Introduction
Northern Portugal is often bypassed by the crowds in favour of popular resorts in the Algarve, however this beautiful, if overlooked, region has plenty to merit an inclusion in any Portugal holiday. The coastal town of Porto, with its world-renowned Old Town, is particularly stunning.
Porto
Running out of Porto, all the way from the coast to the Spanish border, is the Douro River Valley. Fringed on either side by stunning mountainous scenery, this river passes through some of the most important port grape vineyards in the world. Interrupting these agricultural terraces, castles rise behind the region's small hill villages, where the modern world has intruded very little.
Douro Valley vineyards
Large areas of the inland woods fall within Peneda Geres National Park. One of the last places on the continent where wolves still roam among the hills, this park is also littered with evidence of ancient human habitation, with megaliths and old dolmen graves haunting the atmospheric forest.
Peneda-Geres National Park
