Paradise in Portugal

The estate is on a beautiful ground, private lake. Full of amazing plants, lush with greenery. Beautiful space for yoga classes. Paddle boards and kayaks for your private lake and pier Meals were beyond amazing all homemade by Daniela, owner of the house. Lot of options for any dietary restrictions. Great bar and service by Elias

Truly paradise in Portugal. Went here for a yoga retreat and was blown away. Frank and Daniela are the most beautiful people with the most beautiful sanctuary (a little slice of heaven). From the cozy rooms, beautiful views and landscaping, divine home cooked meals by Daniela, serene fresh water lake with kayaks and paddle boards, the serene sounds of beautiful birds and of course the dogs: Wiggles, slim and jack jack. If you’re lucky, you’ll get to meet Uncle Harry 😉. I can’t say enough good about this place and the people that live and work there. What a beautiful escape from the hustle and bustle. I hope I make it back one day

Returning to the Quinta feels like coming home. The rains this year in Portugal have been good, and the landscape shows it, particularly the extensive and beautifully maintained hillside garden of the Quinta. The calm and relaxed atmosphere of the Quinta makes it a perfect place to unwind. For exercise, the walks from the Quinta are delightful. Swimming, paddleboarding or canoeing on the lake are also great activities. However, the unique feature of the quinta is the unrivalled birdwatching expertise of Frank McClintock. The gardens around the Quinta are alive with birds, and Frank also offers birdwatching outings of various durations. Seeing Spanish Imperial eagles and great and small bustards is a wonderful experience, even for the most inexperienced bird watcher. Frank's partner, Daniela, serves up bounteous and beautiful food without fail, and dinner around the communal table is always enjoyable and entertaining. There is nowhere quite like it!

We stayed at “Paradise in Portugal” for 7 nights in mid-April for a birding focused vacation. Our bird guide, and Quinta owner Frank, picked us up at the Faro airport and we were birding shortly after. No real check-in, they just took us and our luggage from the car into our room. We did get a key later but never felt the need to lock our room. We stayed in the Androhina (Barn Swallow) room. It is a king room that also has a small room with bunk beds attached. Nicely decorated with a birding theme. The rooms are not climate controlled, and they needed to bring us a portable heater since we had unseasonably cold weather. The water pressure was on the low side, but the water was safe to drink and there was plenty of hot water. This room is more private than the rest of the rooms as it is at the end and the only people that go down there are staff. All the rooms overlook the large lake and the gardens on the grounds. Meals are buffet for a light breakfast and heavy lunch. They do family style with a fixed menu at a fixed time, all at one table, in the evening. They were great at meeting our dietary needs and Danella is a great cook that made sure we saw good variety. It is not really practical to go somewhere else to eat…they are very remote. They have paddle boards, a kayak, and a canoe to enjoy the lake along with a small pool. The birding with Frank was great. We saw over 100 species on our various outings over the week. There is a lot of driving for the bird tours, but he takes you to different habitats to see a wider variety of birds. Overall, great trip. Elias was great to chat with while he dropped us off at our hotel near the Lisbon airport at the end of the trip.