Travel Articles: Portugal

Summer is the high travel season in the Mediterranean. The best time to take a Mediterranean cruise, however, is in the spring (May-June) or fall (September-October).

Portugal offers beautiful landscape with its many rivers, valleys, mountains and forests. And it also has a rich culture and a variety of multisport activities to tempt its travelers.

Top ports of call in Portugal include Lisbon and Port, the Azores islands, and the wine region of the Douro Valley where towns and villages like Pinhão and Régua are fun places to sample the ports of the country.

Between March and May and September and October are the best times to visit Portugal. July and August are the hottest months and see the most crowds as they mark the holidays for Portuguese families.

Favorite ports on the Douro River include the thriving city of Porto, Ferradosa, and Pinhao in the wine region, and Régua-where one of Portugal’s finest 18th-century palaces brings the history of the region into clear focus.

This trip was my first cruise and my first time in Europe! I took an 8-day cruise on the Harmony V with my mother in August and had a wonderful time! We sailed on rivers and went through locks and explored beautiful city centers in Spain, ate local dishes such as paella and sangria and encountered beautiful architecture and beautiful gelato in …

Considered one of the most untamed rivers of Europe, the Douro, stretching from the Atlantic Coast of Portugal into the Iberian heart of Spain, enjoys a longer cruising season than most European rivers due to its relatively southern location on the continent. More months of warm weather and milder winters allow Douro River cruise operators to start in March and run cruises through late November.

It seems that wherever I go in the world, I always seem to get lucky in being in the right place at the right time for festivals. When I was traveling in Colombia, I happened upon both the flower festival in Medellin and the salsa festival in Cali. I also was in Mexico for the Day of the Dead celebrations!



In Portimao, Portugal, on our first …

Join Jane on a trip through Spain and Portugal. And the ice cream in Lisbon - a work of culinary art!

One thing that I found interesting about my experience on the Harmony V was that it was both a river cruise and a coastal cruise. On the third day of the cruise, after some time in rougher more open waters leaving Portimao Portugal, we traveled up part of the Spanish Guadalquivir River to the beautiful and historic city of Seville. This river is …

In August, I set out to Lisbon to embark on my very first cruise on the small Harmony V yacht. Having traveled more independently in the past, I was interested to see how the cruise experience might compare to my previous travel experiences. I had certain expectations for the cruise and below I will outline some of my expectations for the cruise …