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Quinta das Cegonhas, Serra da Estrela

Photographs by Quinta das Cegonhas, used with permission.

Quinta das Cegonhas

Serra da Estrela

A campsite in the grounds of an old quinta below the Serra da Estrela, cooking with what it grows.

Why we love it

The Serra da Estrela is the highest ground in mainland Portugal and the source of most of its rivers — a granite plateau with glacial valleys, snow in winter, and the sheep that make the cheese. Cegonhas sits below it in the grounds of an old quinta.

They cook for guests using vegetables and herbs from the garden and eggs from their own hens, and heat the water with solar. Small and quiet, and a very long way from the Algarve in every sense.

Best for: mountain Portugal, and dinner grown on site

Worth knowing

  • No credit cards. Debit card, cash or bank transfer only.
  • The restaurant opens every evening in summer, but the rest of the year it is Sunday lunch and group bookings, and a table has to be reserved whatever the season.
  • Check-in is a window — 2pm to 8pm for a pitch, 3pm to 8pm for a room — and arriving outside it has to be arranged in advance.

The practicalities

Check in
2pm to 8pm for camping, 3pm to 8pm for the rooms and apartments
Check out
Noon from a pitch, 11am from a room
Included
  • Free wifi
  • Free parking
  • The pool, in season
  • Bed linen and towels in the tent, pod and holiday house
Extras
  • Extra person — €5.50 low season, €6.50 high
  • Child aged 2 to 10 — €2.70 low season, €3.80 high
  • Dog — €1.30
  • Extra car — €3.80 low season, €4.30 high
  • Extra tent — €4.30
  • Motorhome service point for non-guests — €6.00

Getting there

Nearest station
Gouveia — 7.5 miles
Without a car
Difficult, but possible

What is around it

Beaches

  • Vale do Rossim · 17 miles — River beach above Gouveia.

Towns

  • Linhares — One of Portugal's designated historic villages. The quinta gives two different distances for it, so we give none.

Days out

  • Museu Etnográfico do Sr. Luís · 0.5 miles
  • Museu da Miniatura Automóvel · 4 miles
  • Baloiço do Faraó · 6 miles — A wooden swing looking out over the serra.
  • Covão da Ponte · 11.9 miles — Picnic ground in the Zêzere valley.
  • Museu do Pão · 16.7 miles — The bread museum at Seia.
  • Torre · 27.8 miles — The highest point in mainland Portugal.

Where it is

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Checked August 2026 · We re-verify prices and opening every quarter.

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