During our summer vacation in Portugal, I wanted to book a small apartment in a small town somewhere in the area where we were hunting for properties. After some online research, I ended up finding this independently managed place in a very small town called Foz do Cobrao, south of Castelo Branco. I was a little bit skeptical initially as there was a 10 km tiny local road from the highway to the village but I decided it would be better to stay away from the traffic of the big road although that would mean we would be slightly isolated.
We were traveling from Barcelona and decided to spend the night in Salamanca to split the trip into two days, have a short walk in the city, and rest. From there we still had 300km to go. Salamanca is known for its university attended by Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote, considered a founding work of Western literature.
We found the reproduction of one of his letters talking about the city, in one of the old city walls.
We were just following the GPS directions from Salamanca and got out off the highway to get the tiny local road to the village where we had our apartment booked. The road had nice panoramic views but quickly turned into a little nightmare of sharp turns and hills, and we started to think our booked place might not have been the best choice. When reaching the small village the streets were VERY narrow and everything was silent, we tried to go through them with the car but were afraid of scratching it so we decided to step out and walk to find the place before ruining the car trying to go through the old streets.
After a short walk under the strong sun, we saw a sign towards our destination and discovered a better way to drive with the car, so we ended up reaching our booked place after driving through narrow strong uphill but drivable streets.
It was early to check in, according to the booking directions we were not allowed to get in until 4 pm and it was only 12pm. There was no one in the place and the little office was closed with a local phone number. I decided to give a try to the smartphone booking app and sent a message requesting if we could do an early check-in. After a quick wait, I got an answer from the owners apologizing for not being there and giving us instructions on how to get in and unlock the keylock.
The place was just heaven. A nice welcome orange juice jar, bread and marmalade, air conditioning in the living room and both rooms, everything was very clean, and beds were big and comfortable, and there was a little friend waiting for us on the terrace.
Here's a scenic shot of the place with the small town downhill.
Little did we know when I booked, the little town is home to one of the public river beaches in the area. Praia Fluvial Foz do Cobrão / Penedo dos Cagados. So, after unpacking and relaxing for a while, we decided to go for a walk around the little village and explore the area. Here's a shot from the river beach with some locals taking a sun bath.
The place was really nice and quiet, and it had a little bar with a terrace where you could eat up to midnight. We ended up having shrimp one of the nights. Here's a short video reel I found showing the river beach area.
In the afternoon we decided to take a different road to go to Castelo Branco as we could avoid driving again through the tiny streets in the village. It happened to be a wider and quite forward road to the highway which made us feel quite relieved.
In the following days, we also discovered Portas (doors) do Cobrao, a passage of the river that flows through the rocky mountains on both sides of the passage and where a bunch of condors as this is also one of their colonies in the whole area. Here's a shot from the viewpoint of the road.
And these other ones from the day we walked the trail from the village to the river doors.
All in all, the place met our expectations by far, the owners were very nice and friendly, and I am sure we will come back and definitely would recommend it to anyone visiting the area.