If you’re looking for places that inspire romance, Portugal is a small country that offers a setting for all types of romantics, from those who prefer historic villages to cities built within walls. Romantic getaways for two can involve a hotel with a spa and all the pampering a couple deserves, but they can also involve adventure, nature and culture. This is where we’ll focus.
A getaway for two involves some kind of isolation and, preferably, in a place of pure beauty, to make the atmosphere even more favorable with a beautiful surrounding landscape and an idyllic location. Today we recommend five places for you to visit as a couple.
Marvao
A few kilometers from the border with Spain, we find the peaceful village of Marvao, at the highest point of the Serra de São Mamede. Since it is so high, you can see the beautiful Alentejo plains and, in the distance, Spain. As Marvão is a city with walls, within them we are introduced to typical Alentejo architecture, with its white houses painted blue and yellow. With narrow, stone streets, we come across Gothic arches, Manueline windows, wrought-iron balconies embellishing the houses and other interesting details in corners marked by local granite.
A beautiful place worth visiting and falling in love with even more.
Óbidos
The town of Óbidos is one of the most visited in the country, both for its beauty and its proximity to the capital. Also a town within the walls of a castle and with white houses decorated with bougainvillea and honeysuckle, Óbidos was conquered from the Moors by the first king of Portugal, D. Afonso Henriques, in 1148. Surrounded by a belt of medieval walls and crowned by the Moorish castle (currently a guesthouse), the town is one of the most perfect examples of our medieval fortress. As in ancient times, the entrance is through the south gate, Santa Maria, embellished with 18th century tile decoration.
With winding, stone streets and whitewashed houses framed by blue and yellow, it feels like you've been transported back to the Middle Ages when you visit Óbidos.
Aveiro
Considered the Portuguese Venice, Aveiro is full of canals where traditional moliceiro boats pass by, full of tourists who love the beauty of the place. Starting from the Central Canal, the city's main axis, there are two itineraries to choose from in Aveiro: one on the left bank, where you can see the beautiful Art Nouveau buildings reflected in the canal and the Fish Market. The other is on the right bank, where it is worth visiting the Aveiro Museum, in the Convento de Jesus.
On the two proposed circuits you will be able to discover the labyrinth of canals, the white dunes next to the sea and the immense expanses of seabeds with their salt pyramids.
Monsaraz
Monsaraz It is a small village surrounded by fields, perched on a cliff, with a 14th-century castle offering spectacular panoramic views over the Alqueva Dam (the largest artificial lake in Europe) and the Guadiana Valley. The beautiful town of Monsaraz, which is also built within walls, has its houses painted white. This village was inhabited long before the arrival of the Arabs in the 8th century.
The small town has many attractions: restaurants with typical Alentejo food, churches, craft shops and charming inns. And of course, there are the beautiful ruins of the castle that take us back in time and make us feel like we are in the Middle Ages. A charming place to fall in love with.
Sintra
It is considered the most romantic village in Portugal and was last on our list. A beautiful village at the foot of the mountain of the same name, its unique characteristics led UNESCO to classify it as a world heritage site and was forced to create a specific category for this purpose – that of “cultural landscape” – which thus considers both the natural wealth and the built heritage of the village and the mountain.
Sintra has many palaces and castles and the town has small, winding streets. There are many hotels in old palaces and some of them are located in the beautiful Serra de Sintra, with roads that once only horses and carriages could pass through. They are narrow and almost always flanked by stone walls. It has always been greatly appreciated by kings and nobles, extolled by writers and poets, such as Lord Byron who called it the glorious Eden.
Don't know which one to visit and take your soulmate with you? Yes, it's a difficult task, because one is more beautiful than the other. Personally, I never get tired of visiting them!