Portugal’s Alentejo region offers a trip with a difference: cliffside beaches, unspoilt villages, and luxurious yet laid-back accommodation.
When most people think of Portugal, they think of Lisbon, but there’s much to explore outside the capital’s yellow trams and hilly streets. For views of fields of fresh hay bales dotted with grazing sheep and plump sandy cows, a salty breeze carrying the promise of the sea and wafts of wild thyme punctuated by the sound of the storks’ clacking beaks, the Alentejo region of Portugal is the place to go.
The dreamiest location from which to discover this region is Casa Calmar, a trinity of design-led eco houses that sits together in perfect harmony with its surroundings and invites them in with sizeable windows, for generous views across the land to the sea on the horizon. The houses are beautifully designed and impeccably managed. Interior angles and opes have been carefully considered, giving way to tranquil interior views. Rooms unfold fluidly, and astute use of solid sliding doors inside allow areas like showers and bedrooms to be as private or open plan as you wish. Balmy breezes blow gently through the houses, drapes billow in the wind on warm sunny days.
Fields are speckled with cork and olive trees that shade animals from the sun all the way down to the Alentejo coast that is shaped, in this area, by high cliffs alternating with beautiful coves of fine sand beaches and clear turquoise sea.
Casa Calmar owners, Rui Rodrigues and Luís Ghira have known each other from their early school days. Their grandparents both had farms and vineyards close by and so they spent school holidays together and always kept in touch. Later, at university, the two shared a house for three years and remained lifelong friends.
Rui says, “Luís was constantly making, building and fixing things as a child, always tinkering about with something. The wooden workbench in a bedroom of the Patio house was made by Luís.” Having discovered the Samoqueira beach, Luís encouraged Rui to join with him to find a property in the area. Eventually, they found a long abandoned ruined farmhouse just three minutes’ drive from the beach.
Luís, an engineer with a very keen eye, designed Casa Calmar and an architect friend drew up the plans. The planning process took years as the property is set in the Vicentine Coast Natural Park, which is a protected area in southwest Alentejo. Recognising the area’s need to build on tourism, they finally secured planning as a small hotel. Although rented as individual houses or in unison, Simona the house manager provides breakfast each morning consisting of fresh oranges from the organic grove, pastries, eggs and more delivered to the guest’s door. One of the great attractions of Casa Calmar is that it transitions from cool breezy summer interiors to warm winter cosiness with wood-burning stoves and thermo-heated swimming pools.
The hotel is just eight minutes from the archetypal traditional Portuguese fishing village of Porto Covo and 170 kilometres from Lisbon. Porto Covo (pronounced without the final o) is an attractive seaside village with wide planned streets and stunning beaches under cliffs. At the heart of the village is the picturesque Marquês de Pombal square with its pretty white and blue houses and bright red doors.
The scent of fresh fish grilling mingles with the salty air as locals bring in their daily catches – sardines, octopus, cuttlefish, clams, and even lobster – reflected on restaurant menus. The Alentejo region’s famous black pork, often served cured and thinly sliced, carrying a delicious punch, is another local favourite.
Across from the church in the square, history meets modern flair at Abranda wine bar. Housed in a remodelled historic building, its open door and custom-made floor in a stunning peach geometric pattern will lure you in. Pedro Martins and Ines Madeira see themselves as “the new Porto Covoians” as he puts it. Pedro, his wife and his brother have curated a selection of low-intervention wines, and wines from small makers throughout Portugal; a departure from the usual Douro and Alentejo options available on most lists. Abranda offers an unpretentious space to taste intriguing Portuguese wines.
Walkers too are in for a treat. From Porto Covo you can join a portion of the Rota Vicentina – 750 kilometres of peaceful trails running along the coast and into the interior. There are lots of interesting hamlets sprinkled along the coast; Comporta village on the Sado estuary is the most well-known. Surrounded by rice paddies, the Atlantic, sand dunes and pine forests, it’s a haven for well-heeled Lisboans. It is worth visiting for its 10 kilometres of pristine white sandy beaches in contrast to Porto Covo’s inlets and coves.
Comporta, on the outside, is a laid-back unspoilt village of peeling paint and enormous stork nests on every high pole and chimney pot. But behind its doors lie lots of fantastic shops, cafés and restaurants with style. Gomes shop is a magical cool dark general store with lots of tiny rooms filled with cheese and cured meat counters, wines, fresh vegetables and fruits spilling from crates. There is a whole wall dedicated to all kinds of branded tinned fish. At the high old-fashioned wooden checkout counter, the ceilings hang heavy with woven baskets for sale. The Life Juice lifestyle shop on Rua das Comportas owned by Isabel Costa has a wonderfully curated mix of old and new for the home as well as clothing, with restaurant Mesa to the rear.
After a day on the beach, join the cushioned benches outside the tiny Colmo Bar on the neighbouring footpath in the village centre for aperitifs with pinchos (Portugal’s variation on tapas). Comporta is also host to the Cavalariça restaurant housed in a stunning 100-year-old stable building, with dining booths ensconced in its whitewashed stalls serving food deserving of its Michelin Guide mention. However, the best food in the village is to be found in the locals’ restaurant, São João. Great big aluminium pots come to the table full of a traditional soupy seafood rice, arroz de marisco, which is mouth-wateringly delicious. Tuesday through Sunday, the Casa de Cultura, a long old store building opposite Cavalariça, is home to high-quality local crafts for sale straight from the maker.
The region starts to heat up in early May with pleasant temperatures of about 22 degrees, and stay toasty until the end of October, allowing for lots of pleasant weather outside of peak holiday times. You could tack on a few nights in Lisbon on either side of a stay, and driving south into Alentejo (meaning south of the Tagus) over the architectural Vasco da Gama bridge for a spectacular 17 kilometres is an adventure in itself. Arriving into a region that has evaded mass tourism, where bucolic life persists and with places such as Casa Calmar make you never want to leave.
Photography Cliodhna Prendergast
This feature originally appeared in the autumn/winter 2024 issue of IMAGE Interiors. Have you thought about becoming a subscriber? Find out more, and sign up here.
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