Why we moved our family to Alentejo, Portugal

We have shared previously why we chose to move to Portugal among any other country. Now we explain why Alentejo was the best region of Portugal to us. We had never been to Portugal before moving to Portugal. And to be honest, before we chose Portugal, we had barely ever heard about Alentejo. We may have heard the name a couple of times, but we really did not know that part of the world.

So it is first by deduction that we landed in Alentejo. Let’s see why :

1. We did not want to live in or near a big city.

   We wanted to live in the countryside and find a nice piece of land. So we excluded Lisbon, Porto, Braga, Coimbra.. areas straight away.

2. We did not want to move to the Algarve.

   The Algarve is the southernmost region of Portugal. Extending from west to east, the length of the south-facing coastline is roughly 155km. It is a beautiful region for many reasons, and a fantastic birding destination! But the Algarve was too expensive for us. May be we could have been able to buy a small house in a village, but definitely not a house with several hectares of land. Also, the Algarve is very touristy, and we were looking for a more peaceful and quiet lifestyle.

3. We did not want to live on the Silver coast.

   The Silver Coast is situated between Porto and Lisbon, and extends from Santa Cruz in the south to Espinho in the north. This region is stunning. When we arrived in Portugal, we started on the Silver Coast, renting a small apartment for 3 months. We got to explore its wonders, like Nazaré, São Martinho do Porto, Obidos, Peniche, Caldas da Rainha, etc… the coast is sublime. But there were 2 big downsides for us : again, it is very expensive to buy a house there, and also, it is very very windy. If you live near the coast, there is almost always wind, and very often, the wind is very strong. We all have personal preferences when it comes to weather, but for us, it was too much.

4. We did not want to live in the northern half of Portugal.

   By doing research, spending so many hours reading articles, interviews, watching videos, etc… we understood that living inland, north of the Tagus river, would include too significant risks. At least for us. Again, we can only talk for ourselves, relating to our own specific needs, tastes and dreams. First, most of the eucalyptus plantations of Portugal are in the north. And we definitely wanted to stay away from that. To keep it short, eucalpytus is extremely problematic when it comes to wildfires. This tree is extremely inflammable. Also, the eucalpytus is not great for local biodiversity, whether it is other tree species, insects, birds, etc. Second, all the lithium mines and in the north. We discovered that Portugal has large lithium reserves, and more mines are built every year. There is actually a map available online, showing where the mines are, where new projects have been approved, and where new authorizations for mining have been requested. In many places, lithium mines are an important environmental issue, and your property can potentially be bought if a project has to be built on your spot.

So, after considering all of this, Alentejo it was! If you want more details about our thinking process, feel free to watch this :

Then, as soon as we started to look up information about Alentejo, we started to fall in love with it : its landscapes, rich ecosystems, natural diversity, birds, food, wine, etc..

We started to explore Alentejo, driving to different areas and trying to see where we could make our dream happen. We made an offer on 2 properties that did not go through, and on our third attempt it worked! 9 months after moving our family to Portugal, we moved to our house in Alentejo! It can seem like a short amount of time, but it definitely brought its fair share of stress and struggle. We felt so relieved and excited to finally get the key of our new home.

If you are considering moving to Portugal and want to connect, feel free to contact us.