portugal

• 1 Travel highlights for 2012
  London Olympics With three and a half million tickets sold and a build up that has been headline news for the last year or more, it would be hard to miss the fact that in 2012 Britain – and more...

• 2 'Fado', the music of Lisbon
  The music of a country is one of the keys to its culture; Argentina has the tango, Spain has flamenco, and Portugal has fado. It's a musical form that draws on many different historical and cultural elements,...

• 3 Europe's spectacular natural heritage
  Dramatic mountains – the vast Durmitor massif in the eponymous national park in northwestern Montenegro, the volcanic mass of Mount Teide, and the dramatic Dolomites in the Italian Alps where green...

• 4 Columbus sails into Madeira
  Columbus has close links with the archipelago of Madeira and, in particular, with the island of Porto Santo. Not only was this the land where he was a sugar trader, but more importantly, he married the...

• 5 Following a – Michelin - star
  The six-stop tour, which will demonstrate the excellence of Portuguese cuisine, started in April at Il Gallo d'Oro, the exclusive gourmet restaurant of the Cliff Bay Hotel, Funchal on the island of Madeira....

• 6 Easter in Portugal
  During Holy Week, thousands of pilgrims travel to Braga, in the northwest, home of the Portuguese Archbishopric. The town celebrates with a series of nocturnal processions, including the Maundy Thursday...

• 7 Carnival around the world
  There's no doubt the Venice carnival is a once-in-a-lifetime event. Whether you're actually lucky enough to wear one of the vintage costumes and enigmatic masks of what is one of the most traditional of...

• 8 Martinhal, a retreat in the Algarve
  The sunshine, the beaches, the scenery... everything seems to have been arranged to ensure that a getaway at this five-star retreat in the Portuguese Algarve brims with peace and relaxation –...

• 9 The Oitavos Hotel: sleek modernity on Portugal's Estoril Coast
  The Oitavos is a fine addition to the accommodation options along the Estoril coast – the stretch of sandy beaches west of Lisbon known as the Portuguese Riviera. Surrounded by pine trees, overlooking...

• 10 Cascais: a date with the women Picasso loved
  Beauty, sensuality, sexuality and mystery are the keys that define the temporary exhibition of prints by Pablo Picasso that can be seen at the 'Centro Cultural' in the pretty coastal city of Cascais, Portugal...

• 11 The Azores... in the shadow of the volcano
  Roughly halfway between Europe and America, the nine small islands that make up the Azores have emerged from the waters of the Atlantic as a result of volcanic eruptions over the centuries. The last activity,...

• 12 Sailing in the Algarve
  In the Algarve, the southernmost region of Portugal, surf's up on many of the beaches, golf greens overlook the sea, the climate is mild and the beaches quiet. That all sounds pretty good in itself, but...

• 13 Wine tasting in a traditional villa in Porto
  

• 14 Lisbon, capital of decorative arts
  An exceptional collection of 150 pieces of jewellery, porcelain, ceramics, glass, painting, sculpture and furniture have been brought together in the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation under the name Art Deco,...

• 15 Madeira: neither too hot, nor too cold
  When the leste blows - the wind that comes from the Sahara - the thermometer may rise to about 33ºC. But that does not happen often and, on this little Portuguese island, situated far out in the wide...