Santa Maria de Marvao Villas

Lovely old hilltop house with really friendly and helpful owners, although they don’t speak much English so conversing is tricky! Beautifully looked after and clean with a large lounge area which you can use to relax and a terrace overlooking the valley, what a view! We received a welcome glass of port and the breakfast was substantial and delicious. Parking is outside the house and requires nerves of steel to navigate the narrow cobbled lanes around the inside of the walls to the top! It’s very near the castle which is well worth exploring and has nice gardens for a picnic. You can explore the whole town on foot and a day is more than enough so if you stay 2 nights you have time to relax. There are a few restaurants and cafes in the area but some of them get booked up so it’s worth reserving. Marvao is not as much off the beaten track as the guide books would have you believe. My only gripes are that (1) the house is quite echoey inside and people coming in late can disturb the whole building, and I could hear the man next door snoring quite clearly which is a shame because it’s otherwise so peaceful here at night and (2) the lighting is quite dim, not good for older eyes reading.