[PORTO, PORTUGAL] — I was only in Porto for two nights, on my way up the Douro River, and one of those nights was in bed with a brutal flu bug, so my time was short. But I did see some cool thing, here are my top sites in Porto. Cool things to see in Porto. When I came to Porto in Spring 2015, it was a completely different city than today. Many of the buildings were boarded up or in need of repair. Now nearly everything has been redone and the city is alive and jumping, rivaling Lisbon. When I came to Porto in Spring 2015, it was a completely different city than today (as is all of Portugal). I was just there one
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[NAZARÉ, PORTUGAL] — I’m not a surfer, obvs, but I’ve always been captivated by stories of Big Wave surfing, where weather-watching, nicely-tanned people drop everything and fly across the world to try to catch big swells. I’m fascinated by waves. Even have read awesome books like The Wave: In Pursuit of the Rogues, Freaks, and Giants of the Ocean (which I highly recommend). And most recently, this awesome new book on waves and water: How to Read Water. (more highly recommended, so enlightening.) One place that is almost always on the list is Nazaré on the west coast of Lisbon, where nearly every year there’s always some small article in the media with amazing pictures of beastly waves crashing high above the heads of huddled masses on
[OBIDOS, PORTUGAL] — About an hour south of Porto is the small castle town of Obidos. If you’re a Game of Thrones fan, which I’ve never really seen, you may recognize this place. But if you’re just a normal castle-loving gypsy, you can stay in the nice pousada inside and get an extra use out of your traveling Glastonbury/Burning Man/Coachella flower bonnet and feel like a queen. They charge extra for swords, I hear, but available. Ravens on advance request. A good friend of mine recently stayed in the Pousada Obidos and absolutely loved it. And all the tourists empty out at night and they had the whole town to themselves. Some great restaurants, too. Obidos is known for their chocolate, so there are oodles of chocolate
[SANTA CRUZ, PORTUGAL] — When looking for a cool design hotel outside Lisbon during my second first tour of Portugal, I saw an article on Areias do Seixo, full of pictures of crazy looking, organic rooms with stained stone, wooden log furniture, swings, and just amazing details. Every room was a revelation. That’s when I had to go to Areias do Seixo, one of the first and coolest design hotels in Portugal. _________________________________ After pulling into a sparse car park, no sign of life. You walk up to the huge, heavy wood doors — all big and Asian-y and intimidating, makes you feel like a bible salesman at Larry Ellison’s house — and they’re locked. Oh no, are they closed? Did I get the date
[LAGOS, PORTUGAL] — When everyone, including me, first goes to Portugal, the first thing they want to do is head toward the famed Algarve, the bottom half of the country, lined by picturesque rocky formations poking out from the water. But the Algarve to me is like Fort Lauderdale or Punta del Este, beautiful beaches ruined by hi-rises and massive retirement developments, centered around the “capital of Algarve”, Faro, all up to the border with Spain. But I really liked the quieter western end of the Algarve, from Portimao, west and on up the western coast. Here are my finds of the best beaches of the Western Algarve. The best beaches in Portugal and the best surfing beaches. _______________________________ The winding two lane highway runs
[TOURRETTES-SUR-LOUP, FRANCE] — I was on my way back from nine blissful days in Greece and heading toward the southwest of France. Having already done most of the coast, I wanted to find a new place to explore. I opened a new travel website I kept hearing about i-escape.com and started scouring pictures for something that grabbed my eye. And then BOOM. I saw a the picture above. That was all it took. This is in France? Looks more like Italy, or maybe Corsica. An ancient village perched high above the Côte d’Azur in the mountainy Alpes-Maritime region of France. I’ve always heard about this region, but had never been. So that’s where I pointed my car as I hopped off the plane in Nice.