Most people arrive in Portugal with a mental image assembled from the outside — football, custard tarts, sardines, Lisbon. It is not wrong, exactly. It just misses almost everything that makes the country genuinely extraordinary.
Ryan Opaz has been coming here for over twenty years. He still finds things he has never seen before.
Rethinking luxury
Ask Ryan what luxury means in Portugal and the answer requires dismantling something first.
"Portugal has the Michelin-starred restaurants, the yachts, the shopping. But what I find truly luxurious today is peacefulness and solitude — and those are increasingly hard to find anywhere."
There is nothing wrong with the Ritz in London. But you will fight traffic to get there and step outside onto a street full of people running somewhere urgent. Portugal offers something different — a hotel in the mountains with clouds drifting past the window, a table by the Douro staring up at terraced hillsides, a grilled fish from water to plate with a glass of wine that costs very little and tastes wonderful.
"That calm pace, once you step outside the big cities and let yourself relax — to me, that is luxury."
More than Lisbon
Lisbon gets the attention. But Portugal is far more interesting than any single city. Porto is dynamic, energetic and just as beautiful. Beyond the two cities lies an extraordinary range — Évora with its Roman walls, Ponte de Lima, the oldest village in Portugal, Guimarães where the country was actually born, and the islands of the Azores and Madeira, both frequently overlooked and both utterly distinct.
"If you're looking for culture, good food and wine, people, dance — there's a whole wealth of places to visit. You don't have to go where everyone else goes."
Beyond the clichés
The sardines, the custard tarts, the football — real, worth experiencing, and just the beginning. Portugal's nature alone is reason enough to come. Its craft and fashion heritage is quietly returning. Its food culture is rich and regionally distinct. And its wines are among the most interesting and undervalued in the world.
How long do you need?
Ten days, minimum.
"I've been coming here for over twenty years and I'm still discovering things. Ten days gives you Porto, Lisbon, maybe the Douro Valley. But you won't see the Azores, you won't see Madeira — and they are a very important part of who Portugal is."
For those who want to go deeper, Beyond Prestige Wine is built for exactly that.
Ryan Opaz is a Certified Port Wine Educator, Knight of the Port Wine Brotherhood, and co-author of Foot Trodden: Portugal and the Wines That Time Forgot, named the New York Times Best Wine Book of 2021. Many of Beyond Prestige Wine's tours are curated in partnership with Ryan and his team.