Portugal Through the Senses – Chapter 4: The Scents of Summer

Olá, and welcome back to Portugal Through the Senses.

If you’ve been travelling with me through this series, you already know that Portugal isn’t just a place to visit — it’s a country you experience with your whole body. We’ve listened to the music in its streets, tasted summer on its plates, and followed the colours through its villages and cliffs.

Today, we follow the trail of something more subtle, but just as powerful: the scents that define a Portuguese summer.

Because yes — Portugal smells like something. And once you know it, you’ll never forget it.

Mornings by the Sea

If you’re near the coast — and let’s be honest, in Portugal, you usually are — you start the day with salt.Not just the taste on your lips, but that soft, fresh scent of the Atlantic drifting into town. It’s especially sharp early in the morning, before the sun burns it off. In places like Lagos, Cascais or even Cacilhas, you catch it between the cafés and the old fishing boats rocking quietly in the marina.

And sometimes, if you’re lucky, it carries a faint whiff of grilled fish left over from the night before — the memory of a festa still lingering in the air.

Alentejo in the Heat

Now take the road inland. The air changes. It slows down. In Alentejo, the summer scent is dry, golden and warm. It smells like earth — cracked and sun-baked. Like olive trees and cork bark. And in August, like dust stirred up by the wind and the wheels of your car.

But it’s not lifeless. You’ll walk through Monsaraz or Estremoz, and pass walls covered in fig trees, or little corners where wild rosemary grows, stubborn and fragrant. Sometimes it’s not a single smell — it’s the sensation of heat releasing perfume from the land itself.

The Market

One of my favourite places to follow your nose is inside a local mercado. Walk into the one in Setúbal or Olhão on a Saturday morning, and you’ll be hit with a swirl of smells that feel chaotic and delicious all at once.

There’s the sharp tang of vinegar near the olives stand. The sweetness of peaches and figs piled high. The sea itself, fresh and cold, hanging in the air around the fish stalls. Then, without warning, the smell of a bifana sizzling at a food counter nearby.

Markets are the perfect example of how scent and culture mix. Nothing is controlled, nothing filtered. It’s just the raw smell of life being lived, and food being prepared with stories behind it.

Tiles, Churches and Time

Now, here’s a scent I always tell guests to notice — the smell inside a Portuguese church. Especially the older ones.

You walk in from the heat, and suddenly the air is cool, almost damp. It smells like stone, wax, and incense. Sometimes like age itself. There’s something about these places — from Lisbon’s tiny capelas to the grand cathedrals in Porto or Braga — that holds on to the smells of centuries.

The scent of time, if such a thing exists, lives here.

Summer Nights

And then, as the sun fades, Portugal changes again. The scent of jasmine begins to float through the air. It grows stronger in the evening, especially in Lisbon or the Algarve, where it grows in gardens and over fences. You might not notice it until you're walking back to your guesthouse, and suddenly it’s there — light, floral, a little hypnotic.

Add the scent of smoke from grilled sardines. A glass of port or medronho nearby. A paper cup of warm chestnuts if you're catching a festival that goes into the night. Suddenly, you realise you're not just smelling summer — you're feeling it.

Scent and Memory

Scents are strange things. They’re invisible. They drift. And yet, they anchor you. Long after the trip ends, a certain smell will bring it all back: the beach, the dust, the peach stand, the grilled fish at sunset.

That’s why, as a guide, I always tell people — don’t rush.

Breathe it in.

The best things in Portugal can’t be captured in a photo. But they’ll stay with you, deep in your memory, just waiting to resurface the next time something smells like summer.

Until next time,PeppeYour guide, your storyteller, your travel companion in Portugal