Portugal gives you so much Luxe for so little money.  Budget flights are available starting at the end of October. Expect cheap (but still top drawer) semi-tropical winter sun, and very affordable vacationing overall. Before I get into raving about the gorgeousness of Portugal, and my favorite spots there, I'll start at the top with my pre-trip economizing maneuvers. I like to get my best ticket price from trawling the internet, and then call the carriers myself and ask what their best deals are for the flight dates I have in mind - this is  my standard approach to ticket bargains, and its been good to me. Rather than pay for two weeks of airport lot parking, I prefer to use hotel and parking packages which give you free vacation parking with one night's hotel stay.  For telephone calls abroad, ask your cell provider if they have a travel plan, or just use video phone call apps (which you can find a list of by googling just that) for free phone calls, because hotels just plain charge too much for phone calls.

Originally I thought I would use public transport for the entire trip (to keep expenses low) but soon realized this would not be practical for visiting many small towns. The car rental was $260 for 9 days, so very inexpensive. Gasoline was about $80 for a fill up. I put 3/4 of a tank in twice and it was 40 Euro each time. The car was an Ibiza compact.Please note that it is imperative that you completely fill the tank when returning the car. If you return it to the Lisbon airport there is a BP station within the airport (near the entrance/exit). There is a 30 Euro surcharge plus the cost of the gas to fill the tank if you return it less than full.

The Algarve, southern Portugal's balmy riviera, sees nothing but blue sky 300 days of the year. Admire the ocean views from the roof terrace at Dianamar, in the whitewashed old center of Albufeira, just a block from the beach. Rooms are simple, but all have private terraces, and the price includes a generous breakfast buffet and afternoon cake (doubles from $65). The most dramatic coastline is along the drive to the medieval fortress town of Lagos. (Cars can be rented for around $30 a day in Albufeira; book online with companies like Europcar.) Between Praia de Dona Ana and Porto do Mós, the cliffs have been broken by the wind and sea into jagged rock formations pierced by blowholes and grottoes. Secret half-moon bays of golden sand lie hidden from view from all but the ocean. An hour beyond Lagos is Europe's southwesternmost point: Cabo São Vicente, a cape whose plunging cliffs are dotted with crumbling medieval churches and castles. More than 500 years ago, Portuguese sailing ships left to explore the world from these shores. There's great hiking in the fragrant pine woods and peach orchards less than 20 miles inland, around the spa town of Monchique—a cluster of tiny houses and 18th-century mansions tumbling down a steep, wooded valley. The trail up to the Picota peak has magnificent views out over the coast all the way to the cape.

Families from Lisbon take weekends on the beaches of Cascais, less than 20 miles from the capital. There they jostle for space on three broad, short beaches and wander, ice cream in hand, along the ocean esplanade or the clusters of narrow streets crowded around the town's imposing fort. For wilder, lonelier sand, head to Guincho, four miles west. This sweeping, gently curved shoreline is pounded by some of the best surf in the eastern Atlantic. An almost constant wind makes for superb windsurfing; a world championship is hosted here most Augusts. But watch out for those rips and prepare for cold water. There is also my secret spot ; wonderful Comporta, a village on the Tróia peninsula, a 13-mile long sandy spit in the north of Portugal's Alentejo region. It sits at the heel of the peninsula, at the southern end of the wide Sado estuary, sandwiched between dense forest and the Atlantic. The village is lovely and has affordable places to stay.

I turn right off the road that runs south from the ferry dock and the car lurches from pothole to crater for half a mile until, out of the blue, there appears an organised car park, with marked bays and shady canopies. I stroll along the wooden boardwalk and before me is a sizzling hot beach resplendent with palm umbrellas, sun loungers and two beach cafes, where people lie on hot-pink bean bags, nodding to chilled-out tunes. The Atlantic sparkles, and foamy waves break hard on the shore.


Comporta is like Ibiza, but prettier, cheaper, more serene. A hip little village on Portugal's Troia peninsula, it reminds me of the White Isle, but with low prices and no crowds. An hour south of Lisbon, and 12 miles west of the main A2 highway that directs the sun-seeking crowds to the Algarve, is a stretch of very white sand. First there's hardly a soul about. Comporta is a village on the Tróia peninsula, a 13-mile long sandy spit in the north of Portugal's Alentejo region. It sits at the heel of the peninsula, at the southern end of the wide Sado estuary, sandwiched between dense forest and the Atlantic. The village is lovely and has affordable places to stay.

I turn right off the road that runs south from the ferry dock and the car lurches from pothole to crater for half a mile until, out of the blue, there appears an organised car park, with marked bays and shady canopies.I stroll along the wooden boardwalk and feel as if I've stumbled on to the White Isle. Before me is a sizzling hot beach resplendent with palm umbrellas, sun loungers and two beach cafes, where people lie on hot-pink bean bags, nodding to chilled-out tunes. The Atlantic sparkles, and foamy waves break hard on the shore.At a beach lounge and restaurant specialties include pastéis de bacalhau (salt-cod fishcakes) and amêijoas a bulhão pato (clams in a garlicky broth), and I get into the laid-back groove with a yummy caipirosca.  A stylish crowd hangs out at restored fishermen's cottages on the waterways behind the village, yet I find a reasonable apartment for €61 a night (yes, I said apartment). Early the next day I take to the beach on horseback, on a former polo pony who prances across the dunes and canters through the waves. Totally alone, I feel like I'm staging a Foreign Legion desert escape.

Comporta has been found only by a knowing few, but it is about to become less of a secret, sadly. The 12,500-hectare estate is to be developed, with five hotels, though it is claimed all will be low-density and architecturally sensitive.For now it is quiet. On a Sunday in mid-June the ferry that crosses the Sado estuary from Setubal once an hour is only a third full. The passengers included locals popping to the beach for a picnic, a few Lisbonites and the odd foreign tourist. All was peaceful, until the two dozen passengers rushed en masse to the side of the boat to watch two bottlenose dolphins. Not far away, Lisbon spreads in terra-cotta and cobblestone over seven hills, staring out over the Tagus River to the shimmering Atlantic. A rugged Moorish castle tops the skyline, and the streets are lined with baroque churches and Gaudíesque art nouveau buildings. Allow at least three days for a first visit, and make time for the Mosteiro dos Jerónimos. Extravagantly decorated doorways lead through long cloisters to a church supported by pillars adorned with stone ropes and coils of faux seaweed. These rise to a fan-vaulted ceiling whose thousands of tons of stone somehow look light and airy

Finish your day with a late afternoon's wander around the narrow, cobbled streets of the Bairro Alto neighborhood on a cliff overlooking the 18th-century city center. There's a pretty medieval square or a magnificent church at every turn. The most beautiful is the Igreja de São Roque, whose simple exterior hides what was said at the time to be the most expensive chapel ever built—a feast of rich gold work and beguilingly complex mosaics of lapus lazuli, ivory, agate, and precious metals. Built in Rome in 1742, it was blessed by the Pope before being transported in its entirety to Lisbon.

10-05-17