There’s a wild side to Portugal that remains largely under the radar. Those with a nose for adventure can swim beneath the Milky Way in Alentejo, surf Atlantic breakers on the coast, discover wildlife in national parks or take to new hiking trails in the Algarve’s cork-cloaked hinterland
ALENTEJO
The world’s first Starlight Tourism Destination, Portugal’s Alqueva region offers round-the-clock adventure — from dawn flights by hot air balloon to a kayaking tour under a dazzling night sky.
In Alqueva, rush hour kicks off at 9.30pm. The area’s roads remain as empty at night as they are by day, but 340 miles above, a queue of Starlink satellites is starting to form. “There’s the International Space Station,” says astronomer Nuno Santos, directing his green laser pointer south. “Give the three people on board a wave!”
After a few more minutes, my eyes have adjusted to the utter blackness over the Dark Sky Alqueva Observatory, allowing more celestial bodies to appear. First startlingly luminous Venus, then an orange-hued Mars. The backdrop to these scene-stealing planets is an incomprehensible number of stars, twinkling like a handful of glitter tossed into the night sky.
To orientate myself, I search for the most famous of the animal constellations: Ursa Major. “Can’t see the shape of a great bear?” says Nuno. “Don’t worry, me neither. Remember, the people who named them drank really good wine.”
Mastery of the stars was the making of Portugal. The country dominated the Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries, when European nations began exploring the world by sea. I’ve been using GPS to find my way around the Alqueva Dark Sky Route — aroad trip stitching together stargazing spots, accommodation and activities — but for early navigators the equivalent was the North Star. “The light we see from it now was cast when the astronomer Galileo was still alive,” Nuno tells the small group attending one of his nightly sessions. “Look at the night sky, and you’re looking at the past.”
Wind the clock back only a few decades, and Alqueva would’ve looked very different. Today, it’s dominated by the Alqueva Reservoir, Europe’s largest artificial body of water. Completed in 2002, work on it didn’t begin until 1995, despite plans being mooted as far back as the 1950s. The brainchild of António de Oliveira Salazar, prime minister of Portugal between 1932 and 1968, it was intended to irrigate this largely agricultural region, nicknamed ‘Portugal’s breadbasket’ for its abundance of cereal crops. The area receives a fraction of the visitors its neighbour, the Algarve, gets, despite the addition of a lakeshore longer than the entire Portuguese coast.
From the fortified hilltop settlement of Monsaraz, it’s possible to get a sense
