Ourique, Santa Luzia and what is around them
This is the real Baixo Alentejo: wheat, cork oak, storks on the power poles and towns where the café still shuts for lunch. The sea is under an hour away.
Distances
| Destination | km | min |
|---|---|---|
| Ourique | 15 | 20 |
| Vila Nova de Milfontes beach | 55 | 50 |
| Zambujeira do Mar beach | 58 | 55 |
| Odemira | 40 | 40 |
| Beja | 65 | 55 |
| Faro airport | 125 | 95 |
| Lisbon airport | 200 | 130 |
Driving times, no traffic, measured from the gate.
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Where to go
Ourique — 20 min
The town. Supermarket, pharmacy, fuel, a morning market and three cafés where you eat better than you would expect. This is where the shopping and the bread happen.
Castro Verde — 35 min
A Special Protection Area for the birds of the cereal steppe. This is where you see the great bustard, the heaviest flying bird in Europe and, honestly, something that looks like an engineering mistake. Best early, November to March.
Mértola — 70 min
A museum-town above the Guadiana, with a castle, a mosque that became a church, and one of the best archaeological museums in the country. A full day.
Beja — 55 min
The district capital. The keep, the Convento da Conceição, and restaurants doing proper Alentejo cooking.
Serpa — 90 min
Cheese, walls, and Cante Alentejano sung in a tavern if you get lucky with the night.
Vila Nova de Milfontes — 50 min
Where the Mira meets the Atlantic. The only town on this coast with life out of season, and the way in to every beach to the north.
When to come
- March to May
- The best of it. Everything green, storks nesting, 22 degrees and nobody on the beaches.
- June to September
- Serious heat — 35 to 40 inland. You swim in the morning, sleep through the afternoon and live after six. The beaches make up for it.
- October to December
- The olive harvest. Low light, clear days, and new oil in December.
- January and February
- Cold mornings, sunny afternoons, oranges on the trees and the almond in blossom. Empty, which is the point.
Getting here
- A car is the only practical way. Off the A2 at Ourique, then 12 km and 2.8 km of well-kept dirt track — any car manages it, slowly.
- By train to Ourique on the Linha do Sul, and we will collect you from the station with a day of notice.
- Faro airport is 95 minutes away and almost always cheaper than Lisbon, which is 130.