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Palácio de Queluz
Versailles’ fanciful cousin-once-removed, the powder-puff Palácio de Queluz was once a hunting lodge, converted in the late 1700s to a royal summer residence. It’s surrounded by queen-of-hearts formal gardens, with oak-lined avenues, fountains (including the Fonte de Neptuno, ascri
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Cidadela
Climb uphill from Largo de São Vicente and you’ll soon set foot inside the astonishingly well-preserved 12th-century citadel. People still live in its narrow, atmospheric lanes, unspoilt by the few, low-key handicrafts shops and cafes that have crept in. Within the ruggedly rampar
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Parque Arqueológico do Vale do Côa
Most visitors to Vila Nova de Foz Côa come for one reason: to see its world-famous gallery of rock art. Although the park is currently an active research zone, three sites are open to the public: Canada do Inferno , departures at around 9.30am from the park museum in Vila Nova de F
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Camacha Wicker Factory
Apart from being well-known among Portuguese sports fans as the venue for Portugals first football match (theres a monument in the main square), Camacha today is all about one traditional product – wicker. Harvested in the nearby mountains, it’s dried and graded before being twiste
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Palácio de Mateus
Famously depicted on bottles of Mateus rosé, the 18th-century Palácio de Mateus is one of Portugal’s great baroque masterpieces – probably the work of Italian-born architect Nicolau Nasoni. Guided tours of the mansion (in English, French, Spanish and German) take you through the ma
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Fortaleza de Sagres
Blank, hulking and forbidding, Sagres’ fortress offers breathtaking views over the sheer cliffs, and all along the coast to Cabo de São Vicente. According to legend, this is where Prince Henry the Navigator established his navigation school and primed the early Portuguese explorers
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Curral das Freiras
The village of Curral das Freiras (Nuns Valley), set at the bottom of a huge cauldron of rock, is one of the most popular day trips from Funchal, and is home to that typical Madeiran combination of awe-inspiring mountain scenery, an easy-going walk, local specialties and welcoming
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Mercado dos Lavradores
Bursting with exotic colour, heavy with wonderful mid-Atlantic aromas and busy from morning till late afternoon with a procession of shopping locals and curious tourists, Funchals main market is one of the citys most captivating attractions. Built in 1940 by architect Edmundo Tavar
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Jardins Botânicos da Madeira
Covering 80,000 sq metres, rising from 150m to 300m above sea level and crammed with the most exotic collection of plantlife in Europe, Madeiras main botanical garden is like few others. Unlike other institutions of its ilk – normally the preserve of botanists and bored schoolgroup
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Zona Velha
Crammed between the Mercado dos Lavradores and the Fortaleza de Santiago, Funchals Old Zone is the most happening place on Madeira these days. A dilapidated area of abandoned 19th-century fishermens cottages and merchants houses just a few years ago, this moody neighbourhood of tig
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Museu de Arte Sacra
Built in the 16th century and damaged in the 1755 earthquake, the modest Igreja da Misericórdia church was reconstructed in the 18th century. Its small religious-art museum houses items donated by a locally born Monsignor. The highlights are the old church bell and a 14th-century c
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Quinta das Cruzes
Now a museum, the Quinta das Cruzes is a quintessential old Madeiran manor house complete with gardens and a private chapel. Originally the home of João Gonçalves Zarco, the Portuguese captain who discovered Madeira, it was remodelled in the 18th century into a stylish home by the
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Santuário de Fátima
Its difficult to believe that a century ago, this was pastureland outside an insignificant village. This vast complex is now one of Catholicisms major shrines; the focus of enormous devotion and pilgrimage. At the eastern end is the 1953 basilica, a triumphantly sheer-white buildin
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Mosteiro de Santa Maria de Alcobaça
One of Iberias great monasteries utterly dominates the town of Alcobaça. Hiding behind the imposing baroque facade lies a high, austere, monkish church (free entry) with a forest of unadorned 12th-century arches. But make sure you visit the rest too: the atmospheric refectory, vast
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Mosteiro de Santa Maria da Vitória
The extraordinary abbey of Batalha was built to commemorate the 1385 Battle of Aljubarrota (fought just south of here). Most of the monument was completed by 1434 in Flamboyant Gothic, but Manueline exuberance steals the show, thanks to additions made in the 15th and 16th centuries
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Buddha Eden
Sorry, we currently have no review for this sight.
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Portas do Sol
Occupying the site of the Moorish citadel, the Portas do Sol garden proffers utterly majestic views over the Rio Tejo and the great spread of plains that surround it. The garden’s shady walks make a fine place for a picnic or afternoon linger. Its particularly spectacular at sundow
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Quinta da Regaleira
This magical villa and gardens is a neo-Manueline extravaganza, dreamed up by Italian opera-set designer, Luigi Manini, under the orders of Brazilian coffee tycoon, António Carvalho Monteiro, aka Monteiro dos Milhões (Moneybags Monteiro). The villa is surprisingly homely inside, de
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Igreja de São Lourenço de Matos
Its well worth stopping here, just off the N125 south of Loulé, to witness a marvellous feat of tilework. A baroque masterpiece, the church is wall-to-wall blue-and-white azulejos (painted tiles) inside, with beautiful panels depicting the life of Roman-era São Lourenço and his gri
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Parque Natural da Ria Formosa
This sizeable system of lagoons and islands stretches for 60km along the Algarve coastline from west of Faro to Cacela Velha. It encloses a vast area of sapal (marsh), salinas (salt pans), creeks and dune islands. The marshes are an important area for migrating and nesting birds. Y
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