This small museum is housed in a building long associated with Christopher Columbus, who is believed to have lived here after marrying Filipa de Moniz, the daughter of Porto Santo’s first captain. Step inside to explore exhibits on Columbus and his family, the age of Atlantic exploration, and the Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch maritime empires. Highlights include a surviving 16th-century stone wall with Gothic windows, offering a glimpse into the house’s earliest days.

Pico de Ana Ferreira is a peak on Porto Santo, home to one of the island’s most mesmerising natural sights: the Organ Pipes. These vertical, pentagonal basalt columns, formed by volcanic activity millions of years ago, rise straight up from the mountainside, perfectly shaped and stacked as if carved by hand. Up close, their size and symmetry are even more impressive. A short trail continues from the base of the columns to the Ana Ferreira Cave near the summit. The cave is huge and offers a fantastic view over the eastern side of Porto Santo, including the island’s peaks.

The Amersfoort Wall Houses were built on top of the first city wall foundations. In 1380, its economic growth forced Amersfoort to grow, requiring a new city wall to be built. The stones of the first city wall were then used to construct these houses. These buildings were all built in different periods, which makes a walk along the houses unique.

Some places are so beautiful that they leave you speechless. The Beguinage is just such a place. This is where the beguines — emancipated women who lived pious and chaste lives without taking holy orders — once lived together in harmony. This walled oasis of religious peace, with its delightful inner garden, wind-twisted trees and white-painted gables, can charm even the most cynical of souls with its deafening silence.