As a holiday destination, Serra da Estrela may not be as well-known as other regions, like the Algarve, mainly because the weather tends to be colder than other places in the country – but it’s nevertheless popular, especially amongst the Portuguese, who often travel here to hike or simply watch the snow fall.
If you love being close to nature and want to take your entire family on a trip they won’t soon forget, then this mountain is just the right thing for you! You can stay in our Pousada Serra da Estrela, the newest addition to the Pousadas Group; as a luxury hotel in the Serra da Estrela Natural Park, you’ll be surrounded by magnificent landscapes at all times!
Serra da Estrela (or Estrela Mountain) has 1,993 metres at its highest point, the Torre, which adds seven more metres to the count. Here you’ll find an area of beautiful scenery, with striking mountain drops, rocky, jagged regions and stunning bodies of water. You can also experience the silence of the heights and take advantage of that to truly enjoy nature in its splendour.
There are many animals, plants and flowers that make Serra da Estrela their home, so you can also enjoy spotting the wildlife as you hike or drive around. During winter, this is the only place in Portugal where you can ski, sledge and snowboard.
Torre
Literally translated, Torre means Tower, and is exactly that, a tower that marks the highest point in Mainland Portugal. (Although, if you take the archipelagos into consideration, Mount Pico, in the island of Pico in the Azores, is the highest point of Portugal overall at 2351 metres.) At Torre you’ll find a restaurant, stores with typical products and food of the region, and a ski centre called Vodafone Ski Resort.
The region has a lot to offer to everyone who visits. Its gastronomy is rich and hearty and produces a famous brand of cheese – the area created many different products specific to the region that can’t be found anywhere else in the country as well, such as winter coats made from burel. You can find these and more in the countless little villages and towns spread out across the base of the mountain (and even on it).
In this region you’ll also find a large breed of dog that has been used for centuries as a shepherd dog, the Estrela Mountain dog.
This strange location is one of Serra da Estrela’s best kept secrets. Made from concrete and granite, and almost five metres high, this construction was built in 1955 and is used as a well that directs water where it needs to go. The tunnel is more than 1.5km long and creates the illusion that the dam is broken or that there’s a door to the centre of the Earth there.
Associado Nº 1.322