Portugal

While our trip to Portugal was primarily to seek out the country’s best food and beverages, we knew we had to work in a stopover in the mountains to take a break, enjoy the fresh air, and more importantly- go hiking to work off the absurd about of food we were eating!

This goal led us to Manteigas- a stunning little mountain town in the heart of Serra da Estrela Natural Park (home to Torre- the tallest point in mainland Portugal).

Purely from driving in and out of this town, we would’ve had our fill of mountains and had been overjoyed with the experience. But we really needed to go on a hike, and while in the area we hit up the 7-mile Rota do Javali for a moderate, ~3 1/2 hour morning hike up and over a mountain. 

If you have any chance to visit the area, you’ll want to consider adding on this hike if you can!

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When we decided to visit Portugal, we knew we would rent a car to drive around the country to explore as much as possible. We went into it assuming that driving in Portugal would be a lot like in other European countries we’ve driven in, like Italy and Iceland- that is to say, crazy at worst or covered with speed cameras at best.

As it turns out, driving in Portugal was incredibly easy, and apart from a few key issues worth highlighting we really had no problems at all. In this one, we thought we’d share more about what you can expect when picking up a car to explore here!

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