Evora

Evora is the capital of the Alentejo region. The main reason backpackers may have heard of it is because some services from Madrid to Lisbon stop here. That doesn't mean you have to.

Starting, as always, with the downsides: Evora is UNESCO listed as being a cute little historic town, but then lots of places are. Sintra is a cute little historic town. Evora is a vaguely sizeable provincial city with bunch of traffic-choked windy streets where there should be a nicely laid-out city centre. It is a little-known fact that the phrase "hardly very lively" was invented especially to describe Evora.

So why might you go there then? Well, for a kick off it's a fairly easy day trip from Lisbon, and gives you the chance to see a bit more of Portugal. Secondly, it isn't really horrible - there are some quite nice things to look at, like the roman temple and the aqueduct. The third reason is that in theory it is a good base for walking or cycling your way around Alentejo. Unfortunately the youth hostel was closed for refurbishments (in February 2006), so that is less the case at the moment.