Arrábida

The water in Arrábida's coves runs so clear you can count pebbles metres down. Limestone cliffs rise behind the sand, draped in wild rosemary and Mediterranean scrub, and above it all the Convento da Arrábida sits in its dark green canopy, watching the Atlantic as it has since the sixteenth century.

The Arrábida Natural Park holds a limestone massif on the Setúbal Peninsula, forty minutes south of Lisbon, protecting one of Portugal's last sweeps of Mediterranean maquis. The 1542 Franciscan convent is built into the slope so discreetly it nearly disappears from the sea; below, sheltered coves — Galapinhos, Portinho, Creiro — trap turquoise water between white rock, noticeably warmer than Portugal's open Atlantic beaches. The park holds development off the coves entirely, and in high summer access to the beaches is controlled — the one rule this coast asks. The southern slopes ripen Muscat grapes against heat-reflecting limestone for Moscatel de Setúbal, one of the country's oldest wine traditions, and the Sado estuary next door holds one of Europe's few resident bottlenose dolphin populations — on the dolphins' own terms.