Why you should look beyond the Algarve if you’re booking a green-list getaway to Portugal
Travel is challenging these days, and it's all the more precious for it. So don’t make me squander my foreign forays in could-be-anywhere chain resorts. Especially when being a responsible traveller is as much about positive socio-economic impact as environmental influence.
Road-tripping from Lisbon, heading north and inland, negotiating hairpin-turn mountain roads, pausing in quirky independent hotels as compelling to hikers as aesthetes, had me tasting, touching, hearing and feeling a deeper cultural experience. And, for me, that's an instant antidote to all the admin and testing angst of gallivanting in pandemic times.
Spotting a fellow travel scribe’s tweet dismissing green-listed Portugal as just golf and beach holidays rankled. With wings clipped, and long-haul less alluring, I was determined to find edifying adventures close to home. And with hotels in cities such as Lisbon and Porto crying out for guests, the Iberian Peninsula also promises a culture-rich alternative to the all-inclusive package holiday hotspots.
As someone missing weekend breaks to the tiny ancient hilltop towns of Provence or Tuscany, heading for Serra da Estrela’s mountain villages proposed just the scratch for that itch. Plotting an itinerary of indie guesthouses punctuated by Instagram-worthy farmland and valley vistas is made extra appealing by Portugal’s super-easy-to-navigate highways. GPS is a doddle, too, with no extra charge for post-Brexit data roaming as yet. Just take cash for those tolls, otherwise only Portuguese credit cards work.
“Oh the English — they usually just go to the Algarve or Madeira,” eye-rolled a hotelier to me as I reached my first high-altitude inland base in the Centro Region. I was the only person padding up the cobblestones of Lapa dos Dinheiros in the golden-hour light as the church bells tolled; more fool those less imaginative holidaymakers, I thought. Unexpectedly design-forward hideaway Casas da Lapa had only just opened in 2020, with 15 new rooms and a spa, when the pandemic hit and it had to close. Upstaging Faro’s rows of packed identikit seaside sun loungers is a pool framed by air-purifying pine forest and the sense this waterfall-soundtracked perch is still a secret in spite of the Portugalphilia flooding our social media feeds.
It also feels good supporting such under-the-radar, locally owned establishments after a year's forced hiatus. Especially this host, which is in cahoots with the Mountain Villages collective, an initiative promoting artisans and preserving ancient crafts and small-scale food producers in this less-explored locale.
In a year of feeling so disconnected from the rest of our globe’s other 194 countries, I’ve been ravenous for the flavours of cultural idiosyncrasies. Cheese-making workshop? Meeting the female Queijeiras behind the famed Serra da Estrela cheese not only zaps Deliveroo fatigue but highlights these specialists' crucial role in cultural preservation. Whirl around a wool mill? Learning about the capes distinct to the shepherds of these slopes woven from the fetishised Burel yarn made from the Bordaleira breed of sheep native to these peaks made a change from months mainlining Netflix.
The owners of two of the most interesting hotels in the Centro Region are also responsible for reviving the Burel Factory, a landmark in Portugal's textile industry. The looms click-clacking away are a testament to it being a crafts hub in Manteigas, but also an economic engine. The cult status of this felt-like wool plays a starring role in the come-hither wall-coverings, curtains and sculptural ceiling installations at the only five-star hotel in the area, Casa de S?o Louren?o. Its contemporary four-star sister, Casa das Penhas Dourdas is the highest hotel in continental Portugal, beloved most for its snowy scenes in winter. Both are petite designer dens that prove to be a plus-size lesson in hospitality's vital part in conservation, creativity, community and commerce.
With so many small stays truly struggling right now, communitarianism is what’s most needed post-Covid. As a sustainable travel advocate, I don't just push for eco-lodges with compostable toilets. Eat local, buy local, stay local, is my mantra. It leads to an all-the-more-authentic all-sensory dose of a destination, and leaves as much tourism money as possible in the pockets of independent businesses. A new co-working space has just opened in these hills, which when combined with Airbnb options makes this a never-considered-before destination for digital nomads, too.
S?o Louren?o’s local nature guide, Luís Cunhal, treating me to a tour of the Zêzere Glacier Valley and spring flower-filled Serra da Estrela Natural Park, came with a blizzard of botany and geology facts. It was especially poignant as we paused at a tumbled-down old stone dwelling overlooking rye fields and slopes of oaks. Luís explained what had first lured out-of-towners to come heal on these peaks in the late 19th century. A leading medic at the time, Dr Sousa Martins, prescribed these remote conditions perfect for tuberculosis convalescence. I can vouch that such fresh-aired forays are a tonic for city dwellers during pandemic times.
For more hotel recommendations in Portugal, see our guide.