Portugal Road trips

6 curated road trips in Portugal — Douro Valley Wine Route, Alentejo & Algarve Beaches, Algarve Coastal Drive. Mapped stops, distance, duration, best season, and practical route notes.

These 6 routes range from 80 to 400 km and from 2 to 5 days, across 1 country. Top picks: Douro Valley Wine Route, Alentejo & Algarve Beaches, Algarve Coastal Drive.

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  IconicDouro Valley Wine RoutePortugal · 320 km · 3–4 daysThe oldest demarcated wine region in the world, the Douro Valley winds east from Porto through terraced vineyards carved into schist hillsides, past baroque manor houses and centuries-old quintas that produce some of the world's finest port and table wine.
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  NotableAlentejo & Algarve BeachesPortugal · 360 km · 4–5 daysPortugal's southern Atlantic coast, from the long, uncrowded beaches of the Alentejo costa vicentina through the wild Sagres peninsula to the Algarve. This isn't the Mediterranean; it's the Atlantic with surfable waves, maritime history, pine and rosemary dunes, and beaches so remote that access tracks are unmarked. The drive takes in the finest beaches in Portugal's least developed coastline.
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  IconicAlgarve Coastal DrivePortugal · 220 km · 3–5 daysPortugal's golden south, the Algarve runs from the white-cube towns of the eastern barrier islands to the wind-battered sea stacks of Sagres, with the most dramatic sandstone cliff scenery in Western Europe between.
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  IconicCastaway on Flores, AzoresPortugal · 80 km · 2–3 daysThe most remote and beautiful island in the Azores, Flores (the Island of Flowers) is a crater-lake wonderland at the western edge of Europe, 2,300 km from Lisbon. Seven calderas filled with hydrangea-ringed lakes, the vertical sea cliffs of Fajã Grande (the most dramatic coastline in the Atlantic), and the cascading waterfalls of Poço da Alagoinha in a valley of lush green fern. The end of Europe, dripping with rain and colour.
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  NotableLisbon to PortoPortugal · 400 km · 3–4 daysPortugal's essential north-south drive, from Lisbon's sea-facing hilltop capital through the medieval walled town of Óbidos, the cliff-top surf town of Nazaré (where the underwater canyon channels the world's biggest rideable waves), the university city of Coimbra (where students still wear black capes), Aveiro's lagoon canals plied by painted moliceiro boats, and into Porto's azulejo-tiled city of port wine lodges and the world's most beautiful bookshop. A Portugal of extraordinary depth.
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  IconicSintra to Arrábida LoopPortugal · 180 km · 2–3 daysA compact loop around the Lisbon peninsula, from the fairy-tale UNESCO palaces of Sintra on the Atlantic clifftops to the westernmost point of continental Europe at Cabo da Roca, then south through Cascais to the impossibly turquoise bays of the Arrábida Natural Park.