Hot take Portugal

I have long said Portugal is better than Spain.

Spain has been the top or somewhere near the top of travel destinations for as long as I have been alive.  I feel like every person who has traveled to mainland Europe stops at Spain.  Altogether I can’t fully disagree. It has sun, beaches, history, architecture, parties and you’d be clinically insane to say a single negative thing about tapas culture.  Just saying the word tapas brings a smile to my face.  HOWEVER, for those of us that have adventured to the little sibling of Spain on the Iberian peninsula, we know wears the crown on the peninsula – Portugal. 

I’ll start by saying I don’t dislike Spain, its just that for years Spain seems to get all the praise and admiration while Portugal sits to the side largely unnoticed.  For all the reasons above that Spain is great, Portugal does not disappoint.  It has nice weather all the time, it has great beaches, it has tremendous architecture, and the food and wine certainly do not disappoint.  Port wine is world renown and the gastronomy is very similar with perhaps more seafood.  The reason I get slightly pissed that Portugal doesn’t get as much praise is that Portugal offers one big difference – Friendly locals.  Maybe I have just been to places where the locals are not friendly in Spain but the Portuguese have always been much more welcoming.  As an English speaker the Portuguese were less abrasive and tried to either have a conversation with me or at least help me out if needed, while often the Spanish were rude and off putting.  If you speak Spanish I am sure this is a different story but English speakers are often not great at crossing the language barrier since we really don’t need to.  Smaller reasons to like Portugal are the great viewpoints – I swear the Portuguese looked for difficult locals to build cities and went ham on the locations.  This also makes for cobblestone streets bobbing and weaving out of multi-colour washed walls and orange tiled roofs that I think is extra iconic.

If you have thought of doing or have thought of repeating a Spanish holiday consider Portugal first.  It doesn’t lack anything you can find in Spain but it is slightly less traveled (this is changing quickly though).  In this link, Hostel World published SEO optimized 12 reasons everyone loves Lisbon.  They cover some big things and some little things (no one is traveling to Lisbon because they have ball pits, pretty fucking gross if you ask me).  I also have some travel highlights to consider for your next trip.  Comment below to let me know your thoughts.

• Lisbon alone is a great travel destination but factor in a day trip or overnight to Sintra (Walt Disney was inspired by the Castle here)
• Porto another one stop shop is great.
  • Add a day trip up the Douro river for Port wine tastingRent to drive up the winding roads along the Douro river
• Less necessary than Porto and Lisbon, are the southern coasts, beach lovers might prioritize these above the aforementioned stop