Tia Luísa Cottage (country house)

A lovely, cosy Alentejo style cottage situated in a rural area surrounded by vineyards, cork and olive trees. Everything was as described in the listing and the local property manager was lovely and made the check-in and check-out process seamless. A nice welcome basket was awaiting us of local wine, cheese and bread. Sadly, the view of the fields from the back patio was blocked by overgrown vegetation during our stay. The lemon tree was full of fruit and we were encouraged to pick them to make lemonade. (Which we did! ) The people in town were very friendly, as well.

After a lovely welcome from Dona Paula we were very happy with the house and garden space. Inside was lovely and cool, with stone floors and ample space for a couple and 2 dogs, and the garden was a wonderfully peaceful place to sit outside and read, sunbathe and eat. The night sky is phenomenal in this area, with the Milky Way and constellations perfectly visible. The village is quite sleepy, but has 2 café / restaurants, a post office, supermarket and small general store. The towns of Redondo and Reguengos are a short drive away, and the beautiful hilltop village of Monsaraz with stunning views of Alqueva reservoir and the most amazing sunsets is just a short distance further on from Reguengos. The reservoir beach has great facilities and watersports like Stand up Paddleboarding, pedal boats, kayaking and a sunset cruise. We live in Portugal so didn't want to drive further to visit Évora or the marble towns of Vila Viçosa, Estremoz etc, but for a first time visitor those places are well worth a look. As we wanted a restful getaway, we were extremely pleased with our choice.

Well, I loved the hammock and the little back yard, where I spent most of my time..The house was prettily decorated and comfortable. We took our own toaster as the one provided was a bit awkward to use and had no automatic cut off. One more biggish saucepan, for pasta or rice, would be good but I understand most people are not interested in cooking and our situation was a bit different. We loved the fact we could take our dog and cats with us. Both the owner and the lady looking after the property were friendly and efficient and made checking in and out very easy. There is a great little restaurant round the corner which has lunches including wine and dessert for eight euros..Montoito is a lovely village, well located for exploring the area ..Recommended.

Tia Luisa is a traditional and rustic cottage, perfect place if you want to stay like a local. We were there in the late summer, and we were probably the only tourists in the entire Montoito village. Great access to many interesting lovely villages by car, large supermarkets in Redondo and Reguengos de Monsaraz are useful, Municipal Market in Redondo was also nice with lovely market people, but also in Montoito, nearby mini market was our favourite as the man of the shop was always exceptionally kind and helping to us. Neighbouring village Redondo (only 20min drive away) was particularly our favourite. Spent nice time there at a cafe or a bar (municipal Enoteca), came back to the cottage, had nice drink in the garden watching sheep are coming back for water beyond the garden fence, and then enjoyed watching gorgeous colour of sunset and millions of stars in the sky... It was only shame that the neighbour family was a little noisy; it was not as quiet as we expected staying there. Well, it is where other people live their daily life, we had to accept… Cottage was fully equipped as it stated, no problem on cooking at all. Finally, we really want to thank the lovely neighbour who actually looked after our stay. When we arrived unexpectedly late at night for the first day, she quickly came out for us and welcomed us, explained all what we wanted to know. A bottle of wine, fresh village bread for the next morning and fresh fruits from her garden were ready there, which made us relaxed and free from concern. She was really helpful from time to time. When we call her, she immediately appeared. Thank you Joao, for all the arrangement. We had great time there on our holiday this year. We left extra copies of brochures of interesting places there in the living room for later visitors. Hope it helps them.