Holiday homes in Aljezur: five apartments in three old houses.

An old Portuguese house rebuilt from the inside out, with its own front door. One wall of the living room is the original schist, left exposed, and the clay plaster is the reason the rooms stay cool in August and dry in January.

The terrace outside is shared with Casa de Anna. Each home has its own table and chairs, with a woven screen between them, and the whole valley in front. If you would rather have it to yourselves, take both homes together.

The quieter of the two, one floor up, with the better view. Guests write about the view more than anything else here: from the kitchen window you look straight across the old town to the Monchique hills. One wall is finished in sage green clay, the counter is solid oak, and the shelves are set into the wall rather than hung on it.

The bunk bed above the stair is reached by a ladder and is a favourite with children. There is a high chair here too, so a baby needs no luggage of its own.

The terrace outside is shared with Casa de Malee. Each home has its own table and chairs, with a woven screen between them, and the whole valley in front. If you would rather have it to yourselves, take both homes together.

Take both homes and the house is yours, including the terrace, which is the part that changes everything. The screen between the two tables comes down and it becomes one long outdoor room, with the valley and the Monchique hills in front of you. Two kitchens, two bathrooms, two front doors, and nobody else coming through. Grandparents in one, parents and children in the other, works particularly well.

This is where we live. It was a ruin when we found it, on Cabeça, the hill beside the castle, and it took a year to make it a home. When we travel, we let it, so it is only available in windows. It is the one place here we cannot always say yes to.

It is a family house, not a holiday let dressed as one. There are children’s books on the shelves, a chalkboard on the fridge, and marks on the door frame where we measured them. The children’s room has a bunk bed, a desk and a shelf of games, and it is the reason families choose this house over the others.

There is a separate office with two desks, two chairs and a door you can shut. Two people can work at the same time, or one can take a call while the rest of the house carries on being a house. If you are travelling with children and still have to work, this room is the difference between a holiday that works and one that does not.

The terrace on the roof looks over the tiled roofs of the old town and up the valley to the Monchique hills. It faces east, so this is where the sun comes up. That is why we bought the place.

Two streets further down the same hill. A clay house on two floors, one home on each, about 32 m², with a kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, living room, desk and an eating nook. Like Malee and Anna, the two can be taken together as one house.

We start in November 2026 and expect to open in spring 2027. Same idea, same standard, same people doing the work. This is the last one.