Arcos de Valdevez is a quiet market town in the Minho, tucked where the Vez river meets a landscape of terraced vineyards and granite hills. It sits at the edge of the Peneda-Gerês National Park, which makes it a good base for anyone wanting to explore the wilder northern reaches of Portugal without the crowds of Viana do Castelo.
The town itself is unassuming but pleasant — a riverside esplanade, a couple of old churches, and the kind of unhurried pace that feels genuinely Portuguese rather than staged. The medieval Pillory in the old town square is one of the finest examples of Manueline stone carving in the region, and the Baroque Church of Nossa Senhora da Lapa is worth seeking out for its distinctive façade by architect André Soares.
The bus ride from Ponte de Lima is worth taking slowly. One route passes through Ponte da Barca and the tiny hamlet of Bravães, where a 12th-century Romanesque church stands in a field almost too good to be real — carved stone tympanums, oxen and apostles, and almost nobody else there. If the weather is mild, the walk between Arcos and Ponte da Barca along the river is excellent.