The far north

Best for: Hiking, wildlife, scenery and wine

ROUTE: Porto • Pinhão

• Côa valley • Bragança • Montesinho Natural Park • Peneda-gerês National Park • Ponte de Barca • Porto Whtehendtoourogvoal:leayv’soid winter. WHY DO IT: To meander throabuogvhe othneeriovefre; (uarboopve)’s most isolwaatelkderasnindpfeonregdoat-tgeenrêcsorners. For vinous treats and hiking in far-flung mountains.

From Porto, wind eastwards up the Douro valley into the heart of port wine-growing country where vines and silvery olive trees grow on terraces hewn out of precipitous mountainsides. Stay at Pinhão for winery tours and tastings, before continuing up to the remote alley of the Côa tributary where Europe’s most extensive array of Palaeolithic rock engravings was discovered in the 1980s.

Then head north for Tras-osmontes – literally ‘behind the mountains’ – in the far righthand corner of the map. Montesinho Natural Park, which begins just beyond the region’s fortress-city capital Bragança, is Portugal’s wildliferichest area. Hares leap through the heather blanketing this giant hump of wild and exposed upland, and you might spot foxes and genets, or otters in the streams. Wolves are rarely seen but their spinetingling howl is sometimes heard at night.

Return westwards through the Minho region where Penedagerês NP has superlative hiking. Much of it is on newly-waymarked trails through dramatic mountains such as the Trilho dos Moinhos de Parada (Trail of the Mills) near Ponte de Barca.