Villa Extramuros
Villa Extramuros is a strikingly beautiful contemporary guesthouse located in the Alentejo, one of the last wild regions in Europe with kilometers and kilometers of nature and wilderness.
My passion about the Alentejo is its atmosphere and beautiful landscape. It is very flat, you can feel the sky touching the ground, giving you a sense of peace and tranquility.
Casas Caiadas
Such beauty only exists in unspoiled landscape. And you need a car to get there.
How would you describe Casas Caiadas in a nutshell?
Casas Caiadas is a luxury vacation rental in the unspoiled Alentejo region in central Portugal. It is the perfect place to get away from it all, allowing our vacation guests to truly relax and enjoy the peaceful environment.
What was your inspiration to refurbish the houses and offer them as a vacation rental?
When we started working on the houses about three years ago, our plan was to use them as our own weekend getaway. However, as the renovations progressed, we grew very enthusiastic about the project and decided to prepare the structures so that other guests may rent the houses as well.
The site was originally comprised of four independent houses, former watermills. Trying to interpret how people once lived here, we wanted to preserve all of the original details and through keeping the rest of the place rather simple, provide a more authentic experience for our vacation guests.
How would you describe the architecture and interior design of Casas Caiadas?
The architects, Pereira Miguel Arquitectos, still provide a lot of support and my wife Paula coordinated all the interior design. Together we agreed that we wanted to be respectful of the buildings’ history and to keep them as authentic as possible, including their very cozy atmosphere.
Mixing traditional Portuguese elements with modern amenities, we added a beautiful swimming pool with a beach-like entrance. Our vacation guests really enjoy sitting in the sun by the pool during the day and stargazing at night, which is very relaxing.
We kept the surrounding landscape very natural so that our guests would be immersed in nature and feel outside of their daily routine during their vacation. Our guests’ feedback is that it offers a new experience of being in contact with nature, listening to the sounds of the birds and the stream running through the vacation rental.
To you personally, what’s so special about the experience of renting Casas Caiadas?
The mixture of authentic and modern elements is very special at Casa Caiadas. I really enjoy being immersed in such an historic and tranquil environment while being able to take advantage of the modern amenities and services offered as part of the rental.
And my passion about the Alentejo is its beautiful landscape. It is very flat and you can feel the sky touching the ground, which gives you a sense of peace and tranquility. That is why we chose this location for our vacation villa.
What has been the biggest reward about making Casas Caiadas available for rent?
The biggest reward is always at check out when people are leaving because it feels that even though they’re going, they’ll be taking a piece of Casas Caiadas with them. Our main goal is to provide our guests with a remarkable experience, and when they share their joy of the place it is very rewarding!
There are four houses, three are available for rent and the fourth is a support house. The largest house has a terrace that connects to the swimming pool and offers a 70 square meter living room and a dining area, a separate bathroom and a fully equipped kitchen. Here we serve breakfast for our vacation guests, which is included in the price, and a local chef is available on request to prepare any meals our guests would like during their stay.
The second house is a three-bedroom house and offers a suite with en-suite bathroom and two more bedrooms with a shared bathroom. The smallest house offers another suite with en-suite bathroom.
This vacation rental is perfect for families or small groups of friends, comfortably sleeping up to 8 people.
Our recommendations to our vacation guests really depend on them individually. As we don’t have a standard guide to hand out to visitors, we try to understand our guests’ interests and provide recommendations specific to what they want to see and do during their vacation.
The Alentejo gastronomy is very rich, therefore we always highly recommend taking advantage of local restaurants and of course, our chef. Besides that we recommend a visit to the small villages nearby, Évora, Monsaraz, as well as the nearby castles and monuments. You can take a car or we have bikes available for guests to ride around and explore the region.
We recommend Comporta Beach, a quiet beach with white sand and turquoise water. If our guests prefer to stay inland, they should visit Lake Alqueva, the great artificial lake in the middle of the Alentejo, which offers a wonderful landscape.
We also just started a new project in and around Arraiolos. Together with the e-bike brand brand Riese & Müller we offer 30 e-bikes parked near tourist destinations and restaurants all over the Arraiolos municipality. What we are building in Arraiolos is a pioneer experience from Portugal to the world, i.e.: to all people looking for places that preserve and respect their genuine character and that add elements of modernity such as mobility, design, culture or art. Arraiolos is an ideal place for new nomads looking for exactly this type of experience.
The houses of Casas Caiadas are located near Sabugueiro (Évora District), a small village in the Alentejo region of Portugal. The rental offers complete privacy with no neighbours nearby. You are in the middle of unspoiled nature but only 15 mins away from the nearest supermarkets and restaurants.
The main city of Alentejo, Évora, is a 30-minute drive from here. We’re one hour from Lisbon and one hour from Comporta Beach, a well-known and beautiful beach on the Atlantic coast.
Within only one hour you can also reach Lisbon airport and even Spain.
Our advice is to stay for one week. We do have guests who stay only for a few days and some who rent our houses for more than a week. However, in our opinion, one week is the perfect time to get a pretty in-depth experience of the Alentejo.
The best times to visit are either in winter or spring. Spring and early summer is quiet, beautiful and full of colours. Starting in March nature goes wild with flowers in bloom and the sounds of the stream starting to run through our property. Autumn is my favourite time when temperatures are not so high and it’s very cozy to be inside the house in front of a fireplace.
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