Zambujeira do Mar

The fresh fish is almost always grilled or roasted. From fresh waters, there is largemouth bass from the reservoir. From salt waters, there is a vast variety of fish with great commercial value: sharpsnout bream, snapper, conger eel, cat shark, permit, forkbeard, bream, gilt-head bream, sea bass, conger, sardines, when in season and when they are plump and succulent, monkfish, octopus, and plentiful seafood, including, goose barnacles, whelks, and razor clams. Also classic are the fish soups, the bean stews and the fish stews, preferably with conger. With rice, ask for monkfish. The wines can be from the Alentejo, such as whites, which some have considered to be the best in the world. For those who are more curious, the wines from coastal Alentejo are currently also an excellent option.

Other Flavours: migas (cabbage with cornbread) with meat, trotters with coriander and boiled dinner which honours the quality of the smoked sausage of the Alentejo. First, there is always bread, but here there is only one, the Alentejo bread, as well as olives, plain or with garlic and herbs, cheese and prosciutto. To finish, some sweet potato tarts or pão de rala (convent sweet) and to take as a snack, if it is the season of the Popular Saints, alcôncoras (biscuits made with honey, olive oil and cinnamon). And because, here, the meals are always bountiful, finish with a local aguardente (“fire water”) to help with digestion.

Visit the 4 fishing ports (Portinho do Canal in Vila Nova de Milfontes, Lapa das Pombas in Almograve, Entrada da Barca, in Zambujeira do Mar and Azenhas do Mar) – approximately 150 fishermen and a fleet with 75 vessels dedicated to artisanal fishing, maintaining the characteristics of the older vessels (small, open wooden hull)

The beaches with expansive stretches of sand and others hidden between cliffs. Noteworthy are the Aivados, Malhão, Farol, Franquia and Furnas beaches

The Cabo Sardão with its coast interrupted by cliffs and small beaches with fine, white sand (Zambujeira, Alteirinhos, Nossa Senhora and Tonel)

The São Clemente Fort, in Vila Nova de Mil Fontes and its respective barbican, the great church and the chapel of São Sebastião

The boat or canoe trips along the Mira River, an all-terrain adventure, a walk on foot or by horse through the mountains

The necropolis from the Iron Age, in Galeado

The chapel square of Nossa Senhora do Mar and the spring of Amores and Santa Catarina

The sunset is memorable on the Alentejo coast

“Nossa Senhora da Graça” Feast, the patron saint of Milfontes with fluvial procession – August 8^th in his honor, and the fluvial procession is the high point of the celebrations.