Discovery Channel (Firm) - Insight Guides: Portugal

How To Use This E-Book

Getting around the e-book

This Insight Guide e-book is designed to give you inspiration for your visit to Portugal, as well as comprehensive planning advice to make sure you have the best travel experience. The guide begins with our selection of Top Attractions, as well as our Editors Choice categories of activies and experiences. Detailed features on history, people and culture paint a vivid portrait of contemporary life in Portugal. The extensive Places chapters give a complete guide to all the sights and areas worth visiting. The Travel Tips provide full information on getting around, hotels, activities from to culture to shopping to sport, plus a wealth of practical information to help you plan your trip.

In the Table of Contents and throughout this e-book you will see hyperlinked references. Just tap a hyperlink once to skip to the section you would like to read. Practical information and listings are also hyperlinked, so as long as you have an external connection to the internet, you can tap a link to go directly to the website for more information.

Maps

All key attractions and sights in Portugal are numbered and cross-referenced to high-quality maps. Wherever you see the reference [map] just tap this to go straight to the related map. You can also double-tap any map for a zoom view.

Images

Youll find hundreds of beautiful high-resolution images that capture the essence of Portugal. Simply double-tap on an image to see it full-screen.

About Insight Guides

Insight Guides have more than 40 years experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides. We produce 400 full-colour titles, in both print and digital form, covering more than 200 destinations across the globe, in a variety of formats to meet your different needs.

Insight Guides are written by local authors who use their on-the-ground experience to provide the very latest information; their local expertise is evident in the extensive historical and cultural background features. All the reviews in Insight Guides are independent; we strive to maintain an impartial view. Our reviews are carefully selected to guide to you the best places to stay and eat, so you can be confident that when we say a restaurant or hotel is special, we really mean it.

Like all Insight Guides , this e-book contains hundreds of beautiful photographs to inspire and inform your travel. We commission most of our own photography, and we strive to capture the essence of a destination using original images that you wont find anywhere else.

2014 Apa Publications (UK) Ltd

Portugals Top 10 Attractions

From the gorgeous beaches and balmy waters of the Algarve to the intellectual buzz of medieval Coimbra, the pleasures of the Alentejo Wine Route, and Lisbons sights, tastes and sounds.

Top Attraction 1

Algarve . The region has the greatest choice of beaches and warmest waters, from the semi-wild beaches on the windy west coast, like Monte Clerigo, to the more sheltered stretches around Lagos with gorgeous rock-framed sandy coves nearby. For more information, .

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Top Attraction 2

Sintra . Once a cool summer residence for kings, Sintra is a magical place that has kept the character that was a lure for poets and rich foreigners alike. Its beautiful royal palace, splendid quintas (estates), the extraordinary Pena palace, and some good museums all add lustre. For more information, .

Lydia Evans/Apa Publications

Top Attraction 3

vora . Gleaming above the Alentejo plains, vora traverses the ages with amazing megaliths nearby, a glorious Roman temple, spectacular churches, shops under ancient arcades, and great food and lodgings. For more information, .

Lydia Evans/Apa Publications

Top Attraction 4

Reserva Natural das Berlenga . This protected archipelago 10km (6 miles) offshore from Peniche on the west coast is characterised by a dramatic rocky terrain home to thousands of nesting sea birds, especially guillemots. For more information, .

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Top Attraction 5

Vila Nova de Milfontes . The most charming of the Alentejo seaside resorts, Vila Nova de Milfontes is a white-washed, laid-back town close to some lovely golden-sand beaches. For more information, .

Pictures Colour Library

Top Attraction 6

The Convento do Cristo , Tomar . This Unesco World Heritage Site is a dazzling Manueline maze of winding passageways, irregular cloisters and extraordinary carving, centred around the mystical octagonal Templar church. For more information, .

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Top Attraction 7

University town Coimbra . Once Portugals medieval capital, Coimbra combines beautiful ancient buildings and a sense of tradition with the buzz from the population of present-day students, dressed in their traditional black capes. For more information, .

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Top Attraction 8

Lisbon . The Portuguese capital is stunningly rich in historic sights, led by the great Jernimos monastery at Belm. Picturesque neighbourhoods, like Moorish Alfama or the Beira Alta, are architecturally pleasing and full of colour, music and good places to eat. For more information, .

Lydia Evans/Apa Publications

Top Attraction 9