If we’re lucky, we may find a place which fits us, where we know that as soon as we step off the plane, the train, the ferry, we can sigh the sigh of the truly relaxed.

Often we find these places, when we are ready to settle down and have a different kind of relationship with our holidays, where we want something deeper, not with another person, but with another country, another culture, another way of life. We may never be truly be part of it, and maybe the attraction is that this place is the place of our dreams and our escape, the place that we can go to in our minds when we are stuck at our desks staring at a computer, frustrated in a traffic jam on the way home from work, or simply gazing out of our windows on a drizzly January day. And then we can think, if I was in MY place, the place that I love, I would be sitting at a pavement café watching the world go by, walking barefoot in the warm sand, or white-water rafting through the rapids, with spray cooling my face.

I found my place, by accident, unexpectedly, and not at all suddenly. It grew and grew and grew on me until one day, returning after an absence of two years, I got off the plane, stood in baggage reclaim, and realised. I thought, who am I kidding. I feel different already, and I haven’t even left the airport. Why on earth do I want to be anywhere else, when I feel like this just by taking a few breaths of Portuguese air?

It doesn’t mean I don’t want to explore other countries, or enjoy new sights and sounds. Its just that I’ve got it right under my skin, and I will be eternally grateful that I have found it.

So, on these pages, you can find out why I love the place, from the vibrancy of Cascais and the Lisbon coast where I once lived, to the colourful beauty of the north, the ethereal light and stillness of the Alentejo, and the eternal warmth of the Algarve.