Well Wandering - Portugal
At Well Wandering we believe that frequent travel is the best way to get you out of your comfort zone and help you to live in the moment. It’s one of the only times where you can truly disconnect from hectic work lives and we always come home from trips feeling inspired and more connected to each other, and to this beautiful world we live in.
While there are so many incredible benefits to travelling, it can be hard to maintain balance while on a trip. Even if you live a healthy lifestyle at home vacation is typically a time to overindulge, leaving you tired and rundown by the time you board that plane back to ‘real life’. At Well Wandering we believe that enjoyable travel doesn’t have to come at the expense of healthy living and that you’ll be much happier and healthier both during and after your trip if you follow a few easy well wandering trips. When it comes to Euro travel health can be as easy as cooking healthy breakfasts in your air b & b, and walking >10,000 steps daily. This balanced approach to wandering Portugal allows for a little (a lot) more room for vinho verde and 10pm dinners while still maintaining energy and wellness. We hope you enjoy this recap of our favourite places to eat, stay and play in Portugal:
TO EAT:
Of course, the first thing to do when landing in Portugal is to head straight out to dinner. For us, exploring a new country always starts at mealtime with local dishes and wine. We fell instantly in love with Portugal, and Portuguese cuisine is one of the reasons why. It’s wonderfully affordable to eat out in Portugal and most of the food is fresh and locally sourced. It’s also very easy to eat gluten & dairy-free while travelling here since most of the meals are built around meats, seafood and the occasional codfish cake.
Most days start with an espresso and a homemade meal. While a typical breakfast in Portugal consists of buttered toast, or a fresh pastry from a local cafe, we feel our best when starting the day with protein and sticking to a mostly gluten-free diet. Eating breakfast at home before heading out for your daily adventure is the best bet when it comes to well wandering through Portugal. One of the first things to do when landing in a new country is to get acquainted with the local grocery stores. In Portugal we do most of our shopping in the mini mercados found in the larger cities like Lisbon and Porto. These tiny super markets look like your local convenience store but have tons of local produce, fresh meats and prepared foods and pastries. While travelling, a typical breakfast for us includes some sort of vegetable (often a whole head of cabbage) cooked on a pan along with local meat or fish and a drizzle of olive oil. This combo of protein, fat & fibre always keeps us full through mornings exploring the local sites, and gives us plenty of fuel for any adventures that come our way.
In Portugal we typically eat lunch around 2:00 – 3:00pm after a morning of walking through the city and stopping at every cafe in sight for a shot of espresso (thank goodness for that filling & healthy breakfast). A healthy balanced lunch in Portugal often consists of fresh seafood or Portuguese chicken along with a salad and some sort of ‘treat’ like a french fry of codfish cake. Tip: when visiting Lisbon you must check out Mercado da Riberia (aka Time Out Market). This huge upscale food court is our favourite place to stop for wine and codfish cakes in the late afternoon.
Dinner while travelling in Europe is almost always after 9:00pm. While we practice intermittent fasting at home (and rarely eat after 6:00pm), a late European dinner after a long day of walking just feels like the right thing to do when abroad. For dinner we always start with some sort of seafood dish, typically a plate of sardines or a whole roasted fish. Portugal is a country with a huge coastline and the fish was as fresh and amazing as you’d expect. The seafood is especially wonderful in the Algarve, which is known as the seafood capital of Portugal. A perfect dinner in Portugal: a few plates of olives, cod-stuffed peppers and a giant Portuguese charcuterie board.
For dessert? we’re happy with a glass of sweet green wine (see below).
TO DRINK:
Portugal is famous for it’s green grapes and the wine they produce; aptly named vinho verde. This is easily one of our favourite types of wine to enjoy while sitting on a patio in the late afternoon sun. It’s sweet, light, and slightly lower in alcohol than many other varieties making it an excellent daytime sipper. Most wines run about 12% to 14% alcohol, where vinho verde is more like 10% and can even be as low as 8.5%. Most vinho verde also has a light fizz that is extremely refreshing. Nothing beats a glass of vinho verde sipped in an outdoor cafe while watching the city go by, in windy cliff top restaurants overlooking the city, on sail boats and even in bed before an afternoon siesta. But our favourite place for a glass of this crisp vino is while exploring outdoor markets; Portugal has much more lenient liquor laws than Canada and we love the novelty of being able to enjoy a glass of wine while shopping. Wine is cheaper than water in Portugal and you can find many delicious varieties at your local supermercado for less than 1 euro.
While in Porto you must visit a winery that specializes in Portugal’s famous sweet sipper: port (it’s replaced dessert at most of our dinner parties). Truthfully, we used to write off port as a weird drink for old sailors but we have a new appreciation for it after learning about how it’s made and visiting it’s birth place. Porto is in the northern part of Portugal and it’s the birth place of this unique libation. Port is produced from grapes grown exclusive in the Douro region of Portugal. The wine produced from these grapes is then fortified by the addition of a grape spirit known as ‘aguardente’ which stops the fermentation process leaving extra residual sugar in the wine along with a slight boost in it’s alcohol content. While in Porto we recommend that you visit Sandeman winery for a history lesson and port-tasting.
White Port + Tonic recipe: our favourite afternoon cocktail to drink while in Portugal, simply mix 2 oz white port with low sugar tonic and pour over tons of crushed ice + garnish with a little citrus fruit. We especially love a tonic-based beverage after a long flight since studies show that it can improve circulation and prevent restless legs after long periods of immobility (aka that 8 hours it took you to fly there).
TO DO:
Porto: The oldest book shop in Portugal is at the top of our list of places to visit while in Porto. The architecture in this beautiful old book store inspired JK Rowling in her descriptions of Hogwarts and is definitely a must see if you’re a fan of the franchise. We also recommend a guided city tour of Porto, along with port tastings and a few lunches in Vila Nova de Gaia located on the other side of the Douro river.
Lisbon: Lisbon is one of our favourite European cities. It’s such a beautiful spot to just walk around, explore and eat without any set plan or direction. We refer to this as type of wandering as ‘romping’, and it’s our favourite thing to do on vacation. On-foot exploration of a new city burns a ton of calories and allows us to stay active while travelling. It also allows for an up-close and personal experience of a unique city like Lisbon. The outdoor markets are lovely and there are tons of beautiful outdoor sunny spaces to park yourself with a blanket, book / a journal and a bottle of vinho verde. Along with some aimless romping we also recommend that you visit the Mercado da Riberia (aka Time Out Market) for wine and codfish cakes in the afternoon and set aside a full day for exploring the Lx Factory area. Lx is an industrial area that’s been converted into shops, restaurants and cafes. It has a very cool vibe and excellent shopping, and you can easily spend a full day browsing and dining in this hip neighbourhood. The shopping in downtown Lisbon is also fabulous and you’ll find quite a few great (& cheap) clothing stores with unique pieces that we still wear often while fondly thinking of our travels to this trendy city.
While in Lisbon we must also insist that you visit our friend Estevez for an authentic Portuguese cooking experience. Estevez is an incredible host and will teach you so much about Portuguese culture and history. He’ll show you how to cook simple yet flavourful traditional dishes like clams with vinho verde, Portuguese bean salad and salt cod with potatoes, and a fabulous healthy dessert to top off the meal.
The Algarve: The Algarve is the southern area of Portugal and we can’t let you leave the country without a few nights stay in this beautiful beachy location. Lagos is a particularly lovely spot in the Algarve, with it’s old architecture, gorgeous cliffs, sea caves and sandy beaches it’s easy to see why this is such a popular tourist destination. You’ll spend most of your time in Lagos relaxing on the beach and wandering along the ocean while stopping in at some amazing cafes and restaurants along the way. Our favourite place to eat here is a tiny restaurant the middle of the city appropriately called “The Garden“. The food is wonderful but the ambiance is even better. We’ll spend hours in this restaurant drinking sangria and enjoying some lovely vegan meals while watching the city go by. We suggest your days in the Algarve look a little something like this; wake up, make breakfast in your hotel and drink a few large glasses of water (it’s HOT down there in the spring and summer), stop in a cafe for espresso, then lay on the beach until lunch time. In the heat of the afternoon you’ll walk around Lagos’s shaded cobblestone streets or relax under a tree in the park followed by a siesta back in your hotel. ‘Downtown’ Lagos is filled with wonderful outdoor restaurants and you really can’t go wrong no matter where you pick. Finish the day with some fresh caught fish and a Portuguese tart (you did walk all afternoon!), and dance the night away at one of a handful of local clubs where you’ll mingle with locals and lots of (in our experience) Australian tourists.
