Portugal is seeing a big increase in travellers looking for an alternative destination for their holidays due to the political unrest in Egypt which is now in it’s third week.

Algarve Beach

Although Portugal is one of the smallest countries in Europe, it still has a great deal to offer holidaymakers. Accommodation varies from great family orientated hotels on the Algarve to converted farmhouses in beautiful countryside of the north.

Most tourists head to the Algarve which has hundreds of sandy beaches and sheltered coves along it’s long coastline which are just perfect for sunbathing and swimming. In the north of the country is the Costa Verde or Green Coast where you can while your days away among the rolling hills and vineyards or just  lay back and enjoy sunbathing at the beautiful sandy beach. This part of Portugal is less touristy and cheaper than the Algarve so why not take advantage of the many bargain holidays that are on offer.

Lisbon

Millions of people holiday in Portugal each year which means that there are always lots of holiday packages around to experience not only the beaches but also the country’s history and culture in cities like Lisbon and Oporto.

Nelly Furtado

Luso-Canadian pop star Nelly Furtado will be performing in Portugal on November 26th in a free, acoustic concert that is part of a series of concerts titled ‘Secret Shows’, organised by Myspace Portugal and Portuguese mobile phone operator Optimus.

Nelly will be showcasing her new album ‘Mi Plan’, which is the songstress’s first to be sung entirely in Spanish.

Launched four years ago, ‘Secret Shows’ was devised in the USA and aims to put on free and exclusive concerts in unexpected places. Within Portugal the aim is to put on shows featuring internationally famous artists as well as newcomers, in busy cities and regional hotspots. Exactly where Nelly Furtado will be performing has not yet been disclosed. So far, only the date and month have been confirmed.

Recorded in September this year, ‘Mi Plan’ is Nelly’s fourth studio-recorded album and is currently at number one in America’s Latin charts. So far it has been in the top spot for four consecutive weeks.

‘Mi Plan’ includes singles such as ‘Manos al aire’, ‘Más’, ‘Fuerte’, and features collaborations with artists such as Concha Buika, as well as duets with Josh Groban and Juan Luis Guerra.

Born in Canada, daughter of Portuguese immigrants, 30-year-old Nelly Furtado is one of the most successful Canadian artists of her generation. Over her career she has won prizes including Grammy awards, Brit awards, MTV and Juno awards, having sold over 18 million copies of her first four albums.

To gain access to the ‘Optimus Secret Shows’ fans must be members of the MySpace community, which will reveal information about the city, location and other details about the show.

Moby, Oasis, The Cure, Pink and Smashing Pumpkins are just a few artists who have also participated in ‘Secret Shows’.

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Sir Cliff Richard

Associação Madrugada has announced that Sir Cliff Richard has agreed to become its first patron. The charity is currently planning its next stage of fund raising activities and development including Madrugada Day to be held on June 12 next year.

‘Having the Algarve’s most famous British personality on our side will do much to raise our profile at all levels’, states Association president Alison Blair.

Apart from usual fund raising activities, people have organized sponsored dining at home, donations collected at family gatherings such as weddings and funerals and the recent KissFM/PDM sponsored trip to Morocco. ‘We have to raise the bar now if we are to begin offering care in the home services and ultimately the construction of our own day care and residential centre for people affected with life limiting illness’, Alison explains.

Another aspect of the Association’s fund raising activities is its charity shop in Praia da Luz which has exceeded all expectations since its opening last June. Madrugada is currently looking for more shop sites along the Algarve.

A €4 million spa, the largest in any five-star hotel in Lisbon, has just been opened at the Corinthia Hotel in the Portuguese capital.

The 3,000-square-metre state-of-the-art health spa, which was officially inaugurated by Corinthia chairman Alfred Pisani, offers the widest array of facilities and technologies for relaxation, treatments, well-being, aesthetics and fitness. It will be operated by the internationally-renowned Malo Clinic Health & Wellness, led by its president Paulo Malo, who also attended the inauguration.

Treatment areas at the Malo Spa, a stand-alone facility, newly-built in the hotel, consist of 13 fully equipped rooms including a number of spa suites.

The wet area, known as Acqua in Portugal, is the largest of its kind in Lisbon and offers an interactive pool, hydro massage, Vichy showers, a walking circuit, a Roman spa, aqua beds, Jacuzzis, saunas and a hammam. A heated pool is available all year round, as well as a natural solarium, a gymnasium, a spinning room and a hairdressing and beauty lab.

The Malo Spa also has a clinical section, combining traditional spa rituals with integrated health care and cosmetic care services that include nutrition programmes, plastic surgery and physiotherapy consultation.

Corinthia Hotel Lisbon general manager Roderick Micallef said Malo Spa was destined to make the hotel one of Europe’s great spa destinations.

Strong Undersea Earthquake Near Portugal’s Azores Islands

A strong 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck Wednesday in the Atlantic Ocean near Portugal’s Azores Islands, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said.

The USGS said that the quake struck 277 miles (445 kilometres) south of the islands at a depth of 6 miles (10 km) at 4:41 pm (1841 GMT), but the Azores’s volcanic and seismic activity institute, CIVISA said it was not felt on the archipelago (the nearest land to the epicentre).

The remote islands that form the quake-prone Portuguese archipelago, located some 930 miles (1,500 kilometres) from the capital Lisbon, are home to some 240,000 Azoreans.