My extended family of seven - me, my wife, our two boys (5+9), my sister, mum and mother-in-law - stayed at Tony’s beautiful house for eight nights. It is a truly magical place. Situated on the fringe of a tiny village in the hills outside Porto, it is literally at the end of the road - you cannot see (or hear) a house from the property. The building is a gorgeous renovation - incredibly thick stone walls, large, beautifully designed communal space and an amazing garden/terrace area surrounding it, plus stepped areas below that. It is an ideal holiday home because every bedroom is a good sized double and approximately the same size, and all are lovely.
The massive outside table on the terrace was where we ate breakfast every day, and had several memorable evening meals - it’s just a fabulous place to eat and spend time, with the trickle of the stream and chirrup of the cicadas in the background and the tall trees on the hills above swaying in the breeze.
Our kids absolutely loved it – exploring, playing hide and seek all over the property, spraying each other with the hose, walking down to the stream (fenced off, if you have very young kids), stalking lizards and spotting fireflies at night. There’s a lovely walking trail behind the house that follows the stream and leads up to Medas village. Pombal marina is a few minutes’ walk away, and Rosa’s cafe (not on Google maps, but take the left-hand fork at the marina and you can’t miss it) is a lovely place to stop for a coffee, a cold drink or a beer if you go that way. Up the hill, in the village, there’s a good local food/supplies shop which doubles as a coffee shop/bar, looking onto the square and out onto the hills (also not on Google maps, but also impossible to miss).
Porto is about 25 mins away or about 10 mins away is the stunning hillside town of Melres, with a big supermarket and lots of lovely restaurants and cafes with great views over the Douro.
Tony and his wife were lovely, generous hosts and extremely helpful whenever we had questions. Thank you very much indeed – we will be back!