Port wine remains the ultimate souvenir most often associated with Portugal. It can be purchased just about anywhere and is sold in heavy thick bottles. You'll find it reasonably priced in the local grocery stores, but you can also look for it at  airport shops, where, however, it tends to be more expensive. Port can be legally produced in one region only, Portugal’s Douro River Valley, that's why it is so expensive to buy at home! The brandy that is added to the wine makes it a lot stronger than a regular wine, and adds a specific taste to it. In the past  brandy was merely added to keep the wine from turning into vinegar, the tradition has continued ever since.

Painted tiles and ceramics are the Portuguese  souvenirs par excellence. These can be found anywhere in the country’s vast array of handicraft stores. The best places to buy good quality glazed tiles and ceramics remain Sintra and Minho, the latter boasting an excellent open-air market selling all possible kinds of goods. These ceramics, often depicting Moorish motifs, bear some English and Chinese influences that are visible in the Portuguese blue-and-white azulejos (tiles), individually designed and decorating numerous walls throughout the country. Similarly popular are the plates, wine and water jugs, and vases often covered in mythical images.

The well-known Arraiolos Carpets, remnants of the Moorish reign over the city of Arraiolos, have surprisingly intricate designs. The handmade carpets are produced by several embroiderers and weavers, the raw materials being made of pure wool combined with petite point and cross stitches. The opulent images of fruit, flowers and animals roaming through celestial gardens might have been adopted from Persian weavers, although the designs are still distinctly Portuguese. If buying, you should be aware that the size of a piece and the amount of intricate embroidery determine the price. The carpets themselves can be found in Arraiolos as well as in many shops in Lisbon.

Jewellery and leather are further must-buy items from Portugal. Here jewellery must  contain at least 19.2 karats to be considered 'made of gold'. Jewellers carve this metal into exquisite filigree pieces, sometimes even into entire relief plaques telling stories and bearing some amazingly accurate and finely carved imagery. The gold Portugal produces is of exceptional quality, and is still more reasonably priced than anything you might find in your own country. Portuguese leather products, a continuation of the country’s long history of bullfighting and cattle breeding, include quality jackets, shoes and wallets, selling for much less than outside the country. Of Portugal’s many leather centres, Lisbon is perhaps the most convenient to pick up high quality leather goods, while Porto is a centre of jewellery making.