Portugal is the country that invented the late lunch. Weekends here work because the pace is already ours: slow starts, long tables, evening light that lasts.
We use two cities and keep them apart. Lisbon is for stairs you take sitting in a tram. Porto is for the river and the bridge across it.
When to go
Spring
The best of it. Jacaranda is out in Lisbon from May and the days are long without being hot.
Summer
Hot inland, breezy on the coast. We keep to the sea and the river.
Autumn
Warm water, warm light and fewer people. Our favourite time for Porto.
Winter
Mild, damp in places, cheaper to be indoors. A weekend of cafés and trams.
Both Portuguese weekends fly from the north-west and return the same day we say.
Weekends here
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Lisbon Long Weekend
Four days in Lisbon with nothing before ten: tiled streets, a viewpoint at lunch and a river that does not hurry. From £745 per person, confirmed by a manager.
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Porto and Douro Lie-in
Four days of river light in Porto and the Douro valley: a boat, a terrace lunch and a bed worth staying in. From £865 per person, confirmed by a manager.