This week’s dream: A perfect corner of rural Portugal
Melides is a sleepy Portuguese village where the locals’ daily routines are “as well-worn as the cobblestone streets,” said Eric Lipton in The New York Times. But change is afoot, as you’ll notice by walking just a block from the town butcher to a string of boutiques selling designer swimwear to French-speaking visitors. Though the surrounding Alentejo region is largely unknown to Americans, it has been discovered by a wave of affluent Europeans. Local homeowners now include designer Philippe Starck and shoe magnate Christian Louboutin, who is working on opening the first hotel in Melides (pronounced Melidesh). Though a new day is clearly coming, “for the moment, Alentejo is a region of unparalleled beauty and authenticity,” home to vineyards, farms, and the last unspoiled stretch of Atlantic Ocean coast in all of southern Europe. Think of it as “what Saint-Tropez used to be in the 1950s, before Brigitte Bardot.” My family and I happened upon Alentejo almost by accident. After booking a cheap flight to Lisbon, we heard about Alentejo’s pristine beaches, which start just an hour south of the capital. Sidestepping the hot spot Comporta, with its boutique hotels and nightlife scene, we rented a cottage outside Melides close to “what is, without question, the most extraordinary stretch of beach I have seen anywhere in the world.” To reach it, you descend stairs built into a cliff, passing ancient red sandstone formations that rise like abstract sculptures from a carpet of wildflowers. Below lies a vast stretch of sand populated only by the occasional fisherman, a picnicking family, or a snack shack.
There’s no shortage of diversions nearby. You can hike a vast network of sandy trails, ride horses or hot-air balloons, surf, watch dolphins, or visit a nature reserve. We drove through fields of cork oak, spent an afternoon at an organic farm, and visited the “pictureperfect” town of Evora, with its secondcentury Roman temple and medieval cathedral. But nothing topped just hanging out in tranquil Melides or spending long hours at the beach, from sunrise walks to late-night stargazing. All of Portugal is laid-back; Alentejo “takes that to another level.”
Many homes near Melides are available on Airbnb for less than $100 a night.