Minho is Portugal's greenest and most traditional province and also the country's best-kept secret
From Condé Nast Traveler
Minho is Portugal's greenest and most traditional province and also the country's best-kept secret. It is favoured by celebrities looking for peace and quiet. With its stately homes converted into smart bed and breakfast hotels, it is the ideal place for a romantic getaway.
Minho is Portugal's greenest and most traditional province and also the country's best-kept secret. It is favoured by celebrities looking for peace and quiet. With its stately homes converted into smart bed and breakfast hotels, it is the ideal place for a romantic getaway.
Where to stay in Minho
Stay at one of the many stately homes, which have opened as bed and breakfast hotels. All available to book through Turihab (00 351 58 742 827 or 741 672; fax: 741 444).
CASA DE SEZIM
Santo Amaro, 4800 Guimarães (00 351 53 523 196). Ambassador Antonio Pinto de Mesquita's grand stone house has an impressive façade and a colonial-style veranda overlooking over the gardens and the vineyards at the back. The nine bedrooms in one wing are cosy and tastefully decorated. Also has a swimming pool, a bar and many horses to ride. The house is on the vinho verde circuit, which attracts lots of people, and it can be hard to avoid other guests.
Read next
PACO DA GLORIA
Madalena, Jolda, 4970 Arcos de Valdevez (00 351 58 947 177). A red-shuttered castle with an arched terrace overlooking a series of turquoise pools and the beautiful Lima valley beyond. Stay in one of the three main rooms in the house or in the annexe around a courtyard with lemon trees. There is also a chapel, billiards room and pool. Make sure your booking is confirmed by fax.
PACO DE SAO CIPRIANO
Tabuadelo, 4800 Guimarães (00 351 53 565 337). Ivy-covered towered manor looking out over ornamental gardens and an old fountain. The home of the Sottomayor family since 1446, pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela in Spain used to shelter here. Today there are five guest rooms with antiques and oil paintings, acres of gardens and woodlands to explore and a swimming pool. Insist on the tower room with its honeymooners' four-poster with white tulle canopy.
CASA DO AMEAL
Rua do Ameal, 119, Meadela, 4900 Viana do Castelo (00 351 58 822 403). Very much a family house, this elegant 16th-century house is within walking distance of the colonial seaport of Viana do Castelo and not far from Portugal's northern beaches. The owners (sisters) fuss over you in the nicest possible way and make you feel at home in one of the two bedrooms in the main house or the seven apartments in which antique screens hide modern amenities and kitchenettes.
Read next
PACO DE CALHEIROS
Calheiros, 4990 Ponte de Lima (00 351 58 947 164). Although the outside of the Count of Calheiros's house is impressive and the views unbeatable, inside there are few antiques, as many of the heirlooms have been sold. The rooms in the main house open on to a veranda with a stunning view. A maid brings breakfast to the room. Nearby Ponte de Lima is one of the most pleasant towns in Portugal.
PACO D'ANHA
Lugar de Penedos, Vila Nova de Anha, 4900 Viana do Castelo (00 351 58 322 459). Maria Augusta de Alpuim, a historian and one of the owners, will serve you some of the estate's vinho verde and show off this impressive 16th-century house given to the family by King Alfonso. Accommodation is not in the main house but in comfortable, very private bungalows, which once housed the wine press, olive press and stables, and have wonderful views of the country side and sea in the distance.
Read next
CASA DOS ASSENTOS
Quintiães, 4750 Barcelos (00 351 53 881 160). This pretty 17th-century house with ivy-covered walls and a Romeo and Juliet balcony is a favourite of Catherine Deneuve's family. Stay in the large garden apartments. There are two swimming pools set in gardens of orange and lemon trees. The village, through which an old train passes, is not far from the craft centre of Barcelos with its hand-embroidered linen and painted pottery bandstands.
QUINTA DO BAGANHEIRO
Queijada 4990 Ponte de Lima (00 351 58 749 612). The hosts are very friendly, and the house is beautiful with sweeping views of the Minho valley (and unfortunately the new motorway to Spain). A nearby antique shop is a good place to buy carved ox yokes.
CASA DO OUTEIRO
Arcozelo, 4990 Ponte de Lima (00 351 58 941 206). Just across the river from Ponte de Lima, Casa do Outeiro is a homely place with pretty guest rooms, a stunning 16th-century kitchen, a library and an ivy-covered aqueduct which used to bring water to the house and vineyards. Or rent the Casa do Salgueirinho, a charming five-bedroomed rustic cottage with its own pool, which is suitable for families. Open April to October.
Read next
QUINTA DA PONTE DO LOURO
Lugar da Ponte, 4760 Vila Nova de Famalicão (00 351 52 322 594). Less imposing than most of the estates, this is a working farm with a traditional 18th-century Minho house and granary, and has just two guest rooms.
QUINTA DA BOA VIAGEM
Além do Rio, Areosa, 4900 Viana do Castelo (00 351 58 835 835). An ochre-painted, 17th-century towered manor set between vineyards and pinewoods overlooking the sea, this place offers a variety of activities: walking in the gardens, woods, or on the nearby beach, playing croquet or swimming in the pool. Rooms are in apartments rather than the main house.
Read next
CASA DAS TORRES
Lugar de Arribão, Facha, 4990 Ponte de Lima (00 351 58 941 369). An impressive 18th-century, Baroque-style, towered manor with a lofty gateway leading to a courtyard. The three rooms have great views over the Lima valley, and the house is well placed for exploring Ponte de Lima. Open May to October.
Things to do in Minho
Rest and catch up on your reading. Minho is Portugal's best-kept secret. Bordered by the River Douro in the south and divided from Spain by the River Minho in the north, it is the country's greenest and most traditional province. The gardens are great places to break open all those books you meant to get round to. It is also home to some of Portugal's most important cities: Guimarães, first capital of Portugal and birthplace of Dom Afonso Henriques, the first king of Portugal, has a fairy-tale castle with a central keep reached by a high bridge; Braga has been the country's religious capital since Roman times (Minho is so devout that people queue on the pavement to hear Mass).
The sea port of Viana do Castelo provided ships and seafarers for the Discoveries and is full of opulent houses in Manueline (a 16th-century style of Portuguese architecture using nautical themes), Renaissance and Baroque styles, built with the wealth of trade from the colonies. Ponte de Lima is an exquisitely preserved medieval village of whitewashed houses decorated with Manueline ropework and lies by the river spanned by an old Roman bridge. Portugal's oldest market, dating back to 1125, takes place every other Monday on the sandy left bank. In the north of Peneda-Gerês national park is 700 sq km of wild, dramatic scenery, home to rare wolves and golden eagles.
The sea port of Viana do Castelo provided ships and seafarers for the Discoveries and is full of opulent houses in Manueline (a 16th-century style of Portuguese architecture using nautical themes), Renaissance and Baroque styles, built with the wealth of trade from the colonies. Ponte de Lima is an exquisitely preserved medieval village of whitewashed houses decorated with Manueline ropework and lies by the river spanned by an old Roman bridge. Portugal's oldest market, dating back to 1125, takes place every other Monday on the sandy left bank. In the north of Peneda-Gerês national park is 700 sq km of wild, dramatic scenery, home to rare wolves and golden eagles.
How to get to Minho
AIRPORT
Oporto airport.
AIRLINES FROM THE UK
TAP Air Portugal 0845 601 0932; www.tapairportugal.pt) flies direct to Oporto from Heathrow.
AIRLINES FROM THE UK
TAP Air Portugal 0845 601 0932; www.tapairportugal.pt) flies direct to Oporto from Heathrow.
