A Portugal of Pristine Beaches, Tiny Villages and Little Else

'The country’s Alentejo region has the last unspoiled stretch of Atlantic coast in all of southern Europe, with 40 miles of nearly untouched beaches.

The local butcher, with his daughter standing by his side, was selling roasted whole chickens and slabs of fresh-cut beef to customers who only had to look into the store and nod to put in their orders, much as it has been done in this tiny hillside village in rural Portugal for decades now. Routines here are as well-worn as the cobblestone streets.

Just a block away, French-speaking visitors waltzed into the row of recently opened boutiques selling designer dresses and bikinis, next to the site where the French shoe designer Christian Louboutin is preparing to build this town’s first hotel. It is a hint of the two worlds that have come together in this beachside town.

Melides is in the midst of a transformation as a wave of super affluent Europeans — artists, bankers, actors and sports stars — have discovered this extraordinarily beautiful spot, which happens to sit in the middle of a 40-mile stretch of nearly untouched Atlantic Ocean beaches, and at the edge of hundreds of square miles of cork oak fields, vineyards and rice fields.

The Alentejo region, as the area is known, has the last unspoiled stretch of Atlantic Ocean coast in all of southern Europe. The coast is largely unknown to visitors from the United States, whose bucket list for Portugal is generally the famed cities of Lisbon and Porto, and the Algarve region to the south, which has some beautiful towns like Lagos, but is often overrun with tourists, especially in the peak summer months.'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/28/travel/portugal-alentejo-melides-atlantic-coast-beaches-villages.html?