Portugal

It started with an HBO documentary. We watched 100 Foot Wave during lockdown, watched Garrett McNamara surf waves the size of buildings off a small Portuguese fishing town, and made a promise to ourselves. The moment travel reopened, we went to Nazaré. We've been going back to Portugal ever since.

Lisbon is beautiful — we're not going to tell you to skip it. Sintra is worth it, especially if you stay overnight instead of taking the day trip bus back. The Algarve's cliffs are everything the photos suggest. But the Portugal we keep coming back to is the other one: the Alentejo's endless cork forests and bone-white hilltop villages, the wild Atlantic beaches that nobody's heard of, the Costa Vicentina coastline where the waves are too strong for swimming and perfect for everything else. The one where breakfast is local cheese, warm bread, and a view that makes you rearrange your whole itinerary on the spot.

Portugal does boutique hotels exceptionally well too — centuries of convents, quintas, olive oil mills, and fishing houses converted into places with character. Once you've stayed in one, you won't want to go back to a chain.

Oh, and the pastéis de nata. There's a reason they sell them in tubes.

This is our full Portugal guide — region by region, with our take on where to go, where to stay, and what to skip.