How to save money in Portugal Whatever sort of holiday you are looking for, you should find something to suit you here. Read our comprehensive city break guide to Lisbon There is a big choice of flights from regional airports to Faro, entry point for the Algarve. Some are year-round services. Bmibaby (0844 848 4888, bmibaby.com) flies to Lisbon from Birmingham and to Faro from Birmingham, East Midlands and Belfast. British Airways (0844 493 0787, ba.com) flies to Lisbon from Heathrow and to Faro from Gatwick. EasyJet (easyjet.com) flies to Lisbon from five UK airports; to Faro from eight UK airports; to Porto from Gatwick only, and to Madeira from Bristol, Gatwick and Stansted. Flybe (0871 700 2000, flybe.com) flies to Faro from Exeter and Southampton. Jet 2 (0871 226 1737, jet2.com) flies to Faro from seven UK airports including Belfast, and to Madeira from Manchester and Leeds-Bradford. Monarch (0871 940 5040, monarch.co.uk) has scheduled flights to Faro from Luton, Gatwick, Birmingham and Manchester. Ryanair (0871 246 0000, ryanair.com) flies to Porto from Liverpool and Stansted and to Faro from 10 UK airports. SATA International (0844 482 1678, sata.pt) flies from Heathrow to Lisbon, with connections to four Azores islands and Madeira. In summer there is also a non-stop weekly flight from Gatwick to Ponta Delgada. TAP Air Portugal (0845 601 0932, flytap.com) has a good choice of daily departures from Gatwick and Heathrow to Porto, Lisbon and Madeira. It has also begun flights from Manchester to Lisbon. Thomson Airways (0871 231 4787, thomsonfly.com) flies to Faro from 13 UK airports; to Madeira from eight UK airports, and to Porto Santo from Gatwick and Manchester. Thomas Cook Airlines (flythomascook.com) flies from seven UK airports to Faro (May-October only) and from five airports to Madeira. The Charter Flight Centre (020 8714 0010, charterflights.co.uk) is useful for finding regional charter deals: current fares from Midlands airports are around £130 return. How to find the right holiday Holiday hotels in Portugal fall into two main categories: modern resort hotels, often on golf courses with spas, children's clubs and heated pools, and countryside pousadas and solares, from grand palaces to simple manor-house b &e_STnSbs, used as bases for touring holidays. Standards of country guesthouses vary widely, so it's best to take advice. Sawday's Special Places to Stay (sawdays.co.uk) features more than 60 inspected b & bs countrywide. The online agent i-escape.com has 45 characterful boutique hotels on its books with comprehensive reviews by its own inspectors. To rent a villa independently, visit homeaway.com (formerly Holiday Rentals) which advertises more than 3,000 properties on the mainland, Madeira and the Azores and posts customer reviews. On the Algarve, Quinta do Lago - a luxurious residential development with golf courses and beach frontage near Faro - attracts celebrities seeking privacy and an older crowd. Best value for families is found at the Four Seasons Country Club (fsccquintadolago.com): a week in August in a one-bedroom apartment costs £1,130; spacious two-bedroom, three-bathroom units go for £1,995 including use of the children's crèche. Neighbouring Vale do Lobo has a similar mixture of private villas, town houses and apartments. Most properties are within walking distance of the Praça, a complex with pool, restaurant, bar and entertainment beside a beach over a mile long. Cheaper alternatives for families with young children are found in Vale de Parra, beside one of the Algarve's best beaches, and in the village resort of Carvoeiro, which has a good beach and cheaper family-run bars and restaurants. Party-loving teenagers will want to stay within striking distance of Albufeira's themed bars and nightclubs. The cost of living is lower and beaches are quieter in the western Algarve. Sagres has been rejuvenated by the opening of the Martinhal Beach Resort, which is family-focused, combining a 38-room hotel with self-catering units. A late-July week in a two-bedroom Ocean House costs £2,625 for a family of four, including free access to children's clubs and resort facilities. You can book online with martinhal.com or through many of the holiday companies listed below, which can offer good rates on flights and transfers. There are also savings to be found by staying up in the hills behind the Algarve, either in a villa or in a boutique hotel such as the lovely Monte do Casal in Estoi, a village where locals keep the restaurants busy. Move north and west into the Alentejo, and the euro goes further still. Life is altogether slower-paced, the long sandy beaches are largely protected from development and within reach of authentic towns and villages that remain the preserve of locals. Taking a cruise on the River Douro from Porto to the Spanish border is another popular holiday choice: a full-board week costs from around £1,400 per person including flights. You can see the same scenery far more cheaply by joining an excursion boat operated by Douro Azul (douroazul.com). The trips cost from £60 and take about nine hours from Porto to Pinhão, in the heart of port-wine country, where quintas offer well-priced dinner, b & b. Using the railway that hugs the riverbank, you can explore further upstream and chug downstream back to Porto at the end of your holiday. Few foreign visitors venture north of the Douro, despite massive investment to upgrade roads and promote tourism in the provinces of Trás-os-Montes and the Minho. Many Portuguese regard this area as the most beautiful in their country, yet a couple can still eat, drink and stay in comfort for under £100 a night. Around Ponte de Lima, one of the loveliest towns, quite a few manor houses now welcome guests; many have signed up to solaresdeportugal.pt. Self-catering there can cost half what it would in a similar large house in the south. Madeira appears to have fallen out of fashion, yet it is a beautiful island, with world-class walking, beautiful gardens and very comfortable four-star hotels and historic quintas, which are now more competitively priced. Its satellite island of Porto Santo is ideal for families seeking a beach retreat; Thomson has good-value packages there. The Azores is for nature- lovers who want to get away from the package-holiday resorts. A wealth of new accommodation options has driven down prices and a week in June in a good family-run hotel can be found for under £700 per person b & b, including direct return flight from Gatwick. Further information from the Portugal National Tourist Office (brochure line: 0845 355 1212, visitportugal.com). Tour operators and agents This is our selection of some of the best and most interesting travel companies specialising in holidays to Portugal. The Algarve and Madeira are important destinations for the beach-holiday operators Thomson, First Choice and Thomas Cook, which offer larger hotels, apartments and villas. Their buying power keeps prices down, but you should still shop around for the best deal. Thomas Cook Style (0844 412 5970, thomascookstyle.com) has two-bedroom villas in the central Algarve with private pools for under £2,000 in high season. Thomson (0871 231 3235, thomson.co.uk) features the 5T Hotel CS Atlantic Sao Rafael, which has a very good spa, in its (exclusively for adults) programme. It also sells packages to the Pestana hotel on Porto Santo with direct flights from Gatwick and Manchester. First Choice (0871 200 4455, firstchoice.co.uk), which now sells all-inclusive holidays only, operates its own four-star Holiday Village Algarve; a week in July costs about £3,300 for a family of four. Smaller specialists Atlantic Holidays (01452 381888, atlanticholidays.net) is owned by Pestana, Portugal's largest independent hotel group, so it's in a good position to negotiate lower rates at mid-range resort hotels and can offer flights from 17 UK airports. A week in June at the five-star Casino Park on Madeira costs £659 half board, including flights. Classic Collection (0800 008 7288, classic-collection.co.uk) is a tailor-made specialist featuring four- and five-star boutique and resort hotels countrywide. It has a reputation for rolling special offers negotiated direct with hotels. New properties include the adults-only Aqua Pedra Dos Bicos in Albufeira. Destination Portugal (08451 222640, destination-portugal.co.uk) has a big portfolio of hotels countrywide as a basis for fly-drive holidays, including the best of the Solares, all inspected by its knowledgeable staff. New breaks include food-and-wine tours with the chef Sophie Grigson. Keytel (020 7953 3020, keytel.co.uk) is the main booking agent for Portugal's 40 state-owned pousadas (pousadas.pt), characterful four-star hotels. A five-night Pousada Passport costs £435 b & b per room (£405 to over- 55s) and is great value in summer. Some charge a local supplement at busy times. Light Blue Travel (01223 568904, lightbluetravel.co.uk) focuses on the Algarve, Madeira and the Azores and on small luxury hotels in good locations. Quinta das Vistas has a Taste Madeira offer (three à la carte dinners for £99 per person including wine); a week in June costs £765 per person b & b including flights. A good choice on the Azores is the family-run Caloura, as guests often see whales from its cliffside terrace; a week in June costs £695 per person b & b including flights. Prestige (01425 480400, prestigeholidays.co.uk) operates at the luxury end of the Algarve market but that doesn't necessarily mean a high price tag. A June week in a one-bedroom suite at Monte da Quinta on the Quinta do Lago estate costs £659 b & b per person including easyJet flight and private transfer if booked before February 28. Sunvil (020 8568 4499, sunvil.co.uk) has an enticing selection of affordable manor houses and stylish family-run hotels countrywide. The company also features hotels and b & bs on all nine islands in the Azores. It has a weekly summer charter flight from Heathrow to Beja, in the Alentejo (from £189 return), offering access to small hotels and apartments on the coast and around the historic city of Évora. Package prices in Vila Nova de Milfontes start at £490 per person b & b for a week in June. The best hotels in Lisbon Affair Travel (020 7616 9990, affairtravel.com) Eight pretty houses in the Minho region including a 17th-century manor house with pool, sleeping 10, for £1,225 in July. Affinity Villas (01428 727277, affinityvillas.com) Luxury properties in smaller Algarve resorts, all inspected by company directors. Most have heated pools and air conditioning. The newly built Casa Barnace in Luz sleeps 14 and has two private pools; £4,340 for a week in August. The Villa Agency (01273 747811, thevillaagency.co.uk) has properties from rustic farmhouses to modern air-conditioned villas on the Algarve and Lisbon coasts. The website has video tours of each property. For a larger party, Villa Sacada in Carvoeiro (six bedrooms, four bathrooms, near beach) offers particularly good value at £2,919 for a high-season week including airport transfers. Villa Retreats (0800 988 5586, villaretreats.com) Luxury portfolio strong on stylish villas in mature private gardens on the Quinta do Lago and Vale do Lobo estates. Many are offering a 10 per cent discount for bookings made before February 1. A free concierge service can arrange most things from tennis coaching to nannying. Vintage Travel (01954 261431, vintagetravel.co.uk) Affordable houses with private pools in the Algarve hills and larger quintas in the Minho. Despite Portugal's rich cultural heritage, few escorted tour companies include the country. However, themed tours of central Portugal, the Douro and Madeira are offered by Ace Cultural Tours (01223 835055, acecultural tours.co.uk), Martin Randall (020 8742 3355, martinrandall.com) and Voyages Jules Verne (0845 166 7035, vjv.com). Fans of the Sharpe television series can follow in the footsteps of Wellington's campaign in Portugal with Holts (01293 865000, holts.co.uk) and Christopher Pollard (01823 286097, christopherpollardtours.com). There are botanist-led tours of Madeira with Cricketer Holidays (01892 664242, cricketerholidays.co.uk) and Kirker Holidays (020 7593 1899, kirkerholidays.co.uk). Archers Direct (0844 573 4806, archersdirect.co.uk) has the best choice of general sightseeing tours (from £595 for eight days), and no regional flight supplements on selected departures. Excellent value are its hotel-based weeks in Madeira this spring: £445 per person b & b in a four-star hotel, including two excursions and flights. Northern Portugal, with its paved granite paths, ancient woodlands and traditional way of life, is a favourite with walkers. Specialist companies offering self-guided walks include Inntravel (01653 617000, inntravel.co.uk), which has six itineraries including a walk along the new long- distance Rota Vicentina in the Alentejo: seven nights from £628 per person b & b, most dinners, picnic lunches and luggage transfer. On Foot Holidays (01722 322652, onfootholidays.co.uk) features the remote Peneda-Gerês National Park. Guided group walks are offered by HF Holidays (0845 470 7558, hfholidays.co.uk), which has a new 14-night island-hopping holiday to the Azores, and Ramblers (01707 331133, ramblersholidays.co.uk), which features nine different walks. The luxury walking specialist ATG (01865 315678, atg-oxford.com) has introduced cheaper five-day "connect" escorted walks in the Alto Minho and Alta Alentejo from £775 per person including all meals. For guided cycling contact Saddle Skedaddle (0191 265 1110, skedaddle.co.uk), which has added a 17-day north-south traverse for keen mountain bikers. For self-guided routes with baggage transfer on flatter terrain, contact Headwater (0845 564 7147, headwater.com). Activities Abroad (01670 789991, activitiesabroad.com) runs active family weeks - canoeing, archery, surfing - on the Alentejo coast. For tailor-made holidays exploring the natural world of the Azores - whale-watching, walking, diving, sailing, birdwatching and family adventure - contact Archipelago Azores (01768 775672, azoreschoice.com). For tennis coaching weeks on the Algarve, contact Jonathan Markson Tennis (020 7603 2422, marksontennis.com) and Roger Walker Travel (01962 713330, tennisholidays.co.uk).