Destination Portugal - Facts and Frustrations
Written: Apr 20 '00 (Updated May 15 '00)
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Pros: Port wine, the scenic Douro Valley, architectural gems, surprises, and Lisbon's cosmopolitan feel
Cons: Terrible train system, natural beauty has been stripped in places by over-tourism, food was unspectacular
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| kifwebe's Full Review: Portugal |
Portugal is one of those tourist destinations that you don't hear much about. I've always wondered why that was so, and usually chalked it up to its being isolated out on the tip of the Iberian peninsula. When I embarked on my trip to Europe, my expectations of this relatively unexplored land were at nearly ground level. Surprises were undoubtedly ahead, and while my expectations were not initially very high, by the time I had reached Salamanca, Spain and was poised to cross the Portuguese border, they had reached a dangerously high level.
I say dangerously high because as is the case with most things in life, lofty expectations are almost never matched by their corresponding experiences, and are exceeded at about a one in a million clip. For the most part, this rule applied to my trip to Portugal, as my delusions of grandeur had peaked by the time I arrived. Unfortunately, while Portugal did have its bright spots, I was left feeling a bit like a child on Halloween who opens the trick or treat bag and doesn't find a single Snickers bar or Reese's peanut butter cup.
At any rate, I want to share my experiences so that if you are planning a trip to Portugal, or are wondering if it's worth a stop during a European tour, you can make some informed decisions. Overall it was a mixed bag with definite highlights and low points, all of which are outlined below.
GENERAL INFORMATION
I arrived in Portugal by train from Spain, where rain falls mainly on the plain (sorry, I couldn't resist). The train system in Portugal is about as bad as it gets with regard to European travel. In fact, it was responsible in large part to my somewhat negative overall view of this country. If you travel in Portugal by train, be prepared to spend more time at your destination than you have planned. Train schedules are fairly reliable, but trains run infrequently, and schedules have apparently been laid out in a purely random fashion. Often trains will arrive just after the connecting train leaves for your next stop, and the funny part is that the schedule is intentionally laid out that way. Are they purposely trying to keep people from getting from A to B? I never was quite sure. I spent 3 days in 3 different cities trying to connect to trains that should have existed but didn't. And if you plan on leaving Portugal at the southern end to Spain via train, forget it! To my surprise, the train simply stops at the border, where you have to catch a bus to a town in Spain almost 50 kilometers away. I spent another wasted night in a miserable border town for this very reason.
Don't expect Portuguese cuisine to tantalize the senses a great deal. You will find some good food, and some excellent port wine, but for the most part food was average at best. One contradiction to this rule is that the portions of food are very large, especially in the north. But for me quality usually beats quantity, and in general I was disappointed. You will find meat and fish to be the staple of the Portuguese diet, which means that being a vegetarian can be a challenge there. Under no circumstances should you leave without sampling a variety of port wines, however. Port wine, which is an aged blend of wine and brandy originated in northern Portugal, where wine of this type is undoubtedly the best in the world.
I travelled through Portugal between November and December of last year, and I can tell you that during this time you will undoubtedly see rain, in almost all parts of the country. Temperatures are cold enough for a heavy jacket or coat up north at that time of year, while in the south there are times when a light jacket or even no jacket at all will suffice.
And last but certainly not least are the prices. Portugal is a very cheap travel destination as compared to other European locales. You can easily get by on $30 a day, and could probably do even better than this if you really put your mind to it. Hotels are plentiful and of fairly high quality, and most rooms have televisions, even at the cheapest hotels available. Who cares, the programs are in Portuguese, right? Well yes, but there are also a number of channels broadcast in English, Spanish, and German, which can sometimes pass the time in smaller towns where night life is barely existent.
Now that you have a general sense for Portugal, I can throw out a few of my experiences in the various regions of the country. It would be difficult to describe it in any other way, because it does vary greatly from place to place in terrain and feel.
PORTO AND THE DOURO VALLEY
Porto is Portugal's second largest city behind Lisbon. It is the capital of the north, and has quite an industrial feel. It rained the entire time my girlfriend and I were there, so we have a drab overall perception of the place, but one nice thing about it was that it was unaffected by tourism. Food there was truly Portuguese, and prices were very low. The outdoor market was interesting, and a great place to find bargains on fruits and vegetables, or perhaps a live chicken, which you could have killed on the spot (not my favorite image). Night life was limited almost entirely to the waterfront areas, and during the winter was not as lively as we had become accustomed to in Spain. On the far bank of the Douro River, on which the town is situated, you can find dozens of port wine companies which give tours of their facilities (some free) which include wine tasting at the end. Get an early start if you want to see a few, because they tend to close in the early evening. If I had to recommend one, it would be the Ferreira wine company, whose tour was free, guided in English, and informative, not to mention the fact that the wine was outstanding. See if you can get them to allow you to sample the vintage ports - if the tour group is small like ours was, they may just break it out. Another highlight of Porto is the Douro Valley train line. This valley is where the wine grapes are harvested, and it's reputed as one of the most scenic train rides in Europe. While I enjoyed it, I thought it was far outclassed by Tuscany and central France, but it obviously earned its reputation for a reason. Don't go all the way to the end of the line like we did! If you do, this train ride becomes an all day affair, and we regretted being cooped up all day. Get out at one or more of the towns along the way and walk around a bit. The scenery is beautiful along the entire valley, so don't make the same mistake we did!
LEIRIA, BATALHA, AND ALCOBACA - CENTRAL PORTUGAL
Central Portugal, known as the Estremadura region, is filled with small towns that can be explored within a few days. In fact, there are a cluster of towns, 3 of which I visited (and mentioned above) that have quite a bit of historical and architectural importance. Alcobaca is the home to Portugal's largest church, which we saw on a day that very few other tourists could be found. The town was very small, with few other significant landmarks, but we happened to be there on a sunny day, so walking around was pleasant in itself. Batalha was another small town that we spent a few hours in, mostly because of the monestary there, which was built in the late 1300's and is considered to be the most beautiful single piece of architecture in Portugal. It was absolutely immense, and was actually quite breathtaking, although there was not much else to see in town. Give yourself a couple of hours for exploration, and then move on. We stayed two nights in a town nearby called Leiria, which was actually quite unexciting. The town did have a hilltop castle which we explored by ourselves, and a number of buses left for the surrounding towns on a regular basis. The buses were very cheap, but the problem here was that the last bus from those towns returned in the early evening, leaving us quite a bit of time in a place with not a lot to do. We used the time mainly to write in our journals, although one night we caught a local soccer game in a small bar over a couple of glasses of terrible beer. Of the 30 or so people watching the game, my girlfriend happened to be the only woman, which I found amusing and they seemed to find annoying - they must have gone to the bar to get away from women. They were a little less than friendly toward us, either because they knew we were tourists or because we had one too many X chromosomes in our group.
LISBON
I could actually write a separate review about Lisbon, and perhaps at some point I will. For the purposes of this one, I will say that the rule of Portuguese cuisine that I stated earlier did not apply in Lisbon at all. There were a number of fabulous restaurants there, including quite a few presenting international cuisine such as Indian, African, and Chinese. Our favorite was one by the name of Os Tibetanos, which as you may have guessed was Tibetan, and had an entirely vegetarian menu. It was out of this world, and in fact may have been the best restaurant we experienced during our entire 3 month trip. It was well worth the nearly 1 hour wait for the meal. Lisbon also seemed to have quite a diverse population as opposed to the remainder of Portugal, which gave it both flair and a cosmopolitan appeal. The metro in Lisbon was incredibly clean and reliable, and ran very late. Lisbon was almost on par with Spain with regard to night life as well. The main difference was that bars were a bit more spread out lending to a more sparsely scattered crowd of late night revellers. We also stumbled upon a fascinating street performance late one night that took place from a 3rd floor balcony. The artists had projected a film onto the wall below the balcony, and took turns hanging from it, dancing around on it, and throwing debris such as confetti, balloons, and paper airplanes from it. I didn't get a lot of meaning out of their performance, but I appreciated it all the same. Perhaps my favorite aspect of Lisbon was the 1998 World Expo site. The architecture in this huge complex of buildings was mesmerizing, and provided a stark contrast to the Gothic and Baroque architecture we had become accustomed to. There was also a fabulous oceanarium on the site, which had an immense saltwater tank, divided into areas corresponding to each of the main oceans. We spent hours there, and it was well worth the high price of admission (about $9.00 US). (Incidentally, I discovered that my favorite animal in the world was the leafy sea dragon while there.) There was also an onsite mall there with many contemporary stores, and a cineplex which played movies in their original versions (designated V.O.). And I haven't even mentioned Lisbon's historical sites, which were amazing in number and in grandeur.
EVORA
Here's another town that will eventually get its own review. In my opinion, this was the most aesthetically beautiful town in all of Portugal. The sunlight was bright, the architecture was extremely welcoming, and the atmosphere was wonderful. Evora is a college town that boasts a number of great bars and some pretty good food as well (with one pretty good Italian joint that the tourist office can direct you to). Prices were low, and night life was high. We spent 2 extra days there we loved it so much. And by the way, Evora is the home of the Chapel of Bones, a church annex lined with the skulls and bones of thousands of monks who were trying to prove the point that we are all mortal and will all eventually die. It was a bit morbid, but to be honest it was just a bunch of bones. For some reason this attracts a lot of tourists, but it is easily outshined by the city itself.
THE ALGARVE COAST
This was supposed to be the highlight of my trip to Portugal. Instead I found it to be vastly overrated. There were a number of main problems in this area. First of all, the train was fairly infrequent, rendering our Eurrail pass useless. We instead opted for the bus, which unfortunately stopped running fairly early, which we began to notice as a pattern in Portugal. The towns along the coast were set up mainly for tourists, but being the off season, many of the shops and restaurants were simply closed. The coast itself was very beautiful, but unfortunately a bit too beautiful for its own good. It has been so built up over the years that the hotels and condos have very nearly reached the coast itself, and in some places they have. It's funny how natural beauty attracts tourism, and then tourism proceeds to eliminate the natural beauty. We stayed in a town called Faro for our visit to the coast, which was nothing spectacular. In fact I might go so far as to call it unpleasant. Olhao was better, but farther west, which would have made it hard to see the entire coast. And Olhao was filled with tourist establishments. It was the most blatant example of the negative effects of tourism on nature. There was even one monstrosity which had been started very near the coastline, but had been abandoned for one reason or another, leaving behind a cast iron shell of a large hotel and one heck of a huge eyesore. Trains in the area are terribly scheduled, and you can't get out of the country without transferring from the train to a bus and back to the train.
CONCLUSION
That should give you a good overview of my trip to Portugal, and hopefully you can pull valuable information from my experiences. If I had to recommend any one part of Portugal, I would say to visit Lisbon and take an excursion to Evora. I would steer clear of the Algarve Coast entirely, either during peak tourist season when the natural beauty of the place is even further removed, or off-season, when you're likely to find a lot of things closed. The government of Portugal definitely should have stepped in before the area became so overbuilt, stripping it of its undeniable natural beauty. Overall, I give Portugal 3 stars due to the mix of great things, unspectacular things, and run of the mill things.
Recommended:
Yes
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kifwebe
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Location: :noitacoL
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