Walking in Portugal is now out of print. The latest edition of Walking in Portugal was published in 1999 and as things changed, was becoming out of date.

Practical Information

trails & maps | guided walks | environment & parks
when to go | food & drink | flora & fauna
visas, money & costs | transport | accommodation
equipment & health | communication | opening hours

Walking for pleasure has never been a popular Portuguese pastime, and visiting hikers will be seen as a little soft in the head. Aside from being treated as an eccentric foreigner, the lack of fellow walkers does present some practical problems. Walking boots, camping equipment and dried food are hard to come by, and there are very few specialist outdoor shops. Many maps are hopelessly out-of-date, and trail maintenance is almost non-existent.

This lack of organization, while irritating, has tremendous benefits. To anyone who has walked the Pennine Way in high season or trekked on a group tour in Nepal, the isolation of Portugal's mountain walking trails is a stunning experience. Even in the most popular national parks, you'll only need to walk a couple of kilometres to be entirely alone. The peace and quiet also makes it easier to catch a glimpse of some of Portugal's diverse wildlife.

Take a look at one of the 33 sample walks in Walking in Portugal.

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Simply put, trail condition depends on the level of local use: if it's well-used, then it's well-worn. Tracks can be obscured by lack of use or by agricultural modernization, paved over as part of Portugal's ambitious road-building program, or eroded by damaging forestry practices.

Trail marking is fairly standard, using an equal sign like this one to mark the way. Wrong turns are sometimes marked with a painted X symbol.

There are two main topographic map producers in Portugal. The Instituto Geográgico do Exército (www.igeoe.pt) publishes 1:25,000 and 1:50,000 maps. You can buy these maps at the IGeoE's headquarters in Lisbon (Avenida Dr Alfredo Bensaúde, #25 bus from Metro Oriente) or from the Porto Editora bookshop in Porto (Praça Dona Filipa de Lencastre 42). Maps from the Instituto Português de Cartográfia e Cadastro (IPCC) are less up-to-date and harder to get hold of: you need to go to the IPCC headquarters in Lisbon (107 Rua Artilharia Um, close to Metro Parque) and be issued with a security pass.

It's difficult to buy maps outside Portugal. Stanfords (12-14 Long Acre, London WC2E 9LP; phone (020) 7836 1321; www.stanfords.co.uk) stock selected maps.

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Rotas do Vento www.rotasdovento.pt (Rua dos Lusíadas 5, Lisbon; tel 213 649852/9; fax 213 649843; e-mail rotas@rotasdovento.pt) offers reasonably-priced weekend hikes to destinations all over Portugal. You can book online through their excellent, bilingual website.

Sistemas de Ar Livre (SAL) www.sal.jgc.pt (Avenida Manuel Maria Portela 40, Setúbal; tel 265 227685; e-mail sal@jgc.pt) organize cheap day walks, mainly in the Alentejo region.

A few British companies offer tours of Portugal. Portugal Walks offer a wide range of walking holidays throughout Portugal. Ramblers' Holidays (www.ramblersholidays.co.uk) has two-week holidays in the Douro valley, Alentejo and Minho. Explore Worldwide (www.explore.co.uk) organizes a two-week walking tour of Portugal, taking in the Douro, Minho and Trás-os-Montes. HF Holidays (www.hfholidays.co.uk) combines sightseeing and walking in the Algarve and Sintra. Exodus' (www.exodustravels.co.uk) week-long trip visits the Douro and Minho.

Naturetrek (www.naturetrek.co.uk) takes in the Algarve's flora and fauna in its naturalist-guided walking holiday. Winetrails (www.winetrails.co.uk) offers a five-night, self-guided walking and wine-tasting itinerary in the Douro valley.

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Portugal's environmental problems have gone largely unnoticed in the last few decades, both inside and outside the country. Environmental groups like Quercus are low key, and even natural park staff have been slow to protest ecological damage.

As in much of Europe, Portugal's trees have been chopped down for centuries to make way for towns and clear fields for agriculture. In recent years, widespread eucalyptus planting has had a devastating effect. The tree guzzles water at an alarming rate, draining farmland of water, destroying undergrowth, and causing massive erosion.

Water is a big environmental problem. Portugal's rivers are being drained to irrigate southern agricultural plains and to generate hydroelectric power. Many parts of Portugal's 800km long coastline and many of its major rivers have been ruined by industrial pollution, particularly around cities like Porto. Elsewhere along the coast, beaches and villages have been submerged under a tide of aggressive development. The Algarve is by far the most damaged area, but huge, ugly hotels mar the Tróia Peninsula near Setúbal and parts of the coast near Sintra as well. The Prestige oil spill in November 2002 mostly avoided Portugal's coastline, but increased awareness of the devastating impact of oil pollution.

There are more than 20 protected areas in Portugal, ranging from the vast Parque Natural da Serra da Estrela to the tiny Reserva Natural do Paúl de Arzila, a bird sanctuary not far from Coimbra. The Parque Nacional da Peneda-Gerês was the first area to be protected, in 1970, and is also the most ecologically significant. All the protected areas come under the control of the Instituto da Conservação (www.icn.pt), based in Lisbon.

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Portugal's weather is a blend of Mediterranean and Atlantic influences. The south of the country is hot in summer, mild in winter and dry year-round. The Minho region in the country's northwest is famously rainy; the best time to visit is in the drier summer season, which also coincides with many of the area's lively festivals.

The Trás-os-Montes, further east, is divided into two distinct climactic zones. The northern part, called the terra fria (cold land), is always chilly in winter, but like the Minho, warms up considerably in summer. The terra quente (hot land) of the southern Trás-os-Montes, experiences long, blisteringly hot summers, and freezing cold winters: try to time a visit for spring or autumn.

There's little snow in Portugal, and the higher reaches of the Serra da Estrela are the only areas that get consistent snowfall. Summers are generally good in the Serra da Estrela, but come prepared for any weather, as fog and rain can creep up unexpectedly.

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Port, possibly the country's most famous export, begins life as Douro valley grapes, and is then fortified with brandy before being left to mature in oak casks or in the bottle. Red wines from the Alentejo and Dão regions are gaining in reputation, and are available throughout the country. In the northwest Minho region, the house speciality is invariably vinho verde, a young, semi-sparkling wine served in earthenware jugs. Whites are common, but be sure to try the zingy and unusual red, rare outside Portugal. Other wines worth sampling include the reds from Colares, near Sintra, and Moscatel, a sweet dessert wine made on the Setúbal peninsula.

Eating out is very cheap by Western European standards. Soups are fabulous, often meals in themselves: try caldo verde, a potato soup made with finely shredded couve gallego (a vivid green, thick cabbage). Most menus will include some kind of fried meat, usually pounded into submission with generous amounts of garlic. Sausages and hams are popular throughout the country, especially in the north: try presunto, a smoked ham similar to Italian proscuitto, or chouriço, a spicy sausage.

Despite this preponderance of meat, if Portugal has a national dish, it has to be bacalhau (salted cod). Try Bacalhau à Gomes de Sá, creamy, loaded with calories and garnished with olives and hard boiled eggs, or Bacalhau à brás, made with scrambled eggs and fried potatoes.

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Geographically isolated from the rest of Europe by the Pyrenees, the Iberian peninsula's plant life developed at its own pace, helped along by windblown seeds from North Africa. The results are spectacular: of around 6000 species of flora in the Iberian Peninsula, about a quarter occur nowhere else in the world.

The vast, farmed landscapes of southern Portugal are dominate by vines, olive trees and cork oaks - gnarly, evergreen trees that yield millions of bottle stoppers each year. The cork industry is very environmentally friendly: cork is harvested once a decade by peeling the bark from a living tree. Cork forests also provide an important habitat for birds and other wildlife, and both the WWF (www.wwf.org.uk) and the RSPB (www.rspb.org.uk) are campaigning against the increasing use of plastic alternatives by the wine industry.

Portugal is home to an assortment of rare animals - look out for fire salamanders, wolves, hoopoes, bee-eaters and golden eagles. Portugal is also home to the Iberian Lynx (see www.soslynx.org), the most endangered species of wild cat in the world.

The country is also an important refuelling stop on the north-south migration route of many birds. The Sado, Tejo and Minho estuaries, along with the lagoons near Aveiro and in the Algarve are great places to see sandwich terns, arctic terns, flamingoes, curlews, whimbrels, and glossy ibises.

Walking in Portugal includes illustrations and descriptions of Portugal's most notable species.

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EU nationals can stay in Portugal indefinitely, and you won't need a visa if you're from Canada, the US, New Zealand or Australia and you stay for less than 90 days.

Portugal is a member of the European Union, and like the other member countries, its currency is the euro (€).

Exchange rates generally hover around UK£1=€1.6 and US$1=€1.1. Check out the x-rates currency converter for latest prices.

The most convenient way to get cash is via a cashpoint or bank machine. Bring some kind of backup, as the machines can be notoriously unreliable. If your card is rejected, try using it again, or go to another machine, and take enough money out to last you through a bank holiday weekend.

Your costs can go down significantly is you're under 26, over 60, or a student. Students should get an ISIC card before leaving home, to get discounts at some museums. More widely accepted is the Euro26 card, available from youth and student travel agencies in Europe. Over 60s also get discounts at museums and other sights.

There are generous discounts for children on railways and in hotels. In rural areas, young children may be allowed to stay for free on buses: in these and many other ways, Portugal is a very child-friendly country.

Portugal is cheap compared to the rest of Western Europe. The costs below give a general idea of average prices:

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Train travel is fairly cheap, although routes are limited and the journey can be slow. Some of the lines are worth taking just for the ride: the Lisbon to Covilhã route hugs the Rio Tejo for much of its length, then turns north for stunning views of the Serra da Estrela.

Buses are a more flexible option than trains, as they run more frequently and go to more destinations. In small towns, bus schedules are haphazard and largely unwritten: ask at the tourist office and local cafés for the latest times. Bus stations in large towns can be confusing and frustrating. There's usually a central bus station, but there are up to 10 separate bus companies, all going to different destinations, from different platforms, for different prices.

Hitching long distances is almost impossible, as tourists are reluctant to pick up hitchhikers and locals may only be travelling as far as the next village. For shorter distances, hitching may be a useful option, particularly on weekends when bus services are limited.

Driving in Portugal may be the most stressful part of your trip, and after a few hours on the road it's easy to see why the country's accident rate is the highest in Europe. Narrow cobbled streets, unfathomable one-way systems and non-existent parking make city driving miserable: leave your car on the outskirts.

Travelling by bicycle is a fabulous way to see the country. You'll stop for coffee at villages that car drivers whizz past, and see places undescribed in any guidebook. It can be tough-going in mountainous regions, particularly in the Serra da Estrela, Peneda-Gerês, and Montesinho. In remote areas, a mountain bike is a big advantage on potholed or gravel roads. You'll learn to hate city and town approaches, where smooth, easy-rolling tarmac gives way to frame-rattling cobblestones.

The Portuguese national railway no longer accepts bikes on trains, apart from on commuter routes to and from Lisbon.

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Camping sites in Portugal range from basic, no-facilities, summer campsites in some of the natural parks, to fully-equipped sites geared towards caravans. In between these two extremes, most sites will have hot showers and a small shop or café. Roteira Campista (www.roteiracampista.pt) publish a complete guide to Portugal's campsites.

There are about 20 youth hostels in Portugal; they're really busy in summer, so you'll need to book ahead.

Dormidas are generally the cheapest option in any village or small town, and the B&B-style pensãos are another popular budget choice.

The Turihab scheme is one of Portugal's greatest inventions. It's a network of mostly rural properties that rent a room, apartment or a whole building to visitors. Best of all is the accommodation within the Solares de Portugal group (www.solares-de-portugal.com), concentrated in the Lima Valley region, where you can stay in manor houses, rustic farm buildings, or a converted windmill.

Pousadas are top of the range, luxury establishments, often in restored historic properties located just outside town centres. The rooms are excellent, the gourmet food terrific and the wine lists superb. Get more details from the Pousadas of Portugal web site (www.pousadas.com).

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For walks in most of Portugal, good walking shoes are fine, though you may be glad of boots in soggy places like the Torre Plateau in the Serra da Estrela. Don't rely on buying walking or camping equipment in Portugal, although basics like Camping Gaz canisters are readily available.

Pharmacies are generally open from 9am to 6pm with a lunchtime siesta. There should be at least one local pharmacy open outside these times; look at the duty rota notice posted outside each pharmacy. In an emergency, dial 112 - calls are answered in Portuguese, French and English.

The most common health problems for visitors to Portugal are related to heat. Be sure to acclimatize gradually, particularly if you're visiting in summer. Water from natural springs is delicious, and many Portuguese travel for miles to fill up at locally renowned places.

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Post offices are usually open weekdays from 9am to 6pm, and larger offices are also open on Saturday mornings. You can buy stamps at the post office, from the automatic machines outside, or at any shop displaying a red Correios-Selos sign.

In 1999, Portugal introduced a new phone system. You now have to dial the area code for all numbers, even local ones. Public telephones take money, credit cards or phonecards. Internet cafés are springing up in towns throughout Portugal. They're often open late into the evening, and most charge extremely low rates.

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Portugal takes a siesta between 12pm and 3pm, when most shops close for lunch. Banks generally stay open at siesta time but close for the day at 3pm. Museums and tourist sights usually close on Mondays.

Apart from traditional western holidays (Christmas, Easter, New Year, 1 May), Portugal takes the day off on the following dates:

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