In 2027 eight of Portugal's national holidays land on weekdays, one fewer than in 2026, and five fall at the weekend. There are three long weekends (1 January, Good Friday and 1 November) and three official bridge days next to a Tuesday or Thursday holiday, plus Carnival. We worked out the best leave blocks, from 4 days off for 1 day of leave to 18 days off for 10.

By Leonor Sampaio

Image: Joseolgon / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

The 42nd Festa do Castanheiro – Feira da Castanha fills the hilltop village of Marvão on the weekend of 14 and 15 November. The council bought five tonnes of chestnuts from 24 local producers in a poor harvest year to supply three roasting stations. Expect a cookery demo, a pastry workshop, concerts at 4pm and a village closed to cars from 9am to 7pm.

Marvão went shopping before its fair. The council bought five tonnes of chestnuts from 24 growers in the municipality to feed the three roasting stations at the 42nd Festa do Castanheiro – Feira da Castanha, which takes over the walled village's historic centre on Saturday and Sunday, 14 and 15 November. There is a reason for the bulk buy. A dry year and high temperatures cut this season's crop sharply, and the council wanted the fair's money to reach the…

Live Nation has added Friday 28 May 2027 at Estádio da Luz, the night after the 27 May show. Prices revealed at presale run from 95 euros in the top tier to 533 euros for the Red Zone by the stage, with VIP packages up to 1,023 euros.

Make that two nights. U2 will play Lisbon's Estádio da Luz on Thursday 27 and Friday 28 May 2027. Live Nation announced the extra date late on Thursday afternoon, hours after presale opened for the first show, and it now sits on the official concert page, where general sale opened at 10:00 this Friday. Wolf Alice are still the openers. For U2 it is a return to Portugal nine years after two nights at the Altice Arena in 2018. When the 27 May show was first…

Four ways to spend the first St Martin's weekend: the 50th National Horse Fair opens in Golegã, Arruda dos Vinhos gathers 13 local wineries at its free wine festival, LEFFEST turns 20 with four opening films on one night, and Portimão opens its 363rd St Martin's Fair.

The first weekend of November that smells of roast chestnuts comes with four good reasons to get out of the house, from the Ribatejo down to the Algarve. Two are fairs with centuries behind them, one is a free wine festival, and the fourth is a film festival hitting 20. Golegã opens the 50th National Horse Fair on Friday 6 November, renamed this year as the Caixa Golegã Feira Nacional do Cavalo. It runs alongside the 27th International Lusitano Horse Fair…

Santa Maria da Feira's Christmas theme park runs from 28 November to 30 December, 13:30 to 19:00, but closes on 12 of those days. A day ticket is 9 euros for adults and 7.50 for children and over-65s, an all-season pass 16.50, and the Circo Evolution is back for a fifth year.

Perlim, the Christmas theme park in Santa Maria da Feira, is back from 28 November to 30 December. The calendar is a little misleading, though: the park is shut on 12 of those days, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day among them. That leaves 21 open days, always from 13:30 to 19:00. The closed days are listed on the official day-ticket sales page: Monday 30 November, and 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16, 17, 24 and 25 December. Every weekend is open, as are the…

Lisbon's Alkantara Festival runs from 13 to 29 November at venues including the D. Maria II national theatre, Culturgest, CCB and CAM Gulbenkian. It opens with Cão Solteiro's farewell piece. Tickets are sold by each venue; workshops are free with registration.

For seventeen days, from 13 to 29 November, the Alkantara Festival takes over a good chunk of Lisbon. Dance, theatre and performance fill venues from the D. Maria II national theatre to Culturgest, the CCB and the CAM Gulbenkian, by way of MAAT, the MNAC and Teatro do Bairro Alto. The full day-by-day schedule, with times, is on the Alkantara Festival website. The first night belongs to Cão Solteiro. The Lisbon company and filmmaker André Godinho present a…

Guimarães Jazz runs 12 to 21 November at Centro Cultural Vila Flor: Toninho Horta with the Guimarães Orchestra opens, ARTEMIS, Kurt Rosenwinkel and Peter Evans fill the middle, and Kurt Elling sings with North Macedonia's National Jazz Orchestra on the last night. Tickets €10 to €20, with bundles up to 30% off.

Guimarães Jazz reaches its 35th edition in the shape regulars know well: two back-to-back weeks in November, nearly everything at Centro Cultural Vila Flor, and a bill that puts big American names next to Portugal's own jazz schools. This year it runs from 12 to 21 November, with 12 concerts plus late-night jam sessions and workshops. It opens on Thursday 12 with Brazilian guitarist Toninho Horta and his quartet alongside the Guimarães Orchestra, at…

The Greatest Show on Earth tour comes to Benfica's stadium on Thursday 27 May 2027, with Wolf Alice opening. Live Nation's presale starts on 5 November at 10am Lisbon time and general sale the next day at the same hour. Prices have not been announced.

U2 are coming to Estádio da Luz in Lisbon on Thursday 27 May 2027. It is the Portuguese stop on The Greatest Show on Earth, the band's first stadium tour since 2019, and Wolf Alice are the support act. If you want to be there, the dates that matter are this week. According to Live Nation's official event page, the presale opens on Thursday 5 November at 10am, with the waiting room live from 9.30am. You need to register on that page beforehand to get in.…

The Christmas village inside Óbidos's medieval walls runs from 27 November to 3 January under the theme Pinocchio and the world of puppets. Adults €12, children €8, family tickets from €36, with timed entry and limited capacity.

Óbidos Vila Natal, the Christmas village inside the walls of Óbidos, opens on 27 November and runs until 3 January. This year's story is Pinocchio. The official theme is "Pinocchio and the world of puppets", and the site map shows how literally they have taken it: there is a Geppetto's Neighbourhood, a Master's Workshop, a Great Fish, a Pinocchio's Plunge, the Lame Fox and Blind Cat's Lair and a puppet theatre. There is also something called the Liar…

The 13th Porto/Post/Doc runs from 19 to 28 November across eight venues in Porto and Matosinhos. It closes a three-year programme on migration, with focuses on Alain Gomis and Jan Ijäs, films on Elza Soares and João Aguardela, Porto on screen from 1931 to 2025, and passes from €40.

Porto/Post/Doc takes over the city's screens again from 19 to 28 November, and the 13th edition has its programme out. That is ten days of what the festival calls cinema of the real (documentary bleeding into fiction, essay film and music) across eight venues in Porto and Matosinhos. The core strand is "In the Land of Others", the third and final chapter of a trilogy the festival began in 2024 with "The Movement of Peoples". After two years on journeys…

The 363rd Feira de São Martinho fills Portimão's fairground from 6 to 15 November, free to enter, with rides, roast chestnuts, farturas and grilled octopus. 11 November is Youth Day and 15 November Family Day, both with special prices at participating stalls.

Plenty of Portuguese fairs claim tradition. Portimão's can date it: 1662. The Feira de São Martinho is back at the city's fairground from 6 to 15 November for its 363rd edition, with the usual line-up of roast chestnuts, farturas, chouriço bread, grilled octopus and fairground rides running until one in the morning. Entry is free. Portimão council describes it as the city's oldest popular event, and it always straddles 11 November, St Martin's Day.

Trancoso holds its 13th chestnut fair from 30 October to 1 November, Góis pairs honey, chestnuts and soup over the weekend, Chaves fills its streets with more than 500 stalls, José González opens Misty Fest in Lisbon and Saturday is Halloween. Friday's CP rail strike has been called off.

This is magusto weekend. All Saints' Day falls on a Sunday, Halloween on the Saturday, and half the country lights a bonfire to roast chestnuts. Here are five plans, from the hills of the Beira Alta to a seated hall in Lisbon. First, some good news if you are travelling on Friday. The CP strike by conductors and ticket staff planned for the 30th has been called off after the union met the infrastructure ministry, so trains should run as normal. We have…

The Portuguese MotoGP Grand Prix runs from 20 to 22 November at the Algarve International Circuit. It is the second-to-last round of the season. Only three-day tickets are sold and children under three are not admitted.

MotoGP is back in the Algarve in three weeks. The Portuguese Grand Prix runs from 20 to 22 November at the Algarve International Circuit near Portimão, and this year it could matter a great deal. Portimão is the second-to-last round, with only Valencia after it. With the Australian race washed out, Marc Márquez moved to the top of the standings on 365 points, ten clear of Jorge Martín, who broke his right arm in his sprint crash. Malaysia (30 October to 1…

Chaves hosts the Feira dos Santos from 30 October to 1 November: more than 500 exhibitors and traders, a livestock fair and cattle contests on Saturday, octopus by the São Neutel fort, concerts on Largo General Silveira and the saints' parade on Sunday.

Over the All Saints' weekend, Chaves turns into one of the biggest street fairs in Portugal. The Feira dos Santos 2026 runs from Friday 30 October to Sunday 1 November, with more than 500 exhibitors and traders spread across the town centre in the far north of Trás-os-Montes. It is a fair with centuries behind it, and it still does a bit of everything: crafts, regional produce, tractors, cars, livestock and plenty of music. Things get going at 10:30 with…

The festival's 17th edition opens at the Coliseu dos Recreios on 1 November and closes at Casa da Música on the 29th: 22 nights in Lisbon, 11 in Porto, one in Loulé and one in Coimbra. Al Di Meola alone plays six times.

Misty Fest takes the whole month again. The 17th edition of promoter Uguru's autumn festival has 35 shows booked between 1 and 29 November, according to the official programme on the festival's site, and the split by city tells you what kind of festival it is: 22 in Lisbon, 11 in Porto, one in Loulé and one in Coimbra. No fields, no wristbands. These are seated rooms, from the Coliseu to Casa da Música. José González, the Swedish songwriter of quiet voice…