Viana do Castelo, Portugal

VIANA DO CASTELO is the Minho's principal resort town and a highly appealing one it is, too, with a historic old centre, above-average restaurants and, some distance from the town itself, one of the best beaches in the north. As a prosperous seafaring town, Viana produced some of the greatest colonists of the "discoveries" under Dom Manuel, and was later a departure point for fishing expeditions to Newfoundland's Great Banks.