Our guide to Portugal

For many people who have come to know the country well, Portugal is the only holiday destination.

They return year after year, confident that there is nowhere better. Yet for most of us, Portugal (outside of the Algarve) remains an unknown.

Roughly rectangular in shape, Portugal is surrounded on two sides by Spain.

Its other two sides are washed by the clear waters of the Atlantic Ocean (it surprises many that Portugal doesn't paddle its feet in the Mediterranean, but explains why swimming in the sea is such a refreshing experience).
Portugal was a late arrival to the package holiday scene.

The Algarve was a coastline largely comprised of barren scrub when the first charter flights arrived in the mid-1960s.

Its modest growth was cut short in 1974 when a bloodless revolution ushered in democracy, a few years ahead of its neighbour Spain.

The social upheaval brought an effective end to tourism for a few years as travellers chose to go elsewhere.
It also temporarily discouraged foreign investment in tourist projects - even when companies were eventually prepared to invest, the fragmented nature of Portugal's new government slowed development.

So it wasn't until the 1980s that Portugal began to realise its early promise as a holiday destination.
The Algarve was then rapidly developed (some might say too rapidly) and elsewhere city break operators began to tout the charms of Lisbon and Porto.

Yet even now the British have barely begun to discover the delights that lie in store in the rest of the country.
Northern Portugal, for example, is a hidden gem. Largely deserted beaches - even in August - and inland, countless picturesque towns and villages as well as a huge array of charming, small hotels.

Its relative obscurity offers other benefits: restaurants, for example, which charge prices that reflect the cost of living in Britain 20 or 30 years ago (with kinder, gentler service to match).

If you're looking for an intriguing new holiday destination only a couple of hours flying time from Britain (and in our time zone, too) - choose Portugal.