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Sintra Day Trip: Visiting Portugal’s Fairytale City
With its sea of rolling green hills, its whimsical palaces, and its its pastel houses, UNESCO-recognized Sintra is one of Portugal’s most enchanting gems. The photogenic city entices visitors with its verdant setting and dreamy charm. Once referred to as a “glorious Eden” by Lord Byron, Sintra has become a popular day trip destination from Lisbon. Home to some of the most beautiful castles and palaces in Europe, Sintra is chock-a-block full of places to visit. These colorful estates and crumbling fortifications lie hidden within the city’s forested hills—resembling the…
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Portugal’s Algarve Coast: Hiking, Caves and Azure Seas
The Algarve Coast in Portugal is a wonderland for hikers, swimmers, photographers and sunbathers. Known for its honey-colored cliffs and turquoise seas, the Algarve is visually stunning. The area’s natural beauty, coupled with its affordability relative to the rest of Western Europe, means that the coastline has become an increasingly popular tourist destination in recent years. But don’t the Algarve’s 4 million+ annual visitors scare you away. Despite the crowds, you can still find quiet places to enjoy delectable views on your own patch of golden sand. ALGARVE COAST…
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Two Days in Lisbon: The San Francisco of Europe
As soon as I set foot on the picturesque streets of Lisbon Portugal, I was hit with an overwhelming sense of déjà vu. Despite the fact that it was my first time in Portugal, the city’s hilly lanes, bayside views and rickety streetcars, all seemed so familiar. It didn’t take long for me to realize that this sensation of retracing my steps, was due to the uncanny parallels between Portugal’s capital and California’s Golden City—San Francisco. With its charming neighborhoods, its orange suspension bridge, its oceanfront views and its sailboats…
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Porto and the Douro River Valley
At first glance, the city of Porto in northern Portugal is poorer, dirtier and grittier than Europe’s other popular metropolitan areas. Outside its touristy downtown, once-bustling storefronts lie boarded up and vacant due to years of stagnant economic growth. Its tightly stacked houses lay half crumbling, swallowed by overgrown vines and invasive weeds. But Porto’s charm lies in its faded colors, its peeling paint and its chipped azujuelo tiles. The hardworking city may be less cosmopolitan than Lisbon, but it is no less charming. Its walkable center is crammed with uneven cobbled…
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Day Trip to Gozo: Victoria, Dwerja and Xlendi Bay
The Maltese archipelago consists of three islands—Malta (home to the UNESCO-recognized city of Valletta), Comino (location of the popular Blue Lagoon) and Gozo—a starkly beautiful island that is surrounded by a ribbon of shimmering sea. With its quiet, dusty streets and its undeveloped villages, the island of Gozo feels stuck in time. It is an unspoiled oasis of rocky landscapes, remote beaches, historical relics and goldstone villages. Gozo is like a smaller and quieter version of Malta. While the island contains some bustling towns of its own, it escapes the heavy…
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Day Trip to the Blue Lagoon in Comino
Wedged between Malta and Gozo in the Mediterranean Sea, Comino is the smallest island in the Maltese Archipelago. This sparsely-populated and aesthetically stunning island woos beach enthusiasts and nature-lovers from around the world with its otherworldly landscapes and impossibly blue waters. The island’s main attraction is the Blue Lagoon–a patch of shimmering turquoise water that has become one of Malta’s main tourist draws in recent years. The Blue Lagoon in Comino (not to be confused with Iceland’s Blue Lagoon) is one of the country’s most beloved swimming holes. This sheltered inlet is packed to the…
