Nature Off-Site Events and Meetings Out of the City
Close to the main airports, Portugal has awe-inspiring nature and historical towns – close enough to reach easily, far enough to actually feel like you’ve left the office behind.
Off-site events and meetings away from the city are one of the simplest ways to revitalise team spirit. Portugal’s infrastructure is among the best in Europe, putting genuinely rewarding countryside locations within easy reach of wherever your group lands – backed by an ever-growing offer of 4- and 5-star country hotels and retreats, each with its own access to local monuments and culture.
Portugal has the best climate, unspoiled nature, and unique offer for memorable meetings and events anywhere in southern Europe. Great locations sit within a short distance of the main airports, so you can take your team outdoors and into genuine natural beauty without losing a day to travel. Depending on the location, groups of any size can find the right space and accommodation for a peaceful retreat – from mountains to beaches, villages to small towns, each offering its own tranquil, energising backdrop for a meeting or conference.
Getting to Portugal
The main airports of Portugal are in Lisbon, Faro, and Porto – all three served by a range of airlines flying direct between many destinations, including several budget carriers.
There are many venues available across all three regions where off-site events can take place – 5-star hotels or rural, self-catering lodgings, for meetings of any size. We help you find the best surroundings, accommodation, meeting spaces, team building, or other activities to match.
Around Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital of Portugal, its airport just 6km north of the centre with easy access to the Lisbon, Leiria, and Upper Alentejo provinces – each with its own character and charm.
The Lisbon / Leiria / Upper Alentejo areas are the most diverse of the three, with a fast-changing landscape that offers many possibilities. Leiria has the greatest diversity of all – beaches, mountains, flat lands, and UNESCO heritage sites – giving you a wide choice of landscape for your meeting.
The Lisbon district offers many wine-related encounters in vineyards or cellars, alongside nature, golf, and beaches. Alentejo, by contrast, is typical rural Portugal – olive groves, vineyards, bulls and horses, balloon flights, hiking – making for an intimate local experience or a full cultural one, depending what you’re after.
30km from Lisbon, part of the Cascais-Sintra natural park. Not remote, and the most expensive of the Lisbon district – known as the Riviera of Portugal, close to the capital, with busy beaches and more remote mountainous landscapes.
Slightly north of Lisbon – Alenquer’s mountainous forests, remote villages, golf, and rivers meet Santarém’s flatter farmland, dotted with old monumental cities overlooking the Tagus, most topped with a castle or city wall.
Looking for a more rural team meeting? Alentejo might be the place, slightly further from Lisbon but still easily accessible. Home to the cork trees, olive groves, and wine-making quintas of a large part of Portugal, activities here are usually built around the rural side of things – grape picking, bread making, and olive pressing among the most popular.
The Surroundings of Porto
Porto sits in the north of Portugal, surrounded by wild beaches and the terraced landscapes of the Douro River. Its surroundings are slightly wetter in winter and more rugged than Lisbon’s, but the beauty has earned it UNESCO World Heritage status.
Flights to Porto are generally the cheapest, and costs tend to run lower here overall – though you can just as easily choose one of Portugal’s most sublime 5-star offers if that’s the goal. The higher terrain around Porto opens up real adventure-travel territory – climbing, canyoning, kayaking, and rafting – making it one of the areas best suited to genuine adventurers. It’s equally strong for culture: this is the home of Port wine and Douro wine, with most of the region’s tourism centred on Douro River cruises through its striking internal landscapes.
The Southern Algarve
Faro is the capital of the Algarve, surrounded by beaches and resorts. In summer, it’s the beating heart of Portuguese tourism; in winter, most areas fall quiet. Off-site events and meetings here are best planned outside peak season – but with dozens of hotels and resorts to choose from, the Algarve could easily be the right choice for your next event.
Go Discover Portugal specialises in group and event travel. We help you organise your event anywhere in Portugal – advising, researching, and custom-building solutions at no extra cost to you, backed by a long list of international clients and a genuinely knowledgeable team.
Ready to take your team out of the city?