Alentejo
Why go?
It’s the biggest region in Portugal, one of the least known and one of the loveliest. It’s divided into two areas, Alto Alentejo (upper) and Baixo Alentejo (lower). Baixo Alentejo takes in the west coast up to Setúbal. Alto Alentejo includes Évora and the great marble towns of Estremoz, Borba and Vila Viçoca, as well as the Serra de Ossa and its gorgeous eucalyptus forest. You’ll find startling beautiful savannahs coloured by dusty red soil and blue skies, with cork trees, gum trees and olive trees scattered liberally across the land, ancient hilltop villages peering down at you, grand provincial towns which have faded elegantly and an extraordinarily tasty rural gastronomy (one of the biggest surprises in Portugal was its exceedingly good country cooking). The Romans were here – Julius Caesar visited – as were the Carthaginians, the Visigoths, the Vandals and the Moors. It remains blissfully undiscovered to all but the Portuguese and is miraculously untouched. If you want to know what Tuscany or Provence looked like before the tourists invaded, come here to see.
Any Downsides?
There is little nightlife beyond the ordinary life of the small towns and villages, the beaches are blissfully wild and not prettily decked with sun loungers or parasols (apart from at Milfontes) and the interior is quiet and slow and unconcerned by the passing of time. But as much as these may put some people off, for others nothing in the world could be better and if you yearn for a slice of beautiful old rural Europe where little has changed in 150 years, then come and you can lose yourself in the majesty of this land.