This year's carnival was a little different, because for the first time we didn't have anything planned. I started looking for work at the beginning of the year and we didn't know if I would be relocated yet, so we thought it best not to buy anything to tie us down. Since the kids were fine on the Friday before carnival, Celo had booked his vacation until Wednesday and I'm not working yet, we agreed to take a casual trip through the interior of Portugal in our car, as we are used to doing. This time we decided to go to Monsanto, Marvao and Nisa, cute villages in Alentejo and Beira Baixa that were in my wishlist some time ago, and we also passed through Castelo Branco, Castelo de Vide, Penha Garcia, Foz do Cobrão and Vila Velha de Rodão.

Our Hosting

On Saturday morning, we looked at the available accommodation on Booking and decided to stay in just one place every day, very central to the towns we wanted to visit.

We choose the Houses of Almourão, in Foz do Cobrão, which has 4 well-equipped 2-bedroom houses, had a rating of 9.3 on Booking and a price of 400 euros for 4 nights.

See more details on Booking here.

Some photos of our little corner:

Summary Itinerary

We put together the itinerary on Friday night/Saturday morning with the help of the Vagamundos blog, CHATGPT and my travel books. We did:

• Saturday – we left Cascais late in the morning, had lunch at Mosteiro do Leitão and at the end of the day stayed in Mouth of Cobrao and Old Town of Rodão.

• Sunday – We went to Nisa, Marvao – but we didn't even get out of the car because of the fog and rain – and then Vide Castle.

• Monday – As the forecast was for heavy rain in all the desired places, we chose to visit smaller villages from inside the car and spend the afternoon in a hotel with an indoor pool in White Castle. It was a success!

• Tuesday – The day with the least rain of the entire trip was the day we chose to visit the most Portuguese village of all, Monsanto, and then the Penha Garcia River Beach.

• Wednesday – We left our house around noon, stopped for lunch at a delicious restaurant in Abrantes and we headed straight to Cascais with the kids taking a nap in the car.

Now let's get to the usual dear details! 🙂

Detailed Itinerary

Day 1 – Saturday (03/01/2025)

We left Cascais late in the morning and stopped for lunch at the restaurant Monastery of Leitão, halfway to the hotel.

We were lucky to get a table, because as soon as we sat down, lots of people started arriving and forming a line.

We thought the food was good, but the suckling pig restaurants in the Bairrada region that we visited on previous trips are better. Here are some posts where I mentioned them:

• Getting to know Águeda and the famous Bairrada style suckling pig
• 4 days in the Bussaco Forest, Coimbra, Luso and Penacova
• 5 days in Matosinhos and Porto

We then drove to our accommodation with the children taking a nap, and when we arrived in Foz do Cobrão, we thought it best to drive around a bit before waking them up. I had read this post from Vagamundos about the region and we set off excited to see everything!

Mouth of Cobrao

We went first in the Almourão Valley Viewpoint, which is super close to our accommodation, and we loved the views. You can see the Almourão Gates up there and take trails down there, but since they were sleeping soundly, we thought it best to continue the tour by car.

We then went to Foz do Cobrão Leisure Area – Rock of the Turtles hoping to see the beach like in the pictures official website, but what we found was this:

Afterwards I spoke to the owner of our accommodation and he said that in the winter they don't take much care of the space and they also open the pool tap, which is why it is empty and ugly. Since we didn't think it was worth waking up the children to throw pebbles into a tiny stream, we got back in the car and drove until we crossed a bridge to see the pool. Ocreza Beach, but as the terrain seemed very uneven, we only saw it from the outside.

Old Town of Rodão

We kept driving until Old Town of Rodão because we wanted to know the King Vamba's Castle and see the Rodão Doors. When we arrived at the castle, we woke the children up and went for a walk to the tower and the viewpoint. The view was incredible, but it was a shame that it was very windy and cold.

Then we drove down to the village, where we parked the car near the boats and were able to see the Portas de Rodão. Beautiful!

We threw stones into the Ocreza River and walked along the Enxarrique River Walkway until we got tired. We then stopped at Auchan and bought some things for our 5-day stay.

We went to our accommodation, rested, took a shower and had a delicious dinner of pasta with meat croquettes. A successful first day!

Day 2 – Sunday (02/03/2025)

We had our leisurely breakfast at our house and then went out to explore Nisa, Marvao and Castle of Vide.

Nisa

We went to Nisa first, because we wanted to walk in the Barca D´Amieira Trail and the weather was good. We parked the car and soon the walkways to the trail began.

We first went to the Miradouro Skywalk, which has a view of the Fratel Dam:

Then we kept walking to the Instagrammable purple swings:

We crossed the suspension bridge that swayed more than I would have liked and went to the rail to ride with the kids. Ju and I rode one rail and Paddy and Celo rode another, and then another ride just the three of us on the same rail. It was great fun, with beautiful views and the best part: it was free! Read more about this attraction here.

We saw some people walking along the tracks but we thought it would be tiring to walk a little further and go back all the way with the kids, so we went back to the car. We drove to the village of Nisa and we stopped the car to walk a little and see the famous Santa Maria Street, which is red with designs in brick and marble stones, imitating the typical pottery pieces of the region. So cute!

We went to the Tarro restaurant, where we had made a reservation, and ate Nisa cheese and well-served and tasty meats with a jug of house wine. The restaurant is a tavern-style restaurant, with a bit of space, a TV on, dark furniture and impeccable service. We left very satisfied and the children quickly fell asleep in the car.

Marvao

We drove for about 40 minutes to Marvão in the rain and when we arrived at the village we were dying to visit, we were faced with a discouraging fog. We stayed in the car waiting to see if the rain had passed and the fog would improve while the children were still sleeping, but it was in vain. We ended up giving up on visiting the village and continued on to Castelo de Vide. We will have to go back to Marvão!

Vide Castle

We arrived half an hour later with the children still sleeping and parked the car near the Main Church of Castelo de Vide. They woke up and we went walking to the castle, even with a few drops of rain, and then we went down through the Jewish quarter, which is one of the best preserved in Portugal, until we reached the church again.

We saw many people dressed up for Carnival, a carousel in the square and some food trucks with sweets and that's it. A bit depressed, I don't know if it was because it was raining. We walked towards the Sports Pavilion because someone said there would be something carnival-like there, but we gave up halfway when we saw that there wasn't much movement.

We let the kids play in the playground in the square and walked back through some different streets. We got in the car and went back to our accommodation, where we had snacks for dinner because we were still full from lunch.

Day 3 – Monday (03/03/2025)

We had breakfast and thought about what to do in the rain, but I could only think of one thing: I wanted to stay in a sheltered, warm and fun place. We looked at some indoor parks for children in Castelo Branco, but we chose to spend the afternoon in the Melia Castelo Branco to use the heated indoor pool.

The kids loved the idea and we calmly got ready to do it in the afternoon. We called a few restaurants to make a reservation and the one that worked out was Hunter's Retreat, in Castelo Branco. We went straight there for lunch and everything was delicious. Again a small tavern, tasty food and well served, but this one with a bit more confusing service. I had a divine sea bream!

We left and went straight to Decathlon to buy some things we needed – swimming goggles and swimming caps – and then went to the hotel. I had contacted this hotel and Alambique and this one had a more affordable price and flexible hours, exactly what we were looking for. We paid 25 euros for each adult, 15 euros for Patrick and nothing for Ju, because she is still 3 years old. We used the changing rooms to change and leave our things in lockers and spent about 3-4 hours in the super warm pool enjoying the kids. It was a great time!

We then returned to our accommodation at dinner time and I made burgers to end the day on a high note.

Day 4 – Tuesday (03/04/2025)

The sunniest day of the entire trip and therefore, the day we set aside to explore Monsanto, known as “the most Portuguese village in Portugal” and also the village where the series was recently filmed The House of the Dragon.

We had our breakfast calmly and drove 1h10 to our destination.

Monsanto

We arrived in the village late in the morning and since the mini parking lot for visitors was already full, we parked behind some cars on the road. We went straight to the Monsanto Viewpoint and loved the view! Check it out:

We started walking towards the Castle and were completely enchanted by the streets full of stone houses. There are some painted white, which in my opinion spoils the medieval atmosphere a little, but fortunately there are very few.

As the children started saying that they were hungry and already tired from the climbs, we bought some sweets at a café and continued climbing. We stopped at Cave and at some viewpoints to rest, enjoy the impressive view and take photos, of course, and after almost 1 hour, we managed to reach the castle!

I was very proud of my little ones, who were definitely the youngest on the entire route!!!

I'll leave some photos here for you to be enchanted too:

Here's a summary from ChatGPT about the place:

THE Monsanto Castle, located at the top of the village of Monsanto, in Portugal, is a medieval fortification with origins dating back to the 12th century. Built under the orders of D. Afonso Henriques and associated with the Order of the Templars, the castle had great defensive importance due to its strategic location.

Today, the ruins of the walls, towers and a cistern remain, offering panoramic views over the region. The castle was partially destroyed by a gunpowder explosion in the 19th century, but remains one of the town's most impressive landmarks.

—–//—

We spent some time resting at the Castle and enjoying the views, until we got hungry and started going down in search of a restaurant for lunch. Since we didn't know how long it would take to do the whole tour, we didn't book a table, but luckily we managed to get a table at Cave House and there we stayed.

We ate very tasty lasagna and meat stew accompanied by the house wine and finally I tried the cherry pie delicious. We left there very satisfied and then stopped at the same cafe we had gone to buy ice cream for the children. Yes, ice cream in the middle of winter… sorry, bad parenting around here, but we think they deserved it after walking so much without complaining.

We walked a little more around the village, this time exploring streets and viewpoints that were still new to us, and went down to where our car was.

We love Monsanto and recommend it to everyone who is in Portugal! 🙂

Penha Garcia River Beach

We left Monsanto and drove for about 20 minutes to this river beach that is highly recommended. What a great choice! The place is beautiful, it was empty and we even got to see a dam up close that was a hit with the kids. We followed a long trail between some shale houses, they threw endless pebbles into the water and we got to enjoy the sun in a place practically all to ourselves. It was great!

Look how beautiful this is:

I think we stayed there for about 2 hours and then we went back to our hotel house, as Juju says, with the little ones taking a nap and we could talk in peace.

Unpretentious dinner, bath and bed!

Day 5 – Wednesday (03/05/2025)

Our last day was very calm, with a full breakfast, packing our bags, the kids on TV, Paddy practicing his skills with the stickers from his first football album, tidying the house and a frustrating interview to end the trip.

We left there after speaking to the owner of the accommodation, Mr. Rogério Lourenço, who is very friendly and attentive, and we hit the road towards Cascais.

We wanted to stop somewhere new on the way for lunch and chose Michelin Restaurant THE OLD GIRL, in Abrantes. We called to reserve our table and were very well received. We ordered the beef tartare – Celo, of course –, Sirloin Steak with Egg on Top, Veal Cheek cooked for 33 hours and the daily menu for the children.

I loved the food, the ambiance downstairs and the service, but when we went down to the bathroom I was surprised to see so much mold on the walls downstairs. I think they need to address this ASAP so it doesn't affect people's experience.

We left there and even thought about walking around Abrantes a little, but it started to rain and we were tired, so we went straight to Cascais.

Another delicious trip with my loves!

Thank you, heavenly father.