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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Portugal [/quote]

How is Portugal underrated [/quote]

Just got back from Portugal.

Portugal has less "tourist attractions" than most other Western European countries. Portugal's food is not nearly renowned as it's neighbor, Spain. It's top beach region, the Algarve, is said to be populated by trashy Brits on package holiday. There are not stunning mountain areas for hiking, like the Alps. Portugal is a poor country, and appears a bit shabby in places. In some places, like Porto and the Azores, you can't flush your toilet paper.

I somehow found RT tickets to Portugal from IAD for late June for under $500 on multiple airlines (it was under $400 on one of them), so despite never having given a though of going to Portugal, snapped up the tickets and planned a vacation.

And you know what? It far exceeded expectations. We discovered that less "tourist attractions" means less tourist traps. For that reason, Lisbon was a gem. The food was good enough, and it was cheap. The Algarve had it's fair share of Brits, but we were selective in where we stayed and went. The shabbiness didn't bother us...we're used to it....the people were super friendly and it was safe. That matters much more than shabbiness. Sure, we didn't get a spectacular hike in, but the hikes in the Algarve and Sao Miguel were nice. And as long as you have a bidet and a god shower, the toilet paper thing doesn't matter.

Two of the three of us are begging to go back there next year.[/quote]

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