Hi all,
I'm hoping to do a trip to Portugal in July of this year, and would appreciate some location advice. Before I get into what I'm looking for, I appreciate July is both hot and busy (see later), but I don't have much flexibility of when I can travel due to my job. :)
So...I'm hoping to find a quiet non-touristy town / village which I can use as a base of operations. More specifically, I dislike large crowds and instead want to see castles, ancient monuments, old villages, scenery, etc. plus try out local food and have a beer in a cafe in the evening, etc.
I prefer slightly cooler temperatures, so I'm intending to hire a car from Porto airport, so somewhere in the north / middle of the country would be better. The car would give me some flexibility in terms of traveling to day trip locations as well. As a starting point, I was thinking of Figueira de Castelo Rodrigo, it's a pretty solid drive from the airport but ticks a lot of boxes, although the restaurants seem a little uninspired (as per Google maps).
Thanks.
p.s. I appreciate Lisbon and Porto have their attractions, but I'll visit them in the off season when I'm retired. ;)