Page 268 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide: Great Places to Stay in Europe

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26 8 P OR TUG A L

PORTUGAL
OME OF PORTUGAL’S most the government-run pousada
enticing places to stay are the network whose members
Sgrand but crumbling country offer a reliably high standard
houses which have opened their of accommodation, often in
doors to paying guests as part of highly atmospheric or old
the Turismo de Habitaçao historic buildings such as
scheme. Choose between an converted castles and
apartment in a palace, a monasteries. Many pousadas
guest room in a quinta (manor have the added advantage of
house), or a casa rustica – a farm being located in parts of the
cottage converted into a self- country otherwise lacking in
catering apartment. There’s also interesting places to stay.
palace hotels – of
Sintra and Estoril.
Southern Portugal
One of the most
beautiful and little-
known regions of
Portugal is the
Alentejo, an undu-
lating landscape of
grid-formation olive
groves and cork oak
forests. Here the
pousada network
comes into its own,
with those at Evora
and Vila Viçosa
among the best. The
Alentejo’s Atlantic
coast is a favourite
among travelling
Castelo de Bom Jesus, a neo-Gothic ‘castle’ above Braga, page 272 surfers. There is a
pousada with stun-
PORTUGAL, REGION hillsides planted with vines ning panoramic views at
BY REGION which produce the region’s Santa Clara-a-Velha.
port wine. Porto is the main The Algarve is now so
ORTUGAL CAN be divided city of the region. Places to built up that some travellers
Pinto three regions: stay include an Art Nouveau avoid it on principle. The
northern, central and southern. city-centre palace and a exception is the area around
discreet, luxury 1940s hotel. Tavira, and the extreme west
Northern and Central Inland, the old province towards Sagres, where there
Portugal of Trás-os-Montes is remote are some excellent small
The granite-based Minho reg- and mountainous, with the guesthouses and villas.
ion is green from the masses little-visited Beira Alta and Also included in this section
of rain it receives. This is an Beira Baixa to the south. In are the islands of Madeira and
agricultural area, and it’s not the Beira Litoral, to the west, the Azores. The latter may be
at all unusual to see oxen beautiful beaches of fine difficult to reach (flights leave
pulling a cart, or women sand are pounded by Atlantic from Lisbon), but they are
washing clothes in a water breakers; there are hotels in ideal places for getting away
tank by the side of a country the resort of Póvoa de Varzim from it all, and for whale-
lane. There is plenty of ac- and near Aveiro. watching. Accommodation is
commodation in manor The Ribatejo and the more simple and atmospheric.
houses and farmhouses. The interesting Estremadura which
wild Atlantic coast at Viana it flanks, encompass the coast HIGHLIGHTS
do Castelo, and the fasci- all the way to Lisbon. There
nating historic towns of are attractive beach resort OTELS ILLUSTRATED on these
Barcelos and Guimarães, have hotels, hill top castle Hintroductory pages are by
a mix of pousadas and small, pousadas (at Obidos and no means our only highlights.
family-run guesthouses. Setúbal), Coimbra with its Unforgettable places also
In the Douro valley, a steep ancient university, and the include Hotel Guincho at
gorge is flanked by terraced impressive palaces – and Cascais (page 273), a former