‘i Was Not Ready For This Jaw-dropping Place’: Readers’ Favourite Travel Discoveries Of 2024

From the wild wonders of a national park in Ireland to a perfect pastry in a Portuguese surfing town, our tipsters revel in surprises on their travels

Sweet, soft, crispy, satisfyingly dense yet fluffy – we have found the perfect pastry. It’s all we think about when we wake up in delightful Ericeira, 30 miles north of Lisbon. We are here for the surf – Ericeira is in a world surfing reserve – but really the ouriço, a pastry unique to this town, is reason enough to visit. It translates as “hedgehog” but also “sea urchin” (Ouriço-do-mar) and sea urchin statues adorn the town. We enjoy the confusion – even our Portuguese friend seems unsure of the pastries’ origin. We get them at Casa da Fernanda. We say we’ll take them to the beach, it’s just a few steps down the road, but in fact we can’t wait and eat them right outside the cafe. We’ll be back for more.
Fran