The Alentejo, the land beyond the Tagus, covers about a third of mainland Portugal: rolling plains of wheat, cork oaks, olive groves and vineyards, with whitewashed hill towns, castles along the Spanish border and a long, wild Atlantic coast. It is hot and dry in summer, quiet most of the year and best explored slowly by car.
The Portugal page covers the Fishermen's Trail on the Alentejo coast. This hub adds four inland stops, from the dark skies over the Alqueva lake to the frontier fortresses of Elvas and Marvão and the old Islamic river port of Mértola, and links to the city guide for Évora.
Watch the sunset from Monsaraz, then the stars over Alqueva
Monsaraz and Cumeada, Reguengos de Monsaraz
An afternoon and a nightBook ahead
Walk the walls of a tiny hilltop village in the late afternoon, then stay for the night sky over the Alqueva.
What it is
Monsaraz is a walled village on the highest hill in the area, above the Guadiana valley near the Spanish border. Geraldo the Fearless took its castle in 1167, and in 1232 King Sancho II won it back for good with the Knights Templar, who held the frontier from here. The area around the lake is promoted as the world's first Starlight Tourism Destination.
How to do it
Walk the cobbled lanes and the castle walls when the view opens east over the Alqueva, the great reservoir on the Guadiana, and west over the plain. Dark Sky Alqueva runs an observatory at Cumeada, near Reguengos de Monsaraz, with guided stargazing sessions through its telescopes, solar observation by day and night canoe trips on the lake from sunset into the Milky Way.
Good to know
Book the sessions ahead, check the moon phase, and bring a warm layer even in summer.
Climb the keep of a walled crag on the Spanish border, where the novelist José Saramago wrote that one can see the entire land.
What it is
Marvão sits on a quartzite crag of the Serra de São Mamede, its houses and castle ringed by walls. The town takes its name from Ibn Marwan, a Muwallad rebel who built a stronghold here and carved out his own state during the Emirate of Córdoba, probably over an earlier Roman watchtower; Portuguese kings, notably Sancho II and Dinis, later strengthened the castle and walls.
How to do it
Walk the whole circuit of the walls too: the views stretch over the Tagus basin and, on clear days, to the Serra da Estrela. Inside the castle, look for the large vaulted cistern.
Good to know
Two festivals are worth timing a trip for: Al-Mossassa, celebrating the town's Moorish past with Badajoz, in early October, and a big chestnut festival in early November.
Time needed
Half a day
Best time
Late afternoon, or early November for the chestnut fair
Walk the ramparts of the largest bulwarked dry-ditch system in the world, Portugal's main frontier stronghold south of the Tagus.
What it is
Elvas is about 8 km from the Spanish fortress town of Badajoz, and its ring of bastions is on the UNESCO World Heritage List as the Garrison Border Town of Elvas and its Fortifications, inscribed in 2012. It was fortified from the 17th to the 19th centuries, largely to designs by the Dutch Jesuit João Piscásio Cosmander, and it held out in the Battle of the Lines of Elvas in 1659.
How to do it
Walk the ramparts round the old town, then visit the two outlying forts: Santa Luzia, and Nossa Senhora da Graça on the hill about a kilometre to the north, begun in 1763 under the Count of Lippe, who reorganised the Portuguese army, and inaugurated in 1792.
Good to know
Leave time for the Amoreira Aqueduct, whose tall arches were built to keep water flowing to the town through long sieges.
Step into the only medieval mosque in Portugal to have survived, as a church, with the high altar where the mihrab used to be.
What it is
Mértola climbs a hill above the Guadiana at the river's highest navigable point, which made it a busy port for the Romans, who called it Myrtilis, and then for more than four centuries of Islamic rule, when it was briefly the capital of its own taifa kingdom. Its main church, Nossa Senhora da Anunciação, began as a Christian sanctuary in the 6th or 7th century and was rebuilt as a mosque in the 12th.
How to do it
Inside it still keeps the plan of a mosque: a single hall of five aisles, where the mihrab was the prayer niche, and a bell tower that was once the minaret. Climb on to the castle above it for views of the river, and look for the early Christian tombstones and the Roman house excavated under the town hall.
Good to know
Every two years Mértola holds an Islamic Festival.
Walk a stage of the Fishermen's Trail on the Alentejo coast
Alentejo Coast
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.
What it is
The Fishermen's Trail is the coastal half of the Rota Vicentina: 226.5 km in 13 day stages from São Torpes to Lagos, none longer than 22.5 km, on single-track paths along the cliff tops. Sand makes up 60 to 70 percent of it, so stages take far longer than their distance suggests.
How to do it
The classic taste is Porto Covo to Vila Nova de Milfontes, past the Ilha do Pessegueiro, then a night in Milfontes. Each stage can be walked in either direction, walking is the only use allowed, and wild camping is not.
Good to know
The association recommends September to June, and warns that the cliffs are eroding: keep back from the edge and skip it if you suffer from vertigo.
Évora, the main city, is about an hour and a half from Lisbon by train, coach or car on the A6. The coast is reached on the A2 towards the Algarve. Faro and Lisbon are the nearest airports.
Getting around
A car is close to essential: the hill towns are far apart and buses between them are infrequent. Roads are good and empty, but distances are long, so plan one area a day.
How long to stay
In must30's view, four or five days work well: two for Évora and its megaliths, one for Monsaraz and the Alqueva, one for Elvas and Marvão in the north, and one for Mértola on the way to the Algarve. Add days on the coast for walking.
When to go
Spring, when the plains are green and full of flowers, and autumn are the best times. July and August are very hot inland. Clear, dry nights make summer the easiest season for stargazing at the Alqueva.
Questions travellers ask
What is the Alentejo known for?
Wide plains of cork oaks and wheat, whitewashed hill towns, wine and pork, megaliths around Évora, castles on the Spanish border and the dark night skies around the Alqueva lake.
Can you visit the Alentejo without a car?
Évora is easy by train or coach from Lisbon, and some towns have coach links, but most castles, villages and countryside sights need a car. Without one, base yourself in Évora and use tours.
Where is the best stargazing in Portugal?
The Alqueva area around Monsaraz is promoted as the world's first Starlight Tourism Destination, with an observatory at Cumeada, near Reguengos de Monsaraz, that runs guided night sessions.
