Portugal is one of the cheapest and most fascinating destinations in Europe. It has a rich seafaring past, superb beach resorts, wistful towns and cities, and a landscape wreathed in olive groves, vineyards and wheat fields. Four decades of dictatorship left the country sidelined from Europe's power centres and detached from the progressiveness of modern life for much of this century.
 Holidaymakers mistook this tardy development for quaintness and, once free of the yoke of dictatorship, Portugal developed a reputation as little more than a cheap charter flight destination for northern Europeans wanting to pep up their summer tans.
Portugal is not an extension of the Costa del Sol but - like its neighbour, Spain - it has spent much of the last 20 years trying to move in from the periphery, forging new ties with the rest of Europe, restructuring its economy, and struggling to maintain what is best in its national culture in the face of a sudden onslaught of international influences. The struggle between the traditional and the modern continues, and as Portugal flows towards the economic mainstream of the European Union, it still seems to gaze nostalgically over its shoulder and out to sea.