades and squares-a-plenty. Most of the major sights are clustered
If you only have a few short days to visit Porto, you may be tempted to automatically target the universally accepted top sights. 50 million Elvis fans can’t be wrong, right? No offense to the legacy of ‘The King,’ but his fans can be a little overzealous. Maybe some of the hits deserve some critical
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION Read More »
First of all, Porto is a sneaky great food city. All the ingredients of a culinary scene are there: a splash of coastline, a pinch of river valley, an overflowing cup of wine country and two millennia of traditions. Sure, Porto has Michelin starred restaurants and a bounty of classic, unchanging neighborhood tascas. But, where
THREE SNEAKY SENSATIONAL RESTAURANTS Read More »
Porto is made for wandering. It’s romantic that way. You can set out on foot to see a sight like Clérigo Tower, and pass half a dozen other places that catch your fancy along the way. Porto is a mid-sized city so most of the major sights aren’t too far from one another. Besides, lots
POPPIN’ IN & POPPIN’ OUT IN PORTO Read More »
Hey, do you like seafood? See food. That old child lunchroom joke probably wouldn’t go too far in Portugal. The joke would die at the setup. To not like seafood is unthinkable. It’s woven into the national heritage and identity. You will have no trouble finding fish, mollusks and cephalopods on menus. If your family
THE PORTUGUESE TABLE: A PRIMER Read More »