This place is a find if there ever was one - go, World Heritage conoisseurs, before mainstream tourists find out about it!

The rock drawings open to the public are split up into three areas, which you have to book separate tours for. Each trip involves a very bumpy 4WD ride into the valley. Be on the lookout for the guards and their very friendly dogs (in fact, watch out for dogs anywhere in Portugal, from what I've seen)! The most popular site is Ribeiro de Piscos - it had the clearest drawings and was the least strenuous walk (for people concerned about such things). Canada do Inferno was the more challenging of the three, with the fewest drawings; although it was a beautiful scenic walk and my husband and I were the only ones on the tour, which made it worth the effort anyway. The tour guides were excellent and were very helpful in pointing out drawings that were at times very hard to see. They answered every question we had.

I would recommend going in the cooler months - we were there in early November and the weather was almost perfect (one day it rained, but literally just when our tour of Ribeiro de Piscos was finishing). The guides told me that because the Coa Valley is a microclimate (hence the profusion of olive groves and wineries) it gets extremely hot and dry in the summer. So much so, that tours of the drawings are only run in the mornings during the summer.

We stayed in Figueira de Castelo Rodriguo, a lovely town in itself which is about 45 minutes' drive from the furthest of the three sites. We didn't have a car, but got around to the sites fairly easily with taxi cabs and buses. The area is gorgeous and inexpensive, with lots of other things to see nearby, however, so a car would have been helpful in that respect. The people there were just wonderful and I would love for them to see more business - their region certainly deserves it!