Portugal sightseeing: the countryside and more beaches!

After a great five days in the Algarve, it was time to move onto the next phase of our Portugal sightseeing. We were headed to a couple great rural areas and then, after some time in Lisbon and other cities, we headed to some other beaches as well. So, let’s go!

As we drove out of the Algarve the area was wooded for many kilometers, and it made for some beautiful views! We also saw a bunch of cork trees that had been de-barked. It was neat to see the bark that had been removed and to learn that the cork can only be removed every ten years. So you can see in the second picture below, the tree on the left was de-corked in 2013 and 2018 (from the spray painted numbers) and the tree on the right was only de-corked in 2018.

However, it was also a little sad to see because much of the area had been ravaged by forest fires in recent weeks, and you could see all the damage that had been done. Climate change, ugh …

Portugal sightseeing: the cutest AirBnb agriturismo in Santarem

For after the Algarve, Daniella and Ian (Damian’s sister and her husband) had found a really cute AirBnB for us to stay in for a couple days. It was on a working farm and the rooms/little houses had just been renovated. As soon as we walked onto the property our jaws dropped! And the animals were just so cute.

We spent our time at this AirBnB cooking, eating, playing dice games and relaxing by the pool (oh, and inventing some more silly pool games). I could have stayed here for weeks!

The below picture is one of my favorites from our entire trip. It just sums up some of our best times so well – outside in the sun, relaxing in the pool, playing board games (here it is backgammon) and having fun, dorky time together. I am so lucky to be married to this man!

Portugal sightseeing: agriturismo life way up north (in Arco de Valdevez)

After relaxing in Santarem we actually headed to Lisbon, but I am going to save that for a cities post. I’ll instead skip up to Arco de Valdevez, which is way north in Portugal, like literally 30 minutes from the border of Spain. We had found another agriturismo that looked like a nice place to relax and enjoy some good quality couple time.

This was another place where we walked onto the property and just had our jaws drop again! There was a pool with beautiful views, vineyards (where we could eat the grapes any time we wanted) and a gorgeous stone house. We had our own bedroom, bathroom and living room and then there was a huge common kitchen and dining room for the 3 apartments in our house.

We spent a lot of time here just relaxing, doing logic puzzles, playing more backgammon, cooking, and trying to teach ourselves how to do the butterfly in the pool (which was as hilarious to watch as it sounds).

We were only supposed to be at this agriturismo only for three days but extended to five because we were enjoying it so much. We also did some exploring of the local area! About 15 minutes away there was a little town and a river with a beach right in the middle of it. One afternoon we headed there to relax and enjoy the fresh water (and the silly exercise machines along the way).

On another day Damian headed out for a hike at a local national park – Parque Nacional Peneda-Geres. I think it probably looked cooler in the pictures and brochures than it did in person, but it’s also possible that we are just spoiled with all the parks we have been to on this trip! I do love that jumping picture that is the third one below though … gotta love a good Apple Watch timer!

Portugal sightseeing: Sesimbra beaches

For our last “rural” stop for Portugal sightseeing we knew we had to head back to the beach. It was early September, summer was ending, and we wanted to soak up every minute of beach-time that we could. We decided to go an area called Sesimbra, which is about 45 minutes south of Lisbon.

Our first two days were a bit cold and foggy, so we ended up just going for a long walk and strolling along the beach. Even though it was chilly, I do love this picture I got of Damian walked to the water to check it out (yeah, there definitely was no swimming that day).

But then, the sun came out, woohoo! We spent the first day at Praia do Ouro, which was right across the street from our apartment. While the beach wasn’t anything spectacular, I really liked it, because it felt more local. It almost was a little like being at Belmar, my favorite beach in New Jersey!

The next day we headed to another beach called Praia do Ribeiro do Cavalo. This one was about a 20 minute drive away, along a rocky road. Then, to get to the actual beach there was a ~45-minute hike down, which was strenuous but also kind of fun! And the beach was really pretty when we got down there.

The beach also had some fun cliffs to jump and dive off of, and Damian especially enjoyed that (see him flying horizontally in the picture below?)! But, the cutest thing was that there was a dog that someone had brought to the beach and every time someone would jump off the rock the dog would panic and swim out to the rock to try to save him/her. It was so sweet!

On our last day of our Portugal sightseeing trip we went to my favorite beach we saw in the whole country, Praia do Meco! This one was also only about 15 minutes away from Sesimbra and was a huge beach. It was super wide (like multiple kilometers) as well as very wide from the water to the cliff faces, so it wasn’t too crowded. Also, the water was beautiful and blue and with huge waves to play in.

This was such a fun day and it was the perfect end to our time in Portugal. We swam a lot, played a bunch of volleyball, read and relaxed, and just enjoyed our time together. We closed it out by waiting for the sunset, and we were rewarded with one of the best ones we have seen yet!

Up next: a few days in Lisbon, and stopovers in Braga, Aveiro and Porto!

We really enjoyed our time in the more “rural” parts of Portugal, but I think it mostly was because of the time we spent together and the specific properties we found (vs the parts of the country themselves). I’ll expound more on these thoughts in our country recap, but before that I’ll recap our time in Lisbon (one of my favorite cities ever!), coming soon!

And again, a final ps – thanks to Ian and Daniella for some of the pics in this post!