Portugal’s Awesome Atlantic Coast.

I have just returned from a walking trip on Portugal’s Atlantic Coast. The trip was a research trip of an area of the world I had never visited before and it didn’t disappoint.

After flying in to Lisbon myself and Ross, who was joining me for the trip, caught a bus service which would take us South to our overnight accommodation on the Alentago coast.

The route would see us walking the paths that link small fishing villages together along the Atlantic Coast.

After our night in a small, very quite village we left at a respectable 9am (despite having discovered the high standard of the ‘house red’) in order to avoid the showers forecasted for later that afternoon.

The route was stunning from the start and took us across empty golden beaches, past former forts and over cliff tops, all the time with the Atlantic Ocean showing its awesome power!

Who would have known that walking around 20km a day on sandy coastal tracks could be quite tiring, well myself Ross know now, though the scenery often deserved the respect of pausing to gaze or take a photo.

We had four sections in this trip of around 20km each, with each finishing in a different village where we had pre arranged accommodation.

Along the paths we met some people also walking though non from the UK, walking in this area during the summer I would expect to be difficult due to the strong sun and high temperatures. We had temperatures in the mid to high teens each day with mainly partially cloudy skies, ideal for walking.

As you may expect the menus in restaurants along the coast were heavily fish based which was perfect for us. The food on this trip and when we reached Lisbon afterwards was excellent, I could easily live in Portugal with the diet enjoyed thee, though couldn’t cope with the summer heat.

It was quite amusing to see the locals wearing their ‘winter layers’ whilst we were in shorts and t shirts thinking it was fairly hot.

Summary – this was a trip I wanted to do to see an area I probably wouldn’t have considered previously as it’s not a mountain environment. There’s so much I want to see and this didn’t disappoint. With the Alentejo and Vicentina coast being a largely protected nature reserve there are no high rise hotels or noisy water parks to be seen, just miles and miles of views.

Accommodation cost us around €15 to €20 each per night! A good meal for two (with wine) was under €40 bus and train fares were also inexpensive.

I will definitely be offering a similar trip as a client trip in the future.

Excelente Portugal!