Portugal is not a big country but there is a lot to see and do. Most people only focuse their attention in its two main cities, Porto and Lisbon, or the touristy Algarve beaches. But the country has much more to offer.
Yellow everywhere? This means we’ve reached Portugal 🙂 (picture taken in Elvas)
We have already written in this blog about some of the main hotspots of our Portuguese road trip, but we wanted to write down a brief guide about the itinerary that we followed in case it may inspire somebody. We think that in around 10 days most of the hotspots of central Portugal can be visited. Do you want to know how? Keep reading!
For some of our friends and acquaintances it’s still summer. Everyday in the social networks we find lots of pictures of nice beaches and exotic places. But for us routine is back. We are already working and I (Laura) am getting used to a new job. However, we are trying to extend the summer period with weekends of beach, drinks and swimming pool. And this has reminded us of one of the most beautiful beaches where we’ve been together: the Costa Nova beach, near Aveiro (Portugal). Its colourful houses stole my heart.
Dídac in Costa Nova beach
Aveiro in fact is a synonym of colour. The vibrant houses, the drawings of the moliceiros… The two big cities of Portugal, Porto and Lisbon, are easily reached by plane from Barcelona. But if you want to get lost among the beautifull villages of this country, having a car is a must. So two years ago we decided to cross the entire Iberian Peninsula with our own car to start a roadtrip that we will always remember.
Portugal is known for its perfect beaches for surfing, its fantastic food, its cultural heritage… and, unfortunately, also for its wildfires during summer season. We experienced hundreds of wildfires when we visited Portugal two years ago. We remember ourselves crossing black smoke, having fire on the road margins, smelling smoke all day and wondering how far was the fire. One of the worst days was the one we spent in Porto. It was almost impossible to breath and it was raining ash as if a volcano erupted close to us.
The orange light of the sun crosses the smoke and reflects on the Douro river
