Its temples and palaces did seem
Like fabrics of enchantment pil’d to heaven.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Spain
Barcelona
28 May – 3 June 2025
Our first stop for our month in Spain. It was hot, bustling and busy. There is plenty to see and lots of contrasts from magnificent art and architecture to lazing on the sands of Barceloneta. I never quite worked out the orientation of the city nor the formation of its streets (definitely not a grid system) but getting lost became the best thing to do.
Where we stayed: Placa Reial, The Gothic Quarter
This was a central location just off the La Rambla so it was in the heart of the restaurants, bars and shopping. Its main appeal was as a base for getting lost as you explored all the narrow carrers that make up the maze-like Gothic Quarter and nearby El Born.
Top things to do:
Museo de Picasso – a brilliant chronology of Picasso’s development as an artist from 14 years old right up until his final years. Also managed to get free tickets to this as they have them available for certain days and times if you get in quick.
Barceloneta – this was a beachfront area built for the 1992 Olympic Games from an old industrial port area. It has a great esplanade you can walk for miles along and great people watching in between dips in the relatively clean Balearic Sea.
Stroll along Passeig de Gracia to see all the fancy shops and more importantly to wonder at Gaudi’s Casa Batlo and Casa Mila.
Walk the laneways of Can Baro and the to the top of Bunkers del Carmel for spectacular views of the city then down the hill into Gaudi’s other crazy Parc Guell.
Ibiza
3 June – 11 June 2025
Hard to explain this island in the Balearic Sea but it will go down as one of my favourite travel experiences this year. It was a special place where you could do so much and not anything at all. The sea was warm crystal turquoise, the towns are all bright white stone, the sunsets are spectacular and everyone is here for a really good time. We did joke that we left our best selves in Ibiza when we finished our 8 days there because that was probably long enough of a good time!
Where we stayed: Sant Antoni de Portmany
This town is on the west coast of Ibiza. Although it is touted as on the quieter side of the island there is still plenty of partying to be had here but you can also do lots of lazing on the beach or swimming in the sea. Our hotel room had shotgun views of the sunset each night so that became our much loved ritual to sit on the balcony and watch its descent.
Top things to do:
Do a sunset at Cafe del Mar: this has the best sunsets on the island and they are the original house chill mix which has been on high rotation in my life since the 1990s so we had to do it.
Hire a captain with a sailing boat and head out to the turquoise waters of Cala Comte. We booked ours through Get Your Guide with Pasilio as our captain who supplied us with plenty of cava and snacks. There were only 5 of us on board so there was plenty of space to stretch out and also lovely company to chat with.
Go to a day beach club: this was a wild old time but also so so much fun. A must do in Sant Antoni is O Beach for unbelievable people watching (the outfits are eye popping) drinking way too much champagne, standing in the pool chatting to random strangers and dancing to the DJ until you drop.
Go clubbing at Ushuaia; this was the main reason we came to Ibiza. To see DJ David Guetta’s opening party at Ushuaia club. He has been a soundtrack of our lives for decades and we got through COVID lockdowns watching his YouTube videos at spectacular locations around the world so it had been on the list of things to do for years. Lesson learnt – you are never, ever too old to go clubbing! There was the best atmosphere and all ages, nationalities, genders ready for a great time. The party was 5.30pm to 11.30pm so we didn’t even have to pull an all nighter and the atmosphere was fantastic with lots of fireworks, explosions, girls floating overhead in balloons and of course all the bangers.
Madrid and Toledo
11 June – 16 June 2025
Madrid is a grand, impressively scaled city. Everything feels expansive and luxurious. The locals are immaculately dressed so I had to up my tourist attire. There are so many huge open plazas with beautiful arcade surrounds and plenty of big ticket items to visit. It was a really beautiful city. It was also really, really hot and very little shady parks to escape the heat and it seemed that every fountain in town was under renovation. So we had to be equipped with plenty of water for our daily wanders around all the main attractions.
Where we stayed: Chueca
Our apartment was just near Centro in a small barrio called Chueca. It was certainly in the heart of things for as soon we stepped outside our front door we were swept along in a wave of shoppers on the pedestrian mall of Calle Fuencarral. This zone was filled with all the big brands stores and plenty of interesting independent boutiques and ends at Gran Via which is yet another massive shopping zone. Once you got off the main shopping streets, the whole barrio was filled with winding laneways full of quirky vintage shops, small plazas, bars and restaurants. It was clearly where all the cool kids hung out so we felt right at home 😀
Top things to do:
Prado Museum – we spent over 6 hours here and managed to see all 3 floors and over 80 exhibition rooms. We started in the medieval floors and worked our way around all the big hitters – Velasquez, Brueghel, Caravaggio, Bosch and Goya – as well as countless lesser known but equally as masterful works. We had an audio guide which explained around 80 of the most important works in most rooms so that really enhanced the experience. It was a must do when in Madrid.
Museo Reina Sofia – this was also magnificent. It is the contemporary art museum and situated in a wonderful plaza where you can sit and sip a cooling sangria before your visit. We went in at 7pm which is part of their free entry schedule so had two hours to see most of the important works. I especially wanted to see Picasso’s Guernica which is huge and crazy but so wonderful to see it in the flesh after years of teaching it for post modernism. There are also works by Dali and Miró as well as some fantastic architectural models and photography to show the evolution of Madrid as a city.
Explore all the neighbourhoods and drink vermut – this is my favourite part of staying in a new city, just wander and get the feel of the various barrios then find a small bar to sit outside sipping a ice cold vermouth with ice, lemon and an olive watching the people rushing about living their Madrid lives. Best ones we discovered were the literary quarter in Barrio de Las Letras, Malasaña and Chueca (where we stayed) and of course Centro where all the shopping action happens.
Day trip to Toledo – this incredible medieval city about 40 minutes from Madrid is a must do if you have the time. A short walk from the railway station you climb the big hill across the moat and make your way up a very steep hill (this becomes the theme of the day!) into the main plaza. It has been home to Romans, Visigoths, Islamic rulers, Jews and part of the Castilian Catholic monarchy by the 16th Century. All these layers of history are literally layered in some buildings like the Alcazar or distinctive in areas like the Jewish Quarter. Definitely a ‘stepping back in time’ day.
Valencia
16 June – 20 June 2025
Wow Valencia – you are a lovely, lovely city. From the moment we arrived you could tell this was a special place. A very pedestrian friendly city as very few cars are allowed access into the central historic area. The colours of Valencia are dusky pinks and orange hues contrasted against the bright blue sky. Everywhere you turn there is something pretty to see. And it is also home to paella so I had been saving myself for that!
Where we stayed: Cuitat Vella
We have been so lucky with all the apartments we have booked so far and this one didn’t disappoint in the heart of the old town of Valencia. It overlooked a small street which always had something interesting to look at, including what we worked out was a strip club/brothel. It was walkable to all the major sights (except the beach which we caught a taxi to as it is about 30 minutes away).
Top things to do:
Eat paella and drink Sangria! Valencia is the home to paella and we quickly worked out that you don’t eat it after 7pm so we ensured we had two lovely long lunches at to recommended restaurants and both were fabulous. The first one was in Valencia just off the main Placa de l’Ajuntament. We had paella de marisco at Navarro and a jug of very refreshing Sangria (it was very, very hot every day in Valencia was our excuse). We sat out in the sidewalk and eavesdropped on some older Spanish ladies drinking a lot more Sangria than us. It was absolutely delicious. Next version was the traditional Valencia style paella at Casa Carmela which is just near the beach of Platja de la Marvarossa. You have to order this dish a day ahead of your booking at it takes a little longer. It has rabbit, duck, chicken, snails and a few other unrecognisable organs and is cooked very dry so the socarrat is extra, extra crispy. Along with a very smooth Valencian red in airy, white and blue casa and seeing the kitchen’s open wood fires where the many paellas are cooked this was also a memorable meal.
Ride bikes along the Jardín del Turi. This is a 8 kilometre park which traverses the old riverbed (which has now been moved further out of town to the newer areas of Valencia and turns out they had deadly floods there in 2024). Along the way you will come upon these very striking modern architectural buildings which make up an arts, sciences museum complex and aquarium. They are completely different to the medieval and baroque styles of the old town but are visually stunning. It takes about 2 hours to travel the length and breadth of the park so it helped balance out the two days of eating paella!
Walk everywhere (especially in the cooler evenings) – we spent many hours and clocked up many steps just wandering the windy laneways and stumbling upon some gorgeous old buildings and picturesque plazas. The Mercado de Colon is the original market housed in a glass pitched roof building so it is worth a visit and the array of stalls sell lots of Valencian specialties; there are many churches and the last remaining city walls with a tower you can climb to see a 360 degree view of the city. We never really worked out the layout of the crazy winding streets but that made it all the more fun.
Sevilla and Cordoba
20 June – 25 June 2025
Spain continued to impress with yet another beautiful city: Sevilla. It seems every place we have stayed lays claim to being a capital of Spain at some point in time or because of circumstances (usually war related); Sevilla is no exception. It was the capital of Spain when the Islamic caliphate ruled al-Andalus, the name for Muslim Spain from the 7th to 12th Century. You ca see the layers of history throughout the city everywhere – it is a feast for the eyes.
Where we stayed: Feria
This neighbourhood just north of the old town was charming and rustic. It had a very bohemia, lived in feel and was very residential so we got a slice of more authentic life in Sevilla than staying closer to the main attractions right in the city centre. Our apartment was on the small Plaza los Maldonados surrounded by bars, restaurants, vintage and local shops and a very handy supermarket. It also had two very old churches which marked our days with their hourly bells. We took so many wrong turns walking around the neighbourhood because all the streets are typically medieval in their complete lack of urban planning – this is of course what makes the place so special.
Top things to do:
Go to a Flamenco Show: I had saved this experience up for Sevilla as it is known as the place with authentic Spanish flamenco originated from. I also wanted to go to something a bit smaller and less touristy. My first attempt at that failed when after much research we turned up at Peña Flamenco Torres Macarena early on a Saturday evening (because all their website and Reddit posts said you could only buy tickets at the door for their performances) to find that this particular Saturday night was the only one in months that they weren’t opening. So take two and we found a smallish venue close to our place in the striking Setas de la Encarnación building. We had walked past this structure many times going to and from the old town centre but didn’t realise it also had a flamenco venue downstairs: Tablao Flamenco Las Setas . They do three shows a night and you can buy tickets online – it was definitely worth getting the VIP seats as you are so close to the stage and really absorb the energy and sounds of the performances. The singing is so mournful and melodic – it clearly has links back to the Moorish and Romani cultures with the way the voices move seamlessly up and down scales. The singer at this show reminded me of the Australian singer Lior who I just love for the way his voice evokes sadness and lightness in one. The dancing was just as entrancing – there’s such an emotional synergy between the dancer and the musicians.
Real Alcazar de Sevilla: this is definitely worth every centime for a visit and ensure you get an audio guide (although it was the most confusing and illogically structured audio guide/app I have ever encountered but once you got the gist it made every room more meaningful). This royal papal e dates back to the 10th Century when it was built at the height of the Moorish Spanish empire. The building is so unique in the way it has layered these Mudejar stylistic features (arches, tile work) with some Gothic features from the later Castilian Catholic monarchs.
Self guided walking tour of Sevilla Centro: I have become a big fan of a self guided walking tour on our first day in a new city. The app I have been using is called GPSmyCity and while I’ve been a cheapskate and not subscribed to their site, you can get enough information from each downloadable map to navigate around many sights for a couple of hours. It usually lists the top 10 places and provides a walking route and then some history of each sight. In Sevilla, it took us to the expansive Placa de España which was built for the 1929 Expo. This had colourful azulejos tiled recessed seating areas for all 50 Spanish provinces around a large open arena (which was actually set up for a series of concerts including our Kylie in early July) and ponds. Filled with busking flamenco dancers and guitarists, it was a vibrant atmosphere to wander around. After that we walked towards the Guadalquivir River to see the Torre del Oro and the old bullfighting ring. It was getting pretty damn hot so we headed into the cool of the Archivo de Indias which we thought would just be a place to escape the heat but ended up being a fascinating exhibition of Spain’s colonisation of South and Central America. Our final spots were the enormous Catedral de Sevilla and Las Setas. Two completely different architectural eras but equally lovely to look at. The rest of our time in Sevilla was spent walking in and around Centro as there was always something interesting to see and a picturesque side street to be diverted by. We did learn that the shops don’t open on Sundays so don’t put any shopping off until that day if you walk down the many pedestrian streets and something catches your eye.
Day trip to Cordoba: this was a must do and we had a great tour through Get Your Guide for a day trip to Carmona and Cordoba which is about 2 hours northeast of Sevilla. Apart from an initial hiccup where they forgot to pick us up (the guide at the pick up point had to hail us a taxi to chase the bus!), it waS a leisurely day out seeing a very special town. Cordoba was founded by the Romans in the 2nd Century, then became the capital of the Spanish Islamic Caliphate from the 8th Century to the 12th Century when Ferdinando III conquered it for Christian Spain in 1236. Once you walk across the old Roman bridge and into the walled city you are swept up into time warp of all these many eras. The stand out place was the Mezquita-Catedral which literally took my breath away when we entered the main gate. It is a visually stunning and unique mix of the Moorish, Gothic and Baroque styles and we had a great local guide taking us through the enormous building filling us in with all the history and religious significance of each area. The colours and beauty of the many arches are surreal. There are a few places in the world that have the effect that this place did and I did go a little camera crazy that still doesn’t quite do the scale and beauty justice.
Cadiz
25 June – 30 June 2025
Sometimes you arrive at a place and fall instantly in love. This was Cadiz. It was the light. The blue was a brighter, deeper blue. The white was a brighter, whiter white. It felt like the edge of the world and for many, many centuries it has been exactly that. Cadiz was originally three islands but now it is an isthmus that faces the Atlantic Ocean and is attached by land and man made bridges to the mainland. The Phoenicians arrived here around 1100BC and named it Gadir. It was a trading post sitting between Europe and Africa. Then came the Carthaginians, followed by the Romans in the 1st Century BC and they called it Gades, which became one of the most important cities in the Roman Empire. Later it was absorbed into Moorish Spain and came back to life under the Catholic monarchy of the 15th and 16th Centuries. Now it is a faded gem which seems to be off the well worn tourist path for some reason. It has this incredible history, lots of beaches, plenty of great bars, restaurants and shops. It is a perfect size to get to know well over the five nights we spent there and it also unexpected ended up being as much as a party town as our stop in Ibiza.
Where we stayed: El Populo
One of the oldest areas in Cadiz (pronounced Card-Dee we soon learnt) is El Populo which dates back to Roman times and was also the main district for the rich merchants and traders who lived here at the height of Cadiz’s power as a trading hub. We had a lovely little apartment overlooking a small plaza below and unbeknownst to us this plaza became party central every night we were there as the home to Pride Week in Cadiz. So on the first night we had a trio of indie style musicians singing tablao and playing melodic guitar, the second night was an alt-rock band and drag queens; the third night was a DJ and the place went off. By the third night we stopped watching from the balcony and joined the party, dancing until 2am. In between these wild, party nights, our place was a perfect central location to circumnavigate the entire city (the old walled town is quite small) as well as head out to Playa Santa Maria del Mar. Cadiz has an Old and New Town so we really only spent most of our time in the old town and saw a glimpse of the new town when we went to the beach. All the great sights, bar and restaurants are in the old town and they have strict car limits so it is one of the most walkable places we have been to.
Top things to do:
Roman Theatre – it is not every day you have a 1st Century BC Roman Theatre around the corner from your house, but that is exactly what we discovered when we ventured out on our first morning. Discovered in 1980 under layers and layers of buildings from more than 1000 years of history, the Roman Theatre in Cadiz is one of the biggest in the Roman Empire. It is claimed to have held up to 10,000 people and to have been 120 metres in diameter. The archaeological site has only exposed about a third of that size. The museum is free and provides incredible glimpses of the many, many layers which were built over this theatre throughout so many generations in Cadiz.
Cadiz Cathedral: we haven’t paid for too many churches on our European adventure (theory of diminishing returns largely with a sprinkle of outrage that so much is charged by one of the richest institutions in the world) but we stumped up for this one and it was well worth the €10 as you got entry to the church itself, the bell tower and then another museum where all the really expensive relics and artworks are kept. The church is very spectacular and the many artworks in every chapel have a lot of sacred meaning and history. The best bit though was climbing up the bell tower (which has a ramp rather than stairs so felt slightly less torturous in the heat) and seeing the wonderful view of the bright white city below as well as the far reaching coastline beyond. We also managed to be up close and personal to the bells tolling, only for 1pm so didn’t get completely deafened.
Go to the beaches: there is one city centre beach, Playa la Caleta (which was once the original Phoenician port) and then miles and miles of beaches up the coast from Cadiz. The city centre beach is a great spot for sunset, people watching and to walk out to the old fort. The beaches of Playa Santa Maria del Mar and Playa Victoria are proper sandy beaches, definitely good people watching (there seemed to be groups of excitable young men engaging in boxing matches when we went to Playa Santa Maria) and the water is quite clean and refreshing. I’m an Australian so am quite judgy about beaches in other parts of the world but this one was pretty good.
Torre Tavira – this seemed a little obscure but was a fascinating sight to visit as well as the best views of Cadiz by far. There are 100s of old merchant’s houses in Cadiz which were typically built with a lower floor goods storage and office, a second floor for living quarters and a tower at the very top to watch for your ships coming and going from Cadiz port. They are beautiful to see scattered throughout the city and this one is the only open to the public so you get a proper experience of the house and view. It is is also home to a camera obscura which is something I had never seen before but provides a real time, bird’s eye view through a mirrored lens attached to that tower.
Eat lots of seafood – Cadiz is the perfect location for eating as much fresh seafood as you can. They have a fantastic Mercado Central de Cadiz (central market) which has small kiosks selling fresh seafood dishes and sangria and a huge array of restaurants and bars to have first class meals or just some tapas and a glass of wine. The local speciality of Cazón en Adobo (which is marinated dogfish bites) was soon an absolute favourite which I will attempt to replicate at home. We were lucky to catch up with friends from Australia for two nights here as they had just completed the northern Camino and were headed to Tangier for a few days (hi Bobby and Kim!) so we had some great company sharing travel tales for a couple of dinners in very different places.The Calle Virgin de la Palma is the main ‘eat street’ but we soon found that all most every street had multiple options. We really enjoyed a meal at Meson Criollo where I got an enormous octopus leg and grilled sardines. The we ate with Bobby and Kim at El Faro de Cadiz which was a much more traditional restaurant and clearly where all the important people of Cadiz have been coming for decades. I had a delicious Paella Negra which is paella cooked with squid ink and very, very tasty.
Final tips from Spain:
- Don’t plan to do much on Mondays (and often Sundays) – we quickly learnt that most museums, restaurants and often shops are closed on these days so don’t be disappointed and always check before you go.
- No one in Spain has got the memo that smoking is bad for you – be prepared to tolerate being smoked on often and everywhere especially in those delightful outdoor dining areas.
- Tapas is really dinner – you think you might go out for some tapas before dinner but will quickly realise that it is actually quite filling and is probably just dinner in disguise.
- Nothing opens before 11am, siesta is taken very seriously and Spanish don’t eat dinner before 9 or 10pm – adjust your body clocks people.
- Spain is incredibly diverse and inclusive – they have always been many histories and cultures and continue to live that out in reality today. Where else do you go to see a Mosque-Cathedral in the world? The world could take a chapter or two out of Spain’s history to realise it is possible to live happily and respectfully side by side with different religions, races, religions and sexualities.
- I continue to be put to shame that everyone speaks English (and often French and Italian) so much better than I have managed to learn Spanish. Learn another language or three from birth Australians.
- Trains are really efficient (but quite expensive) and popular so book seats well ahead of time for journeys between the big towns.
- Spain is pretty big – we have only seen a small part of it in just over a month so plan to see less but stay longer in each town to really get to know each place well.
Portugal
I eat oranges, figs, and delicious pears, drink Colares wine, a sort of half-way excellence between port and claret, dream of poem after poem and play after play, take a siesta of two hours, and am as happy as if life were but one everlasting today, and tomorrow not to be provided for.”
― Rose Macaulay, They Went to Portugal
Lisboa
30th June – 5th July 2025
Sometimes first impressions stick and sometimes they are changed with time. The latter was Lisboa. First impressions were not great. It was grotty, rundown and traffic was a nightmare. Felt very much like Spain’s poor cousin where clearly little government money is spent in the upkeep of centuries old buildings and infrastructure. Even the famous black and white “calcada portuguesa” (patterned cobblestone streets) were in a state of disrepair so walking meant you had to be on high alert and definitely not wearing slippery soled shoes. Yet we had 5 nights in Lisboa and walked up and down every one of their seven hills and went out a little further to Belém and by the end Lisboa had worn me down with its lovely mess.
Where we stayed: Baixa
I did quite a lot of research on where to stay in Lisboa because there was a lot of divided opinion. I settled on Baixa which is considered a newer part of the city, designed and built after the terrible devastation of the 1755 earthquake. It is the only part that is designed on a grid, has lots of pedestrian friendly streets and is flat. That part was important as I was not keen to be dragging my suitcase up and down any of the hills. While Graca, Bairro Alto and Alfama are the more interesting and picturesque neighbourhoods, they were easily walkable from Baixa. Baixa and Chiado are close to the Tagus River and are the main shopping areas of the city so are constantly full of tourists, hawkers and buskers. It makes the area very lively. Our apartment overlooked the Rua da Vitória so there was always people watching to do. Our balcony was quite precarious and resembled so many other buildings in the city where it seems renovation costs on some of these ancient buildings are beyond the reach of residents and landlords.
Top things to do:
Walk the seven hills– we aimed to cover the seven hills and get to know the different neighbourhoods so on our first day we quickly realised the best and only way to do that was to walk. Not only does it keep you fit going up and down those hills but also made us very smug as we walked passed the gridlocked traffic of tourist tuk-tuks, electric Model T Ford cars, Lisbon’s famous trams and any other car that was stupid enough to try to drive in the city centre. The main tourist sights (ie. churches, plazas and lookouts) are largely situated in Alfama, Castelo and Graca. There are lovely miradors showcasing different angles of the city. A twice weekly flea market, Mercado de Santa Clara, was also on so that was fun to wander through looking at the retro junk that could have come from my parents’ or grandparents’ houses in the 1970s. So many knick knacks! Alfama is also home to a lot of windy streets full of small bars and tavernas so it is also a great place to return to at nighttime.
Bairro Alto and Principe Real was another area that was a really great walk for a few hours. Bairro Alto is, as the name suggests, pretty high so has lots of great viewpoints back across the city. It must also be the party zone as every second place was a bar. Principe Real was clearly the fancy neighbourhood as there were lots of high end boutiques selling lots of lovely beautiful things for inflated prices. The Australian dollar and my baggage allowance restrictions serve as hindrances to any lovely shopping unfortunately.
The other lovely walk was along Avenida de Liberdade all the way up to Parque Eduardo VII. It is a broad, tree lined boulevard (again with shops I can’t afford but nice to look at) that leads to a very big, elevated park and viewpoint back down onto the city centre. It is so nice to have some green space to escape the heat and crowded city streets. Lisboa definitely had more of those than Madrid when we could have done with some.
Belém: this neighbourhood is little further out of Lisboa Centro so we needed to catch a train for around 30 minutes. It was a popular train to say the least as it goes all the way out to the beaches. Belém was the original port in Lisboa so has some interesting historical landmarks and buildings. It is where Vasca da Gama launched his famous trip to India and the beginnings of the Portuguese Age of Exploration. We mainly went for two things – the Belém Tower and Pasteis de Nata (the original Portuguese tart). The tower was covered in scaffolding so that was a bit disappointing but there was no queue for the Pasteis de Belém shop so that balanced everything out. We also spent an hour or so in the Maritime Museum which had a great first exhibition space about the Age of Exploration. The other rooms had clearly not quite had the same enthusiasm or money spent on them.
Eat and drink – we had a pretty chilled week in Lisboa and just enjoyed the relaxed pace without the pressure of trying to “see everything”. We realised there is actually very few big ticket places and while you can pay for the odd church, monastery, tower or castle, there’s more pleasure to be had in wandering the different neighbourhoods and stopping for a nice meal. We discovered some cool local bars and tapas places in Alfama so would recommend Prado Wine Bar for their absolutely delicious small plates and a great wine collection. We also tried Antiga Wine Bar, Shoes and Booze, Madame Bacchus and had a really good seafood dinner at Maria Catita.
Porto
9th July – 16th July 2025
Porto is the biggest city in the north of Portugal and definitely feels like a capital city in many ways. It is built around the Douro River with two quite distinct neighbourhoods on each side of the river. I really wanted to love Porto as everything online made it look very special. Yet the reality is a little different. It is so, so busy and there is a lot of construction going on making many of the streets hard to navigate, polluted and noisy. The traffic in a few popular spots is gridlocked so walking was the way to go if you didn’t want to spend extra time at a standstill. There were a couple of pockets that we had to keep walking through to get to any of the major sites which became my least favourite in the town as all the tourists had to be funnelled into a tiny stretch of footpath next to the construction so you felt like sheep being herded into a barn. The best things about Porto were the weather (it was really sunny and in the mid 20s the whole time we stayed) and the fact it was close to the Douro Valley so we had a memorable day out touring the wineries and beautiful countryside of this region. It became more about the experiences rather than the aesthetics.
Where we stayed: Our apartment was very centrally located near Avenida dos Alidos and ended up being the perfect base for walking around all sides of the city and river. It took about 15 minutes to get to most sights and then around 30 minutes to walk across the Ponte Luis I to the Gaia district on the other side of the river. It also had a lovely view across the rooftops to the Clérigos Tower where I could watch the changing colours as the sun shifted throughout the day and then you saw mysterious flickering lights as people walked around the tower on the night tours.
Top things to do:
Port tasting (of course!): as the name suggests Porto is the home of port. The Gaia district on the other side of the Douro River is home to many port warehouses and port tasting caves. Apparently the area has the ideal climate for storing the port which is usually made at wineries in the Douro Valley and then transported to Porto for storage and aging. Rather than go to one of the big touristy port caves, we went to a small, family run business called Solar dos Dragos where we ended up being the only guests for a Port Wine Experience which was an opportunity to taste 4 different ports and hear the stories behind each. Our host was really friendly and made us feel very welcome, taking a lot of time to give us the history of port and wine in Portugal and the way the aging process changes the colour and taste of port. It was interesting to hear the special relationship between England and Portugal based on the development of the port industry. It is not something I would drink regularly so it was fascinating to understand the distinctions and what makes a really good port.
Walk across the Ponte Luis I Bridge: it might not sound that interesting to walk across a bridge but this bridge is no ordinary bridge. For a start it is absolutely enormous – 172 long and 45m high so a bit of a heart stopper up top. It is also a double decker span bridge so you can walk both the lower and upper decks; the latter has the added fear inducing fact that you share the path with a train line so have to keep your eyes peeled for trains coming both ways. The day we did the upper deck it was pretty windy so that added to my desire to walk pretty briskly to the other side. The views back across to Porto are well worth it and you can climb even higher to the Miradouro da Serra do Pilar for an even better perspective. The cluster of wonky red houses in Riviera look like a toy town. Hard to believe some of them are actually occupied.
See a Fado Show: Portugal has its own traditional music known as Fado. We went to a small venue called Ideal Clube de Fado which was in the Bohao neighbourhood and it was perfect as the show went for around an hour and you got to be up close to the musicians in an intimate setting. We stopped into a really cool bar in an old bank beforehand called (aptly) Big Bad Bank which made a great martini. One of the best descriptions of Fado I heard was that in Spanish Flamenco the songs are about a lover who has betrayed and the singer wants to kill that lover; Fado is about a lover who has betrayed and the singer wants to kill themselves. It turned out to be perfectly right. The music style is really different to flamenco – quite slow and mournful. The singer was accompanied by two guitarists and their song choices for each show are fully improvised depending on their moods. The guitarists were really skilled and made the show.
Obidos and Tomar
5th July – 9th July 2025
From Lisboa, we drove around 2 hours to the small hillside town of Obidos. This was like opening the pages of a fairy tale book as it is a completely walled medieval town with a castle perched high on the crest of the hill. It is clearly a very popular day trip from Lisboa as we found ourselves swept through the front gates along with visiting crowds. We took a quick diversion up the steep stone steps to the top of the city walls. You can walk the entirety of these and luckily not too many tourists ventured up that high. The views from the city walls give you the best perspective of the whitewashed red tiled buildings below and striking fuchsia bougainvillea spotted throughout. It took around an hour to walk the walls. Then we ventured down to the town to grab a snack before our onwards journey to Tomar. There were lots of very beautifully dressed guests arriving for a wedding at one of the historic churches so it was it was quite cool to see them all gathering before what must be one of the places to get married in Portugal – a fairy tale wedding guaranteed.
.
Another two hours further north was the town of Tomar where we stayed for 4 nights. It is also a medieval town where the Knights Templar were founded in the 12th Century so oozing with history. The Templars´ Convento de Cristo is the striking hilltop fortress dominating the landscape and the town below. It was a very quiet town so the Convento is the main event and we spent quite a few hours exploring the site and the huge surrounding gardens and hiking trails. We were in search of the Roman Aqueduct which used to transport water up to 7kms to the Convent. We didn’t quite manage to find it but did find a swing overlooking the valley below so that was kind of unexpected fun.
The Templar Castle and Convent had some of the most incredible rooms throughout the complex, the church being the most impressive. The romantic concept of the Knights Templar as the original adventurers was reconstructed when I learnt that they were actually more like the first bankers, exchanging pilgrims´ money for a type of cheque that they could cash along the way at their various stops.
Coimbra
We got a Daytrip transfer from Tomar to Porto which is only about 2 hours drive, so a perfect spot to stop was Coimbra in central Portugal. It was once the capital of Portugal from 1131 to 1255 AD, as well as having the oldest university in Portugal. Three hours was plenty of time to circumnavigate the old town and have a leisurely lunch in a lovely shaded plaza complete with a classical guitarist adding to the ambiance. The town is set high up in the hills from Rio Mondego so once you reach the university square you get a great 180 degree view of the region.
There are plenty of very steep, windy cobblestones streets; one of the streets called Rua de Quebra Costas is even known as Backbreak Street! We stopped into one of the oldest churches and once we got to the University district you start to see the historic importance of this city. The expansive square is a very grand space flanked by the Alacova Palace which housed the royal family in the 1550s. The imposing white buildings with red tiled roofs were very striking against the glare of the midday sun. It was also amazing to see students of today gathering with their parents ready for graduation – past and present intersecting.
Once you’ve walked up to the top of the town, the best part is it’s all downhill from there so we took a few other picturesque laneways to make our way down to a small plaza surrounded by small restaurants. A perfect spot to stop and enjoy the sunshine with a sangria before we headed onto Porto.
Douro Valley
We took a full day tour of the Douro Valley from Porto and it was the absolute highlight of our trip to Portugal. This is the oldest demarcated wine region in the world and thus a World Heritage Site. We have been so lucky to have been to some of the best wine regions in the world so adding this one was extra special. It is one of the unique ones as it has these distinctive terraced vineyards throughout the valley, like rice paddies except grapevines instead. We chose a tour through Get Your Guide which was a family based, small vineyards trip called 2 Regions Farm to Table which included a fabulous home made lunch as well as a boat ride on the Douro River from Pinhao village.Our guide for the day was so funny and energetic and it was great to see the whole extended family involved in every place we stopped. First stop was Amarante, a region known for its vinho verde wines. This winery was run by the host’s cousin and we learnt that he had completely transformed the traditional ways his father had previously run the winery over many decades. He was very passionate about new production methods to make his wine organic and unique. There was a red vinho verde which was like drinking cherry juice which they serve cold in enamel cups to stop it staining the glasses. Then we went onto the valley to a winery called Quinta da Bela. And we certainly got to taste some wines. They made sure we were constantly “topped up” with our tastings. It made for a very convivial day meeting people from all over the world in a spectacular hillside setting. At our lunch table alone there were people from Denmark, Finland, Slovakia, India and France. The conversation and the wine flowed for the afternoon before we moved outside to sit by the pool and watch our guide Pablo open a very aged port using fire to crack the top of the bottle to avoid cork tainting the bottle. It was something I hadn’t seen done before and added drama to the drink!
After lunch (and many, many wines) we travelled to Pinhao which is the town where most of the boat cruises from Douro depart from. The boat trip took us deeper into some of the most beautiful parts of the valley and we got to see the wine terraces from a completely different angle.
It was a very sleepy ride in the bus on the way back from Porto and even our guide, who had kept up a hilarious running stand up routine most of the day, was quiet as we wound our way back through the hills into Porto. A special day.
Final Tips from Portugal
- Portuguese is hard! I tried so hard to learn some useful phrases before we arrived and while it looks a little like Spanish when you read it, the pronunciation is completely different. Most Portuguese we encountered still spoke English as it is compulsory from primary school so once again my Australian education that doesn’t make languages a priority let me down.
- Portugal had an oppressive dictatorship from 1926 to 1974 so you can really see the lasting impact of this on the Portuguese economy. There has clearly not been as much investment in historic buildings and infrastructure. Most places we went to had a lot of very run down buildings and streets; many old houses seem to have been left to ruin and some of the oldest buildings have not been maintained. It was a stark difference to Spain where the upkeep of all the heritage buildings was clearly evident.
- Portuguese food is all about sardines, bread, cheese and meat. There are specialty sardine shops everywhere selling a tin of sardines for $30 for some reason and while we ate pretty well in Lisboa, once we headed further north the food is very dense and rarely a vegetable was seen. One of the most defining dishes of Porto is something called the Francesinha which is a meat sandwich smothered in cheese, an egg and a thick tomato sauce served with chips. Heart attack on a plate material.
4. Portugal is a very multicultural country. Portugal has reciprocal visa or citizenship agreements with a lot of the former colonies of Portugal so you can see that many people from India, Africa and Brazil have made their home in Portugal. The lengthy and brutal Portuguese Colonial War from 1961 to 1974 also resulted in many Portuguese being forced “home” from African countries like Mozambique and Angola so they are known as the ‘returned’. This side of Portuguese politics and history was completely new to me so it was interesting to see the legacy of this complex past on today.
5. We used Daytrip to transfer between cities. This is a bookable car service app for either one way transfers, days trips or something in between. As we travelled the length of Portugal by using this service instead of trains, it meant we got to see three other towns as day trips as well as the three we were staying in, making it quite cost effective. Portugal has an extensive national rail network but it doesn’t always run as quickly or conveniently as travelling by car.
6. Portuguese wine is really good. We discovered a new varietal called Vinho Verde which is a light crisp white and sometimes slightly effervescent. It is great match with seafood and also very refreshing when it is super hot like it was in Lisboa and Tomar. You can also buy alcohol in all supermarkets for very reasonable prices. We made a few mistakes but mostly it was really nice wine.
And final tip – don’t wear slippery shoes or the polished cobblestones will get you!