The jewel of the Costa Verde, Viana do Castelo is blessed with an appealing medieval centre, an attractive riverfront and lovely beaches just outside the city. The old quarter showcases leafy 19th-century boulevards and narrow lanes crowded with Manueline manors and rococo palaces, all dramatically presided over by the pearly white, neo-Byzantine Santa Luzia church on the hilltop high above town. The town’s setting just by the Rio Lima estuary makes Viana a handy base for exploring the lower Lima valley.