Hola Portugal — With Love, Kate

After the muddy madness of Glastonbury, we spent the rest of the summer working away in the city. When London does hot, it does hot properly. While it’s not too shabby, our sun-worshipping is mainly limited to the grassy knolls of Hyde Park accompanied with a good book, a jug of Pimms and a picnic. So by the time late September rolled around, we raced to the airport faster than you can mix a good passion fruit mimosa. Destination: Portugal.

We were after a late-summer destination with sandy beaches, warm nights, a relaxing vibe and one that wouldn’t break the bank. We’d seen a few snaps of the breath-taking, cliff-lined beaches along the Algarve. We’d heard the rumours about Lisbon’s amazing food scene. When we found flights at a fraction of the price of the high-summer season, we snapped them up because quite simply, it would have been rude not too.

Portugal has the perfect combination of chilled yet stunning beach destinations and buzzing cosmopolitan centres for when you tire of lying in the sun (say what?!)

We spent 4 days lazing around Lagos, down south in the Algarve. Time was split between the beach, the pool, lazy afternoon strolls downtown, topped off with the best fish tacos ever at Nah Nah Bah Burgers and washed down with sangria.

Tanned and rested, we headed up to Lisbon to visit what is fast becoming one of Europe’s trendiest destinations. To be honest, our feelings towards this city were slow burning. We didn’t fall in love on first sight. But by the end, we were hooked.

Lisbon felt so...dynamic. Stunning architecture, delicious food and a rich history mixes with dilapidated buildings and run-down centres still bearing the scars of the recent recession.

Next up: Porto. Porto had an entirely different vibe completely. It has a feel of northern European cities; parts of it reminded me of Brussels. With imposing municipal buildings, it feels much more like a working city with tourism added in as an afterthought. You have to chip away at to fully appreciate what it has to offer - sticking to the main tourist attractions will probably leave you a bit disappointed.