Please give me your top 10 list of what an American should see on a trip to Portugal. I am not interested in the Algarve area, nor am I interested in the nightlife and clubs. I am more interested in the unique beauty and culture of the country. Please, no links to travel web sites. Thank you.
2006-09-06 13:12:28 · 7 answers · asked by Anonymous in Travel ➔ Europe (Continental) ➔ Portugal
Hi, hope this helps...
I'll start from the north. The best tip I can give you is: hire a campervan and stay anywhere you like. Camping sites are the best places to meet people... and you can easily get to the most remote regions. Don't hesitate in asking...Portuguese people are very friendly… so whether you need water, food or just some directions...just ask.
Motorways can get you anywhere quickly but tolls can be expensive, take the national roads and you get to see more.
1. Visit Geres...it's a National Park. It's located in 'Serra do Geres'
2. Castelo the Guimaraes...The first castle in Portugal... (City of Guimaraes). It says on the walls ' Portugal was born here' (in portuguese of course).
3. Porto- can't miss a visit to the Port wine cellars...the iron bridges built by Gustav Eiffel... if you have time a boat trip up the Douro river and then you can visit the farms where the port wine is produced...typical food in Oporto: Francesinha..it's like a toast with ham and beef covered in cheese and with a special sauce on top (hot)
Climb 'Torre dos Clerigos' (Tower) for a good view of the city
4. Aveiro- the Venice of Portugal..try a typical sweet called 'Ovos Moles'..and the snails, which have been suggested in previous posts
5. Coimbra (city)- First Portuguese University...sort of Harvard's Portuguese Version
6. Fatima (peregrination point for Christians)..and nearby 'Mosteiro da Batalha'
7. Lisbon..can not miss the Capital...you've already had lots of information on this one
8. Alentejo Coast..the most beautiful coast of Portugal...between Lisbon and the Algarve
9. Cabo da Roca-....most western point of Europe
10. Great country for food, wine, sweets and desserts, coffee,,,
You'll notice that all these places are by the coast but Portugal is just a vertical strip of land..anywhere in Portugal if you head towards East in two hours or less you are in Spain.
2006-09-07 03:10:16 · answer #1 · answered by sonia 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
humorous how the Mccanns daughter `disappeared' out of the country. the yank and British police might have taken care of this out some time past and the McCanns might now be in detention center for the crime. in my opinion i think of they planned this from the beginning up as Madeleine became right into a `complicated' newborn. Kate McCann confirmed no sign of being distressed in any respect. maximum ladies could have been crimson eyed and uncooked from crying yet her eyes confirmed NO warning signs of that. Sorry yet they murdered that little female and have pulled the wool over a gullible public the worldwide over. Who stands out as the subsequent undesirable s o d to be a suspect? we are arising for yet another `sighting' and persecution of an harmless individual. crimson Chrome needless to say the police in Portugal are inept in no longer investigating what you observed. How available for the McCanns that the police did no longer be conscious and p.c.. up what you probably did. additionally the ditch that became into crammed in became into by no skill dug up and investigated!
2016-10-14 09:49:57 · answer #2 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, I know that Portugal is an ancient nation and through more than 1000 years it has developed a specific culture while being influenced by the various civilizations that crossed the Mediterranean world.
Portuguese music has a wide variety of genres. The most renowned Portuguese music is Fado, a melancholic urban music.
Top 10 things to do:
1. The June Festivities are very popular. These festivities are dedicated to three saints known as Santos Populares (popular saints) and take place all over Portugal.
2. See a football match. Football is the most popular and practised sport in Portugal. As of May 2006, the Portuguese national team was ranked 7th out of 205 countries by FIFA. The legendary Eusébio is still a symbol of Portuguese football.
3. Try Portuguese cuisine. It is particularly diverse; various recipes of rice, potatoes, bread, meat, sea-food, and fish are the staple foods in the country. Particularly cod dishes (bacalhau in Portuguese), for which it is said that there are 365 ways (one for each day of the year) of cooking it: Pastéis de Bacalhau, Bacalhau à Brás and Bacalhau à Gomes de Sá are some of the most popular ones.
4. Listen to Portuguese music. Currently, mainstream music in Portugal is in a rural and urban duality where the Portuguese pop-rock and Portuguese hip hop are popular with the younger and urban population, while pimba (an informal and rather unflattering word for a simple and cheery variety of pop music) and folklore are more popular in the rural areas and among the important emigrant community.
5. Visit the Vasco da Gama bridge, the longest bridge in Europe with a length of 17.2 km (10 miles).
6.Travel to The Peneda-Gerês National Park (mostly known as Gerês) is located in the extreme north-west of Portugal. The park has a wide variety of oaken and mixed forests, groves, peat bogs, and diverse bushes, including autochthonous and rare species. It is one of the last Iberian harbours of wolves, garranos, golden eagles, vultures and honey buzzards amongst many others. The iberian lynx, a once-common indigenous species, is almost extinct in Portuguese terrority, and only few survive in Spain. Boars are common in Alentejo and Trás-os-Montes. The Natural parks of Serra da Estrela, with its broad valleys and turf soils, and the Arrábida, with its Mediterranean character and the sand varieties of its beaches, unveil the ecological variety of Portugal.
7. There is also The Serra da Estrela mountain range, which is situated in central-east Portugal and a large part of the mountain lies within the limits of the Serra da Estrela Natural Park.
8. Check out he Parliament, or Assembly of the Republic (Assembleia da República in Portuguese) is a unicameral body composed of 230 deputies.
9. Visit the Torre de Belem, in Lisbon.
10. And finally, see the Pena Palace in Sintra, over big mountain-top rocks, it is a mixture of the neo-gothic, neo-manueline, neo-islamic, and neo-renaissance styles. The Pena National Palace constitutes one of the major expressions of 19th century Romanticism in Portugal. This National Monument was built by the initiative of D. Fernando of Saxe Coburg-Gotha, who married Queen Mary II, in 1836. Endowed with a very complete education, the future King Fernando II quickly fell in love with Sintra and, when going up the Mountain range for the first time, sighted the ruins of the old Convent of Frades Hieronimitas, originally built in the reign of King John II and substantially transformed by King Manuel I that, when fulfilling a promise, ordered it to be reconstructed, into rock, in praise of Our Lady of Pena, donating it again to the Ordem dos Monges de S. Jerónimo (a monks' order).
2006-09-06 13:38:08 · answer #3 · answered by kokubenji 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Here's a link with a description of the places.
2006-09-06 14:27:30 · answer #4 · answered by Mariposa 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
in brief:
1, check out the palacio de penha and the castle in sintra... and the views.....
2, get naked on the beautiful praia do odceicxe
3, eat caracois (snails... believe me their worth it...)
4, visit monsanto (the 1st settelment in portugal) near castello branco)...and the views
5, check out the serra d'estrella...gorgeous
6, eat in the smallest "tasca" (tavern) bars,,, fixed menu,, cheap as chips,, delicious...
7, get windswept on the praia do gincho (near sintra),,,, beautiful,,,
8, eat bacalhao however you fancy..(con natas or a bras are my recomendations)
9, eat leitao (whole roast suckling pig)
10, find the busiest cake shop in every town you get to and buy their speciality cake,,, they're all different and soooo good.. yum
enjoy...
2006-09-06 22:35:04 · answer #5 · answered by nathan 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Read the Portugal travelogues: http://www.thetravelzine.com -
non-commercial.
2006-09-07 02:00:03 · answer #6 · answered by love2travel 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hi!
Check out my previous answer to someone who asked also what to see in Lisbon.
http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ahh7GJqoqMie_GK.4hOj6gIgBgx.?qid=20060901212907AAvmk2Z
Have a great trip!
2006-09-07 13:05:54 · answer #7 · answered by cifurtrue 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋