Local guides
Places we love around our homes — sights, food, beaches and the practical bits, gathered by the people who live there.
Costa da Caparica
Setúbal and Azeitão — market, wine and cheese
A day built around food on the far side of the Arrábida: a port city with one of the country's best markets,…
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Dénia
Alicante — the castle, the seafront and kilometre zero
A hilltop castle over the city, a palm-lined marble esplanade, and the point in the town hall from which every height in…
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Stuttgart
Historic railways and the Weissenhof estate
A rack railway, a wooden funicular and a 1927 experiment in modern housing — three pieces of Stuttgart that reward a short…
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Costa da Caparica
The Serra da Arrábida and Portinho da Arrábida
A green limestone ridge that drops straight into a turquoise sea between Sesimbra and Setúbal — the most striking landscape close to…
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Dénia
Villajoyosa — coloured houses and chocolate
A seafront row of houses painted in strong blues, pinks and ochres, and a chocolate-making tradition going back to the nineteenth century.
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Stuttgart
Stuttgart with children — the Wilhelma and Rosenstein
A zoo in a Moorish garden and two natural-history houses in the same park, plus a hilltop playground — enough for a…
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Costa da Caparica
Sesimbra — a fishing town with a castle and a beach
A fishing town in a sheltered south-facing bay on the far side of the Arrábida hills, with warmer, calmer water than the…
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Dénia
Guadalest and the Algar waterfalls
Inland from the coast, about an hour from Dénia: a dramatic castle village above a turquoise reservoir, and a run of river…
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Stuttgart
Rainy-day Stuttgart — art, the library and the planetarium
Four things to do under a roof in the middle of the city: an art museum, the striking city library, the city…
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Costa da Caparica
Cascais — the town, the harbour and the beaches
The old fishing town turned resort at the western end of the Lisbon coast railway — compact, walkable, and made for a…
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Dénia
Moraira and Calpe — a harbour, a castle and the Peñón
Two very different towns down the coast from Dénia: low-key Moraira, and Calpe under the great rock of the Peñón de Ifach.
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Stuttgart
The two car museums — Mercedes-Benz and Porsche
Both brands were born here and both have built themselves a museum next to the factory. They are very different visits.
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Costa da Caparica
Cabo da Roca and the Guincho coast
The westernmost point of mainland Europe, and the run of cliffs, dunes and one enormous Atlantic beach between there and Cascais.
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Dénia
Xàbia and its coves — Granadella and Portitxol
Dénia's neighbour over the Montgó, with an old town, a fishing port, a sandy strip — and two of the best-known coves…
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Stuttgart
Schloss Solitude
A duke's rococo pleasure palace on a ridge west of the city, with a dead-straight avenue aimed at Ludwigsburg and forest walks…
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Costa da Caparica
Sintra — the Pena Palace and the Quinta da Regaleira
A cluster of palaces and gardens in wooded hills half an hour west of Lisbon — one of the busiest day trips…
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Dénia
From Dénia harbour — boat trips and the island ferries
Coastal excursions in season, and the fast ferry across to Ibiza and Formentera from one of the handiest mainland ports for the…
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Stuttgart
The Württemberg hill — vineyards and the Grabkapelle
A domed tomb chapel built for love, on a vineyard hill east of the city, with a marked wine trail running past…
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Costa da Caparica
Parque das Nações and the Oceanário — modern Lisbon by the water
The 1998 world's-fair site, now a riverside district of wide promenades and gardens, with one of the best aquariums in Europe —…
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Dénia
Easy going near Dénia — the Vía Verde and the Torre del Gerro
Two gentle outings close to town: a flat former railway line for walking and cycling, and a short climb to a watchtower…
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Stuttgart
Lakes and woods without leaving Stuttgart
Two easy half-days in nature inside the city limits: the three Parkseen and the Bärenschlössle, and the Max-Eyth-See by the Neckar.
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Costa da Caparica
Riding tram 28 through Lisbon
The old yellow tram that grinds up and down Lisbon's steepest hills — thoroughly touristy, and still worth doing once.
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Dénia
Cova Tallada — the sea cave near Dénia
A large half-natural, half-quarried cave on the shore of the Montgó park, with pools to wade in and an opening straight onto…
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Stuttgart
Stuttgart from above — the viewpoints
The city sits in a bowl, so it is ringed with places to look down on it: a rubble hill, a beer-garden…
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Costa da Caparica
Castelo de São Jorge and the view over Lisbon
A Moorish castle on the highest of Lisbon's hills, above Alfama, with the widest view over the city and the river —…
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Dénia
The Montgó — the mountain above Dénia
The blunt grey massif between Dénia and Xàbia is a natural park with walking for every level, from easy viewpoints to a…
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Stuttgart
The Fernsehturm — the world’s first television tower
Stuttgart built the first concrete TV tower in the world in 1956. It still works as a viewpoint, with the Swabian Jura…
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Costa da Caparica
Bairro Alto and Príncipe Real — Lisbon in the evening
Two hillside neighbourhoods above Chiado that come into their own in the late afternoon and evening — a tight bar grid and…
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Dénia
Dénia’s beaches — the sandy north and the rocky south
North of the port, kilometres of flat sand; south of it, a rocky shore of small coves and clear water for snorkelling.
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Stuttgart
Stuttgart’s old centre on foot — Schlossplatz to Schillerplatz
A short walk through the historic heart of the city: two grand squares, the old and new palaces, the collegiate church, the…
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Costa da Caparica
Baixa and Chiado — Lisbon’s downtown
A flat grid of streets rebuilt on a clean plan after the 1755 earthquake, running from the riverfront square up to the…
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Dénia
Dénia on foot — the old town, the market and the marina
The streets below the castle, the covered market and the harbour front — an afternoon and evening in Dénia without a car.
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Costa da Caparica
Almada Velha and the Boca do Vento lift
The small old centre of Almada above Cacilhas, with viewpoints straight across at Lisbon and a glass lift down the cliff to…
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Dénia
Altea old town — the blue domes above the sea
A whitewashed hill village about 40 minutes south of Dénia: the tiled church domes, car-free lanes, and a square with the best…
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Costa da Caparica
Cacilhas — the ferry to Lisbon, the Ginjal quay and the old frigate
The ferry terminal across the Tejo from Lisbon, with seafood restaurants, a riverside walk under the cliff, and a nineteenth-century sailing frigate…
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Dénia
Bona Platja — lunch on the sand at Las Marinas
A beach restaurant a few minutes from the villa: Dénia fish, rice, and tables right on the boardwalk.
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Costa da Caparica
Lagoa de Albufeira — the lagoon south of the beaches
A warm, shallow lagoon behind the dunes with the open Atlantic on the other side — a favourite for families and for…
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Dénia
Valencia — a day trip up the coast
A bit over an hour north of Dénia: Calatrava's white city, one of Europe's great food markets, and where paella actually comes…
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Costa da Caparica
Mata dos Medos and the Arriba Fóssil — pine forest and fossil cliffs
Behind the Caparica beaches, a wall of ochre and red fossil sea-cliffs with a protected umbrella-pine forest along the top — an…
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Dénia
Castillo de Dénia — history, views and visitor tips
One of the Costa Blanca's landmarks, right above the old town. What to see, when to go, and the practical bits.
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Costa da Caparica
Praia da Morena and Praia da Sereia — the beaches south of Caparica town
A run of dune-backed Atlantic beaches between the busy Caparica seafront and quiet Fonte da Telha, reached by a little train in…
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Costa da Caparica
Grilled sardines and the June street parties in Lisbon
Every June, Lisbon's old neighbourhoods fill with bunting, grills and sardines for the Santos Populares.
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Costa da Caparica
Fonte da Telha — the quiet end of the Caparica beaches
The village at the southern tip of Costa da Caparica: wide sand, dunes, seafood shacks and far fewer people.
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Costa da Caparica
Belém — the monastery, the tower and the custard tarts
Lisbon's riverside monument quarter: a Manueline monastery, a fort in the water, and the original pastéis de Belém.
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Costa da Caparica
Alfama — Lisbon’s oldest quarter
The tangle of lanes below the castle: viewpoints, tram 28, fado in the evening, and how to walk it.
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Costa da Caparica
Cristo Rei — the view over Lisbon from Almada
The open-armed statue on the south bank, and the widest view there is of Lisbon and the 25 de Abril bridge.
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Costa da Caparica
Costa da Caparica — beaches, seafood and how to get around
The long Atlantic beach south of Lisbon: where to swim, where to eat, and how to reach the quieter stretches.
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