Modern Mainland Portugal is divided into 18 districts
and five European regions, whose boundaries do not completely coincide
with each other. This page looks at the five EU regions of
Portugal, which approximately correspond to historic provinces of the
Kingdom of Portugal.
► ►Click on the map to discover any region.
In terms of tourism, all five regions of Poertugal can boast fine coastlines and resorts, particularly the two southern regions of Alentejo, with its great western shoreline, and the Algarve with its south-facing Atlantic coast. While the Lisbon region attracts more tourists overall than any other region of Portugal, and over a third of all the tourism in continental Portugal, the only other region of continental Portugal that attracts large numbers of tourists from other parts of Europe (excluding from Spain) is the Algarve,which is the region most favoured by holiday package tours, particularly from the UK and Germany.
Inland, the north and central regions of Portugal are largely hilly or mountainous, peaking at almost 2000 metres in the Serra de Estrella in Central Portugal, and over 1600m in the Vila Real district in the Northern region, near the border with Galicia (Spain). The country is divided by two major river valleys, the Douro (Duero in Spain), which reaches the sea at Porto, and the Tejo (pronounced Te'ho, and called the Tajo in Spain, and the Tagus in English), which reaches the sea at Lisbon.
Inland areas of the southern regions of Alentejo and Algarve are very rural, with an agricultural economy based on cereals, wine, olive oil and cork in the plains and valleys, and dry Iberians crub forest in the hills.
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