The best places to visit in Portugal

Portugal is compact enough to visit several destinations in one trip, if you’re hoping to discover several highlights of Portugal, but also easy to spend your whole holiday in one fascinating city or area. Here’s our pick of the best places to visit in Portugal, to help you plan your trip.

If you only visit one place in Portugal, it should be the country’s attractive capital, Lisbon, set atop a string of hills by the Tagus River. Explore the historic neighbourhood of the Alfama, home to the city’s castle, as well as Bairro Alto, with its medieval convent, before strolling the elegant streets created after the devastating earthquake of 1755.

Sanctuary of Christ the King in Lisbon

Save time to hop on one of the iconic little yellow trams, along with some of the quirkier transport taking you up the hills, from lifts to funiculars, before a visit to the suburb of Belem, to discover the intricate Jeronimos Monastery and Belem Tower. It’s here that Portugal’s famous pasteis de nata were first created and you can still buy a box today, or enjoy one in a string of cafes across the city.

Portugal’s second city is famous for its port wine, but that’s only the start of what you can discover. Explore the UNESCO World Heritage centre, with its pretty winding streets, historic market and colourful azulejo tiles dotted everywhere. The most spectacular spot has to be the Sao Bento train station, where the walls are covered in tiles depicting scenes from Portugal’s history, although the fantastical Livraria Lello bookstore is another highlight.

Porto

Then cross the river to Vila Nova de Gaia, where port wine cellars line the riverfront. You’ll find countless chances to learn more about port production, venturing into the cellars with their giant barrels, and tasting a few different vintages. The city makes the perfect starting point for a trip to the Douro Valley too, one of Portugal’s main wine-producing areas.

Called the ‘Portuguese Rome’, Braga is one of the most significant religious sites across the whole country. Once a Roman city, it quickly became one of the earliest places of Christian importance in the Iberian peninsula, home to the country’s oldest archdiocese and one of its oldest chapels. Today the narrow streets are lined with elegant Baroque buildings, as well as a cathedral dating from the 11th century.

Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Monte

One of the highlights of a visit to Braga is riding the funicular to the beautiful hilltop sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Monte, where you can look down onto the grand 116m staircase leading up to the church, and out over Braga, with some spectacular views to the ocean on clear days.

This subtropical islands sits off the north-west coast of Africa, with a mild climate that gives Madeira its nickname, the ‘island of eternal spring’. It’s unmissable for those who love plants, but just as tempting for those hoping to go hiking or simply looking for a warmer escape in the winter months.

Funchal, Madeira

Capital Funchal is home to the island’s botanic gardens and annual flower festival, as well as a string of museums, art galleries, and historic sites, and makes a great base to explore further. The Monte Palace Gardens are unmissable, home to around 100,000 plant species from across the world, along with sculptures and art, while you can also walk Madeira’s levadas, historic irrigation channels which have been turned into hiking routes.

Around an hour from Lisbon, Sintra was the summer escape for Portuguese royalty for centuries thanks to its cooler location in the hills, resulting in a magical collection of palaces and gardens to explore. The highlight is the Pena Palace, a colourful 19th century creation that seems straight from a fairytale, with spires and turrets, decorative tiles and wonderful views down across the gardens.

Elsewhere the Castle of the Moors is one of the oldest buildings, a historic fortress with its own fabulous views, while the National Palace, with its white pepperpot towers, hosted Portugal’s kings for centuries. Don’t miss Quinta de Regaleira, another 19th century explosion of romantic architecture, where the gardens are filled with stone follies, winding paths leading to waterfalls and the intriguing Initiation Well.

Look beyond Portugal’s best-known destinations and there are plenty of less well-known locations and unique experiences to discover, from the university city of Coimbra to historic Guimares, and wildlife-spotting in the country’s south among others.

Evora’s history dates back to Roman times, with the remains of the Temple of Diana still standing in the city centre. Once you’ve explored, and soaked up the views from the roof of Evora cathedral, there’s one more distinctly unusual attraction to visit; the Capela dos Ossos, or chapel of bones. Created using around 5,000 skeletons, the chapel’s walls and pillars are decorated with bones and skulls held together with cement, while a poem encourages visitors to reflect on their own life and deeds.

Known as the Portuguese Venice, a string of canals criss-cross through the pretty town of Aveiro, with colourful boats known as moliceiro cruising along the waterways. Away from the water, the streets are lined with elegant Art Nouveau buildings and home to the Museu Art Nova, while the train station is a riot of ornate azulejo tiles. Don’t leave without trying the traditional ovos moles, another sweet treat created by nuns, they use sugar syrup whisked with egg yolk that’s encased in wafer-shaped shells.

The best place for first-time visitors to Portugal is a holiday in Lisbon, for the perfect introduction to Portuguese culture, history and cuisine. As well as exploring the main attractions in the city itself, and its suburb Belem, the capital of Portugal also makes a fantastic base to explore more widely, with some easy day trip options such as Cascais on the coast and the palaces of Sintra in the nearby hills. With plenty of direct flights to Lisbon, and no time difference to the UK, it’s also easy to start with a shorter break if you prefer, before planning a longer return trip to Portugal.

Although Portugal isn’t one of the largest countries in Europe, there’s plenty to discover between Porto in the north and the Algarve in the south. While a train network connects the larger cities, especially in the north and around Lisbon, and there are good toll roads across the country, it’s still better to focus on one area of the country to explore or plan an organised tour of Portugal to visit a few highlights.

If you’re hoping to explore the Douro Valley, one of the best ways is by river cruise, or an escorted tour which can handle the practicalities of travel between the different destinations. Alternatively, it’s possible to choose one area as your base and plan a few days trips from here. Sintra and the coast is easily reached from Lisbon, while Evora is only around 90 minutes away by train. Or if you choose Porto, the city is within an hour of Braga, Guimaraes, Coimbra and Aveiro by train.

Beyond the mainland, the island of Madeira is relatively small so it’s not hard to choose one or two places to stay and explore more widely, while the Azores are similarly compact, so it’s easy to island-hop between them.

Discover our holidays to Portugal, including hotel stays and escorted tours