Portugal offers you beautiful and unique National Parks. In fact here you can visit and be in touch with one of the richest and varied biodiversity in Europe, due to Portugal’s landscapes of mountain, plains, inland, coastline, river and sea.
In this article Portugal Premium Tours presents you 3 of these parks, which you will definitely want to visit!
On our website you will find a diverse offer of tailor-made private tours, which will allow you to get in touch with this unique environment!
1. Peneda-Gerês
Rich diversity of fauna (deer, ‘garrano’ horses, wolves, birds of prey) and flora (pines, yew trees, chest nut trees, oaks and a variety of medicinal plants), the National Park of Peneda-Geres owns a rare and stunning natural beauty and has an incalculable ecological and ethnographic value.
While walking through the Park, which offers many opportunities for hiking and outdoor activities, you will find rivers, waterfalls and breathtaking landscapes. It’s considered by UNESCO as a World Biosphere Reserve and one of the greatest natural attractions of Portugal.
This park was the first Portugal protected area in 1971 and it’s the only National Park in the Country, located in the North of Portugal, with an area of 72,000 hectares.
2. Serra da Arrábida
Characteristic for its climate and Mediterranean flora, the Natural Park of ‘Serra da Arrábida’ offers one of the most photogenic landscapes of Portugal.
The fauna is very diverse, despite having passed through some changes since the 19th Century. The Wildcat, the Geneto, the Badger, the Rabbit, the Partridge and the Eagle owl are some of the 200 species of vertebrates that can be found in the Park.
The Park, established in 1976, next to the sea in the Setúbal district, is a rural space where traditional activities takes place, such as the Azeitão’s cheese and the Table wines, produced in a perfect harmony with the natural environment and with the local life community.
3. Parque Natural Sintra-Cascais
Created in 1994, the Natural Park of Sintra-Cascais looks straight out of a fairy tale. If on one hand offers bright and open landscapes, on the other, you will face the darkness of the woods.
Here you can find a great diversity of species, though not always easily observable. Over more of 200 species of vertebrates including the Marsh Fritillary, the Latastei’s Viper and the Bonelli’s Eagle.
The park extends from the Sintra area to the Guincho beach and Cabo da Roca, its landscape is complemented with an extensive rural area, where fruit and wine are produced, and a beautiful coastline.
Besides these wonderful parks, Portugal has other 11 National Parks: Montesinho, International Douro, North Coast, Alvão and Candeeiros, São Mamede, Southwest Alentejo and Vincentian Coast, Vale do Guadiana and Ria Formosa.
To learn more about each one of these parks visit: www.icnf.pt
