In early May 2025, our family spent a weekend in the Beira Baixa area of Portugal. This region of Portugal offers rich history, beautiful nature, and endless opportunities to explore cool sights!
In Beira Baixa, we chose to stay in “the most Portuguese village:” Monsanto. During the weekend, we set off to explore other historic towns like Sortelha. We visited Penha Garcia’s fossil fields and natural swimming pools. We also made the most of our drive by stopping in Castelo Branco, and the Passadiços do Penedo Furado on our drive back to Lisbon.
Everything we saw in the Beira Baixa region was incredible! The natural surroundings were stunning, with lots of trees, giant boulders, and beautiful rolling hills. But not everything is natural beauty. This region has so much history packed around every town! During the weekend, we visited 4 castles, for example.
One highlight of the weekend was visiting two of the twelve Aldeias Historicas de Portugal (Historic Villages of Portugal): Monsanto and Sortelha. The Historic Villages of Portugal are a group of 12 villages classified under the government-run Historic Villages Program. The program aims to restore and promote a series of ancient villages/human settlements important to the history of Portugal.
Here are more details of our trip. I hope you’ll find it helpful in planning your own trip to Beira Baixa:
Getting There
A car is the best and easiest way to reach Beira Baixa. I’m sure you can take a bus there, but you’ll want a car once you are there if you intend to explore the area. The drive from Lisbon to Monsanto (where we stayed) takes about 3 hours.
Weekend Itinerary
Taking advantage of the long weekend of Workers’ Day (May 1st), we left Lisbon around noon on Friday. We arrived in Monsanto around 3pm. On the way back, we took the day to drive to Lisbon while exploring along the way. This is a breakdown of all we saw and did during that time:
Day 1
We arrived in Monsanto in the early afternoon and headed straight to out Airbnb. We actually stayed in the town of Relva, right at the bottom of the hill from Monsanto. From Relva, we could walk up to Monsanto in 20 minutes, or we could take the free shuttle that runs every 10-15 minutes. We chose to take the shuttle every time we went up and down, but the walk would’ve been very pleasant, especially on the way down. The walk would allow you to really soak up the surrounding views!
After checking into our Airbnb, we set off to explore Monsanto. Lucky us, we visited Monsanto during their annual Festa do Castelo weekend festival. When our neighbor told us about the festival (her parents live in Monsanto), we feared the town would be crowded. Fortunately, that was never the case. In fact, the festival added to the medieval ambiance of the town, with music, street vendors, and an overall lively environment.
Once we reached Monsanto, we started walking up the hill towards the castle. There is so much to look at in the town. The houses built in and around the boulders are especially fun to see. During our visit, roses were blooming, and it felt like most houses had beautiful rose bushes adorning their facades! Also, the higher we climbed, the better the views got!
We really enjoyed exploring freely as we went. There is no set trail to reach the castle. You can explore the different footpaths leading to it that have been carved out over decades, if not centuries!
The Moors originally built Monsanto Castle sometime between the 8th and 11th centuries, during their rule in the Iberian Peninsula. Afonso I of Portugal captured and rebuilt the castle in the 12th century during the Christian reconquest of Portugal. Today, the castle’s stone ruins and panoramic views make it a striking landmark in the region.
The castle grounds are huge! They include crumbling stone ramparts, old defensive towers, a medieval cistern, and the ruins of several chapels and churches, including the roofless Romanesque Church of São Miguel. You can walk on some sections of the ancient walls, and enjoy the panoramic views stretching across the Beira Baixa countryside toward Spain.
After exploring the castle we walked back down to the town of Monsanto. We had seen a fun bar/restaurant called Taverna Lusitania serving local cider, and mead on tap. We stopped there to try the mead, and it was delicious! Apparently, Monsanto is known for small-scale artisanal mead production that draws on the region’s tradition of beekeeping and wildflower honey. I guess this craft goes back to medieval time! We didn’t get any mead to bring home, but we did buy a kilogram of honey for a very reasonable price from a street vendor!
After wandering around town a bit more, we headed back to our lodging using the free shuttle. Our rented house had a nice patio and barbecue area, so we spent the evening grilling and hanging out.
Day 2
On our second day, we really made the most of our time and some some of the region’s highlights.
Sorthelha
We started our second day with a 1-hour drive to the historic town of Sortelha. Sortelha is one of Portugal’s best-preserved historic villages! It is known for its granite houses, medieval walls, and hilltop castle overlooking the Serra da Malcata region. The town was founded in the 13th century as a strategic border settlement. Nowadays, the village retains much of its medieval character, with narrow stone streets, arched gateways, and panoramic views.
After parking right outside the town’s walls, we walked up to the castle on the narrow medieval streets. Unlike some Portuguese hilltop fortresses with clear Islamic origins, Castelo de Sortelha was primarily constructed by the Portuguese Crown during the reconquista and border defense period. The views from the ramparts are impressive! Like most Portuguese castles, there’s not guardrails on the walls, so make sure your kids can handle that.
After wandering around the castle, we continued up hill. We went past the historic Igreja Matriz de Sortelha. Unfortunately, the church was closed so we couldn’t visit the interior. Afterwards we meandered through the streets to the back walls. There we saw the “Old Lady” rock formation, and the “Casa Árabe.”
For lunch we tried getting a reservation at O Foral, but unfortunately they were full. If you plan a visit to Sortelha, don’t wait until the last second to make a reservation. The food sounded delicious!
Castelo do Sabugal
After a quick lunch in a town near Sortelha, we drove 15 minutes to the Castelo do Sabugal. The Castelo de Sabugal we see today was rebuilt by the Portuguese monarchy in the 1200s as part of Portugal’s efforts to defend its eastern border during the Reconquista. The castle’s standout feature is the unusual pentagonal keep tower, built in the 13th–14th centuries. Visitors can climb to the top of the tower and enjoy the panoramic views. If you choose to climb the tower, beware that the stairs are narrow and steep. They are definitely doable, just take your time.
Penha Garcia
From Sabugal we drove an hour to Penha Garcia. We wanted to visit Penha Garcia to walk the 3km Rota dos Fósseis circular trail. This route starts in town, by the church. From the church, walk to the overlook, and climb up the castle stairs before going down towards the river gorge. Down at the bottom there is a small beach, a beautiful cascade, and a natural pool you can jump into. The trilobite tracks found on the quartzite rocks give this trail its name. There is a small building alongside the trail where a guide will show you around if present. Make sure you don’t miss it!
There is also an interpretive center in town along the marked trail. It’s well-signed and definitely worth the visit. You can see the best examples of trilobite tracks, and other fossils there.
The spot in Penha Garcia was beautiful! At times, I felt like I was in Slovenia because of the surrounding mountains. This was truly a beautiful path to walk on! We imagine this would be a great spot for swimming during the summer months. It takes a little bit of work to reach, but it’s very much worth the effort!
Monsanto Festival do Castelo
After finishing the trail in Penha Garcia, we drove back to Monsanto. We took the free shuttle up to town and grabbed dinner from one of the street vendors that had setup for the festival. After dinner, we walked around town a bit longer. The charm of Monsanto is that there’s something beautiful or interesting around every corner! At the end of the evening we went back to our house to get some well-deserved rest!
Day 3
For our last day, we planned a couple of stops along the way on our drive back to Lisbon. There are so many options for little detours or stops on this drive. These are the ones that worked for us, but I recommend you look at the map if planning a trip to the area.
Castelo Branco: Jardim do Paço Episcopal
Our first stop after leaving Monsanto was Castelo Branco, just an hour drive away. Castelo Branco is the capital of the Beira Baixa region. The city boasts many museums and has an ever growing cultural scene. Since we were just passing by, we decided to focus on one stop, and chose to visit Jardim do Paço Episcopal. This serene escape features fountains and statues in a perfectly manicured Baroque garden. The statues lining the stairs are dedicated to kings and religious figures and are very interesting. The Jardim do Paço Episcopal originally served as a private garden for the Bishop’s residence.
Our visit to the gardens took about an hour and a half. After the gardens, we made a quick stop at a grocery store to buy picnic food for lunch to eat at our next stop.
Pacadicos do Penedo Furado
From Jardim do Paço Episcopal, we drove an hour and a half to Passadiços do Penedo Furado. I had read about this boardwalk trail a while ago and had it marked on my map to visit. Reaching this spot added twenty minutes to our drive, so we decided to add it to the plan for the drive back. Before walking down to the actual boardwalk, we stopped at the Miradouro to eat our lunch. The view of the valley below was spectacular from there!
Passadiços do Penedo Furado is a scenic network of wooden walkways and trails that wind through forests, cliffs, and waterfalls.. The route meanders past natural pools, river beaches, and viewpoints over the Zêzere River valley. Some highlights include the Penedo Furado waterfall and its famous natural rock arch. The walk is flat and easy, and well signed.
One added bonus of visiting this spot was driving along the EN2 (Estrada Nacional 2). This road is often called Portugal’s “Route 66” because it runs nearly the entire length of the country from north to south. We drioe a short stretch and it was very scenic. The winding roads through pine forests and rolling hills made the extra 20 minutes of driving totally worth it!
After this lovely stop, we continued the rest of our drive back to Lisbon. Two hours later, we were back home in time for dinner!
Final Thoughts
Our family fell in love with this part of Portugal! Beira Baixa has so much to offer and we can’t wait to go back. There are several hiking trails in the area that we’d like to check out. We might consider staying in Sortelha next time. Also, there are some thermal pools in the area. Our neighbor recommended we visit the Termas de Monfortinho next time we visit the area, so we will probably go back for that!
To learn more about our adventures in Portugal, visit this page. For all of our other travels, visit this page.
