guides

The Wine of the Dead In the North of Portugal, there is a place where you can taste what we call the wine of the dead. In the area of Boticas, Vila Real, you can still buy bottles of this unique wine, but the story goes way back to the beginning of the 1800s when […]

The Origins of Tempura When you think about those yummy and colourful fried vegetables or seafood, the first thing that pops up in your mind must be Japanese cuisine. Well, think again, it actually comes from a Portuguese recipe, made international in the 1500s. In the 1500s Portugal was living its Golden Age, sending sailors

Friday the 13th – The Portuguese Halloween Party In Western civilization, Friday the 13th has been considered an unlucky day, always surrounded by fear and superstition. Until today, the irrational fear of this day exists and it can be so relevant in peoples’ lives that it even has a scientific name: paraskevidekatriaphobia (yes!). No one

What are Portugal’s best wine regions? According to the Paris-based International Organisation of Vine and Wine, the Portuguese are the world’s number one consumers of wine, with the average citizen drinking around 72 bottles of wine per year! You could say it’s a passion of ours. The wine culture here in Portugal stretches back around

An Honest Routes Guide to the N2 Portugal’s N2 (also known as the EN2 or Estrada Nacional 2) is a 739-kilometre (453-mile) road stretching from Chaves in the north of the country, close to the Spanish border, down to Faro in the south, on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. Motorways, bullet trains, and internal

What is there to see between Porto & Lisbon? If you’re travelling between Porto and Lisbon, there is so much to see that reveals the true heart and soul of Portugal. There are many well-known destinations, several of which we highly recommend despite the potential for crowds. But we at Honest Routes believe in getting