Porto, a coastal city in the northwest of Portugal, has long been relegated to Lisbon’s shadow, but it’s finally commanding global attention for its culinary offerings.
25.08.2023 - 13:55 / skift.com
When Maria Lopes moved to Lisbon from the northern Portuguese city of Tondela, her goals were straightforward: study, find a job, get a place of her own.
But a decade on, she still lives in a tiny, rented room – one of tens of thousands of young Portuguese hit by a housing crisis exacerbated by the arrival of richer foreigners lured in by incentives pushed by her own government.
Those incentives – including golden visa schemes for moneyed entrepreneurs – got a lot of the credit for attracting the investments that helped pull Portugal out of the 2011-2014 debt crisis.
Since then, critics say those schemes have come back to bite the economy by ramping up competition for scarce housing – fuelling inflation and piling pressure particularly onto young, local, entry-level workers.
“I want to live… I don’t want to just survive,” Lopes said after a shift at a hop-on, hop-off bus tour company.
The 30-year-old, who has two degrees in tourism, shares a flat with five others, pays 450 euros ($475) per month for a 13 square-metre mezzanine room, but makes as little as 800 euros a month during the low tourism season.
“I hope all this noise we’re making shakes things up,” she said, referring to a wave of discontent – protests, marches and petitions – driven by mostly young people struggling to pay their bills.
Living costs have been soaring across the world. But it is the stark contrast between the winners and losers that makes Portugal stand out among its European peers
Portugal ranks as one of western Europe’s poorest nations. But its capital was last year ranked the world’s third least financially viable city, thanks to its punishing combination of low wages and high rents.
Since 2015, Airbnbs and new hotels have mushroomed, foreigners have ploughed money into property and investment funds have bought up entire buildings.
“Lisbon became ‘trendy’,” Gonçalo Antunes, a housing expert at Nova University said. “The property market developed without any control.”
Rents in Lisbon have jumped 65% since 2015 and sale prices have sky-rocketed 137%, figures from Confidencial Imobiliario, which collects data on housing, show. Rents increased 37% last year alone, more than in Barcelona or Paris, according to another real estate data company, Casafari.
Locals struggled to keep up in a country where public housing only represents 2% of the property market, according to government data.
Antunes said the situation was particularly galling for the young.
Portugal’s monthly minimum wage is 760 euros ($801.27), and around 65% of those aged under 30 made less than 1,000 euros a month last year, according to the Labour Ministry.
The average rent for a one-bedroom flat in Lisbon is around 1,350 euros, a study by housing portal
Porto, a coastal city in the northwest of Portugal, has long been relegated to Lisbon’s shadow, but it’s finally commanding global attention for its culinary offerings.
Portugal’s flag carrier TAP said on Wednesday that it swung to a net profit of $25 million (23 million euros) in the first half of 2023 on strong revenue growth, boosted by booming tourism, and forecast a strong performance for the remainder of the year.
To give civilisation the slip, head north to Serra da Estrela Natural Park, where the country’s tallest mountains punch above valleys that echo with goat and sheep bells. At Senses on the banks of the Mondego River, you can camp under the fruit trees or glamp in a bell tent, safari lodge or yurt. Wild swim in the river with the otters and hike into granite heights, returning to eat at the farm-to-fork restaurant. By night the Milky Way shimmers in some of the country’s darkest skies. Pitches from €15 (£13), tents from €45 (£39), B&B.
A former fishing village that’s become one of the most posh spots in Portugal, Comporta is still gathering steam. Between the rice fields, cork forests, and long white beaches, there has been a slew of new openings this year, as well as upgrades to existing properties (and some that needed no changes at all) and lots of construction in the works. Here’s what’s worth a look—especially now that the peak summertime crowds have started to head home.
Straddling the mouth of the Douro River with elegant bridges and painted houses tripping up gentle hillsides, Porto has soared in popularity with travellers in recent years. Many come to sip and slurp at the city’s historic port wine houses, climb the narrow streets lined with baroque churches and 19th-century merchants’ houses, and bounce between cafe terraces in the labyrinthine Ribeira district. But equally appealing is the call of the outdoors – Porto’s riverside views and coastal position encourage all manner of active pursuits, from paddleboarding and kayaking to bridge climbing and e-biking. Here’s the perfect itinerary for an active weekend break.
Salgados Golf Course is an 18-hole par-72 layout originally designed by Pedro Vasconcelos in 1994 and renovated by renowned landscape architect Álvaro Mano in 2012.
Italy has suspended its golden visa programme for Russian and Belarusian citizens, the country’s Business Ministry has announced on its website.
Rail travel is all the rage this summer and Portugal is getting on board with a new offer.
Spain’s national rail operator has recently launched new routes connecting to major cities in France.
There are few wine regions in the world as instantly recognisable as Portugal's Douro Valley. Its vineyards rise in striking symmetry from the banks of the Rio Douro, which charts a 557-mile-long course across northern Portugal before spilling out into the Atlantic at Porto. The Alto (Upper) Douro lies at the sweet spot where the Marão and Montemuro mountains meet, shielding the land from unforgiving westerly winds. In doing so, they create ideal microclimates for the area's 250,000-odd hectares of vertiginous vineyards, yielding super-concentrated, deeply flavoured grapes.
There are many reasons to fall in love with the Azores, a Portuguese archipelago in the middle of the Atlantic that’s often called the Hawaii of Europe. The islands are green; they’re lush; they’re beautiful. And there’s a lot of delicious cheese. They’re also still places that are still largely free from mass tourism, and they’re home to a growing number of delightful boutique hotels. These are some of the loveliest.
Designated protected areas make up almost a quarter of Portugal's landmass, and while this Iberian country has just one national park — Peneda-Gerês, on the Spanish border in the far north — there are 24 natural parks and other protected landscapes for nature lovers to explore. Often etched with hiking trails that lead you through pine-clad hills, wildflower valleys and high pastures, these areas make prime spots to catch a glimpse of native fauna such as horses, eagles, lizards and even dolphins in the wild.