The quiet corner of a busy country
The southwest corner of Portugal has been a nature park since 1995, so when the developers worked their way along the Algarve they stopped at the park boundary and stayed there. The Costa Vicentina, the coast inside the park, is about 100 km of cliffs and beaches with a fishing village every 20 km or so. Behind it is the Alentejo: cork oaks, wheat fields, whitewashed towns on hilltops, and red wine that's very good and very cheap. The resort Algarve is an hour to the east, and you wouldn't know it.
The walking is the main reason to go. The Fishermen's Trail runs along the clifftops from village to village, mostly on sand, and every village has somewhere grilling whatever came in that morning. Inland there's Évora, with a Roman temple and a chapel lined with bones, and wine estates where lunch takes all afternoon. A lot of the country hotels are old convents and castles with a pool in the courtyard.
We'd go in spring or autumn, when it's cool enough to walk all day and the Atlantic is warm enough to swim in, if only just. The plan is half the week on the coast near Vila Nova de Milfontes and half at a wine estate inland. Which half comes first depends on the weather.
A stretch of the coast path
Three or four hours of the Fishermen's Trail along the clifftops, a lot of it on sand, which is harder work than it sounds.
Lunch at the end of the walk
Whatever the boats landed that morning, grilled, with more potatoes than anyone needs.
Inland
A drive up into the cork country for a tasting, or a flat-water paddle on the Mira river.
At the estate
Dinner at the estate, a couple of bottles of Alentejo red, and an early night.
It'll change with the season and with who comes.
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