Things to do in Portugal: 29 experiences worth the trip

45 minutes to 1 hourFree

Lisbon's highest public viewpoint is also one of its calmest: castle, rooftops and river laid out below you at sunset.

1 to 1.5 hoursBook ahead

Walk a two-storey Manueline cloister, then step into the church where Vasco da Gama and the poet Camões are buried.

30 minutes at a tableNo booking needed

Custard tarts made by hand since 1837 to a recipe from the monastery next door, and eaten warm at the table.

50 minutes on the waterGo alone or with a tour

About 50 minutes on a rabelo-style boat shows you Porto from the river, under six bridges and past the Ribeira.

20 to 30 minutes insideBook ahead

Livraria Lello's forked wooden staircase rises to a carved gallery under a stained-glass window, and it is what everyone comes to see.

1 to 2.5 hours by boat or guided kayakBook ahead

A round hole in the cave roof lights a small sandy beach inside, seen today from a licensed boat or a guided kayak.

3 hours for the 8.6 km out and backBook ahead

A levada through UNESCO-listed laurel forest ends at a pool where dozens of small springs run down a mossy wall.

3 hours with the parkTimed entry

Climb through Pena's park to the palace terraces at your set time, then walk on to the High Cross for the view back.

1 hour, plus any queueNo booking needed

Porto's knife-and-fork sandwich, meat under melted cheese and a near-boiling tomato-and-beer sauce, at one of its most cited cafés.

An evening, 2 to 3 hoursBook ahead

When the lights go down in an Alfama fado house, the room falls silent for a voice and a twelve-string Portuguese guitar.

2 hours with the bridge loopFree

Cross the Luís I bridge on the lower deck and come back on the upper one as the sun sets behind Porto.

A full dayBook ahead

Furnas gives you cozido cooked for hours in the hot ground at lunch, an iron-rich thermal pool after, and warm pools at night.

Half a day on a swell dayNo booking needed

Some of the largest waves ever surfed break at Praia do Norte in winter, and you can watch them from the headland fort.

1.5 hours per lodgeBook ahead

Cross the Luís I bridge to the lodges where port is aged, walk the cellars and finish with a tasting.

3 hours for the full university ticketTimed entry

Three gilded baroque rooms of carved shelves and tens of thousands of old volumes, with a colony of bats that eats the insects at night.

Half a dayFree

Walk a small walled town from the top of its walls, then come down for a ginja in a chocolate cup.

1 hourFree

Watch the sun go down at the westernmost point of mainland Europe, where Camões wrote that the land ends and the sea begins.

About 1 hour end to endNo booking needed

Small wooden trams climb and drop through Graça, Alfama, the Baixa and Chiado on one line: ride it end to end once.

Half a day with the museumBook ahead

Thousands of horses, aurochs and ibex pecked into open-air rock, and at night a low lamp makes them rise out of it.

2 to 2.5 hoursBook ahead

Paddle between sandstone stacks, arches and sea caves, into gaps the tour boats cannot reach.

15 minutesFree

A working railway hall, free to walk into, lined with tiled scenes of battles, kings, harvests and wine coming down the Douro.

One stage a day; 13 stages in allNo booking needed

Follow the cliff-top paths fishermen used to reach their spots, one day stage at a time along the Alentejo coast.

1.5 hoursBook ahead

A Lisbon seafood beer hall: buttered toast, garlic prawns and clams, then a steak sandwich for dessert, the Lisbon way.

The whole night of 23 JuneFree

Porto's biggest party runs all night: grilled sardines, basil pots, plastic hammers tapped on strangers' heads and fireworks over the Douro.

1 to 1.5 hoursBook ahead

Walk a ridge of battlements up to the Royal Tower, which looks straight across to Pena and down over Sintra to the coast.

45 minutes to 1 hourBook ahead

Climb the narrow stairs of the tower built in the 16th century to guard Lisbon's river entrance, right on the Tagus bank.

1.5 to 2 hoursTimed entry

Spiral down a 27-metre inverted tower into tunnels that lead out to grottoes and a lake.

A full day from PortoNo booking needed

Ride the train up the Douro to Pinhão, where port grapes grow on terraces cut into the valley sides.

Half a day with the walkFree

Look down from the rim into a volcanic crater holding two joined lakes, Lagoa Verde and Lagoa Azul, and a village on the shore.