There’s a small outdoor pool and an indoor Jacuzzi.ĭoubles from €90 B&B, Camping Oleiros There are 15 rooms and four villas, including one adapted for guests with disabilities. The nearby small city of Fundão is home to the Parque do Convento, with mountain bike centre, picnic areas, playgrounds and tree climbing for children – as well as the Cherry Route, where visitors can pick cherries in June and attend the annual cherry festival. Medieval castles, river beaches and hikes are all within easy reach. This 17th-century manor house with contemporary interiors sits in a valley between the Serra da Estrela – the range that includes mainland Portugal’s highest point – and Serra da Gardunha, with more than 280 miles of walking routes and 220 miles of mountain bike trails. The nearby town of Santarém is known as the “belvedere city”.ĭ oubles from €136, (two-night minimum), There’s an outdoor kitchen for guests, and a sauna, Turkish bath and a wood-fired hot tub, as well as massages. The country house has wonderful tropical gardens with more than 185 botanical species, and each of the four rooms has its own leafy terrace and a bathtub with scented candles – and breakfast in bed is available.

This green retreat was built using organic materials and is just 40 minutes from Lisbon in the heart of the Ribatejo, the farming heartland that stretches along the banks of the River Tejo and over rice fields. The nearby town of Azeitão is famous for its soft, buttery, DOP-protected cheese, made from unpasteurised ewe’s milk, using cardoon thistle instead of rennet.īungalows for two from €79, Central Salvaterra Country House and Spa Paddleboarding instruction can be organised via the camp. There are bird hides and picnic areas on site, with climbing, abseiling and hiking, and it’s a 10-minute drive from the white sand beach at Pontinho do Arrabida and a 15-minute drive from Galapos beach. Simple – but not basic – wooden bungalows with kitchen and air conditioning can be rented in the YMCA camp in the middle of the Arrábida natural park, a 40-minute drive from Lisbon airport. Galapos beach in the Arrábida natural park. Seven-day surf package €699pp (less in low season), including en suite accommodation, breakfast, surf lessons and equipment hire, Casa do Valle Additional extras include “longboard dancing” – learning fluid step and tricks on a skateboard – wine tasting, horse riding and a visit to Nazaré, home to two of the World Surfing League’s Big Wave surfing contests, where the breakers can reach up to 30 metres in winter. Out of the water they also offer instruction on what they call a “surfskate” – basically a skateboard. Surfing lessons (for beginners and intermediates) are in English, and a weekly stretching class is included in the price. It has eight double rooms and two shared rooms with six bunkbeds, though there is currently no sharing due to Covid restrictions. The Beekeepers “is open to individuals who wish to stay and develop their own practice, specific events, group trips and residencies”.ĭoubles from €561 for three nights in June, prices are negotiable – not least for those who “bring value”, Companhia das CulturasĪ surfing hostel that sells itself as “a lifestyle, not a sport – a home, not a hotel”, this surf camp in Santa Cruz is 200 metres from the beach at Amanha and 45 minutes north of Lisbon (with airport shuttles on offer). The idea is that guests embrace the environment (there’s no air conditioning) and the collective of compassionate souls help in this, with hypnotherapy, yoga classes, bike tours, fishing, birdwatching and, of course, painting. Founded by British artist Tom Leamon and a group of friends, the Beekeepers is on land belonging to Quinta da Fornalha, an award-winning biodynamic farm, with olive, carob and fruit trees. There’s a communal kitchen and bedrooms are in funky little places that range from huts, sheds and tipis to more solid structures such as the Birdhouse and Phaedra, which has three bedrooms. Everything is built from the land or salvaged and is simple (compost toilets, for example). This artists’ retreat offers rustic guest accommodation near the lovely town of Castro Marim, on the Spanish border where the river Guadiana divides the two Iberian countries.

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