Cais Palafítico da Carrasqueira

Top choice in The Alentejo


Built in the 1950s and 1960s, this ramshackle, zigzagging, interlocking pier on wooden stilts is one of Europe's last surviving of its kind. At sunset, it's deluged with professional photographers and amateur smartphone shutterbugs, who come for one of Portugal's most cinematic photo ops. You can wander the wharf, flush with colourful fishing huts and moored wooden boats, all in the muddy flats of the Sado Estuary.

The whole place is serene and beautiful – worth a trip from Lisbon all by its lonesome. It's in the small fishing village of Carrasqueira, 6km northeast of Comporta. It's less crowded during the week. Don't forget your camera!