Casa de Abbades

The views are fantastic, the pool is excellent, and we were welcomed so warmly. The place is beautiful and very well cared for, and the cleaning gets five stars. The houses are old, which is fine, but the furniture could use a little updating. The brown chaise longue in Casa do Manel is useless, with springs poking through the fabric. And please consider that the house is meant for four people staying a week: the fridge is tiny, so we had to go into town every day.

I spent a week at Alambique. The house is small, but the private garden is spectacular, and the pool and everything around it are wonderful. The owners and their assistant are delightful and always attentive to making our stay enjoyable. They welcomed us with cake and Vinho Verde. If we didn't live so far away, we'd definitely return.

Casa de Abbades is a wonderful retreat surrounded by grapes, oranges, mandarins, kiwis, and peaches. Madelena and her husband Luis have looked after guests for about forty years, and the manor house remains in great shape because they care for it so well. It's ideally placed in the Minho region, and I can't imagine finding anywhere better.

It's a convenient base for Ponte de Lima, Ponte da Barca, Viana, and even Galicia. There are restaurants and cafés with middling quality and reasonable prices, and the motorway gives easy access to Braga and Porto. The location, comfort, and friendliness are all good.