This lovely, sweeping house is perched atop a stunning, windswept hill, overlooking the water. The views are worth the entire price of the house, but the unique layout, impeccable grounds and large pool were also value-added features. Being in the house, with its whitewashed walls, red-tiled roof, arches, tiled floors and walls and bright, sunny windows made our time feel like an authentic Portuguese experience. It is apparent that this house has been enjoyed and loved, for many years, by a vibrant family. This is clearly a prized family home, instead of a sterile vacation house. There are loads of books, about every possible topic, in the large bookshelves. Throughout the house you will see intimate, beautiful portraits of family members, artifact evidence of world travels and an artistic appreciation of culture. You might find a ball of string in a drawer, some shampoo in the shower and a raincoat on the coat rack. You might even feel like you are staying at a friend's house while they are away for the weekend! The house is beautifully built, extremely solid and easy to love. There is a sunny breakfast room, overlooking the ocean with a vast picture window. There is a secondary, sunken sitting area right in the expansive living room. The kitchen has a variety to kitchenware, accumulated over the course of years of family meals. There are five bedrooms and four bathrooms. Two of the bedrooms are in a ground floor wing, which was handy for us with a 10 month old baby. The other three bedrooms are upstairs. The master bedroom had an especially comfortable bed and soft, fluffy comforter. The grounds are sublime with lush, colorful plantings and grass, meticulously cared for. The large pool was clean and beautiful. The caretakers, who live in a small house on the property, were sweet. They brought us some pastries on our first morning, and were available if we needed them, but otherwise we didn't see them. We did not know a lot about the area, but learned how lucky we were to have found this particular house. The house is closest (about 5 min drive) to a small town called Malviera de Serra. It's a small village, built in a valley, with all you might need. There is a bakery, a well-stocked Spar (grocery store), and an AMAZING restaurant (Estrela de Serra.) Malviera de Serra is just above two beaches--Guincho and Cresmina. We went to the beach three times. The first time was a sunny weekend day and it was CROWDED. Parking was tricky. The second time, (week day) four of us took surfing lessons from SurfCaiscas and had a great time. They had our 12 and 14 year olds up on their boards within 15 minutes. The third beach visit was on an incredibly windy day. Wind, in fact, featured heavily during our stay which was, at least in part, due to the location of the house. The wind really whipped across the cliffs and mountain, especially at night. In fact, it picked up a plastic lawn chair from the (large, beautiful stone) deck and flung it to the ground, below, where it smashed into a million pieces. We liked walking along the winding footpaths and sometimes the wind tried to blow us down the mountain! It took about 35 minutes to drive to Sintra and about 20 minutes to arrive in Colares. All in all, this was the perfect place for two families (four adults and four kids---ages 10 months to 14 years) to enjoy several days together. David is very easy to communicate with and his English is awesome.