Everything You Need To Know Before House Sitting in Portugal

Portugal is a sunny land, abundant with beautiful beaches and delicious, cheap foods. It's no wonder you want to travel to Portugal! As House Sitting means free accommodation it can be the perfect match to your visit to Portugal. 

We've House Sat in Portugal twice, both times in the Algarve near Albufeira and Lagos. This is a popular place to have a holiday in Portugal, but an advantage of House Sitting is it will take you just outside those tourist hot-spots to show you the authentic places natives really live in. 

We loved House Sitting in Portugal and we'd love to help you House Sit there too, so here is: 

Everything you need to know before House Sitting in Portugal

What you will learn in this post:

• 7 tips that will prepare you for House Sitting in Portugal
• 3 tips that will prepare you for Pet Sitting in Portugal
• Useful Portuguese words to know as a House Sitter
• Our personal experiences of House Sitting in Portugal (giving you a taster of what it's really like). 

So without further ado, let's reveal those 7 tips that will prepare you for House Sitting in Portugal:

1. Beware of the ants

As Portugal has lovely hot weather, it also has a lot of those nasty creepy crawlies that come (inside) with it. Probably the most annoying, and definitely the most important one to be aware of as a House Sitter is the ants. There are a lot of (big) ants in Portugal, and you need to make sure that the house you are sitting doesn't get over-run with them. 

Luckily this is pretty easy to do, by making sure you don't leave dirty plates out overnight/for too long as this will attract the ants. (And really, to be a good House Sitter you should always avoid leaving dirty plates out, full stop!)

Sometimes though the ants just can't be avoided, so check how your Home Owner likes to deal with ants before they leave - it might be with poison, it might be with something else.  

2. Don't bite off more than you can chew with the gardens

Land is pretty cheap in Portugal, so chances are the house (or villa) you'll be sitting will have a nice big garden, probably with an orange/olive/lemon/fig tree - or 30. Fresh fruit from the garden sounds like the dream (because it is), but be careful you're not biting off more than you can chew (pun intended). 

Our House Sit in Portugal had over thirty fruit trees, which needed a lot of water, but luckily for us they were watered on a timer and all we had to do was enjoy the fruit. However, on some House Sits you might not be as lucky and will find yourself watering all day - check with the Home Owner first. 

3. The hot weather in Portugal

If, like us, you love sunshine then you'll find the Portuguese weather sublime. On average the Algarve has over 300 days of sun a year.  As a House Sitter there are some things that come with this of course: ants (see above), keeping the car out of the sun where possible, and perhaps turning it on every now and again to make sure that the battery doesn't go flat. And in general making sure that both you and the animals you're looking after drink enough water. 

4. The cold weather in Portugal 

It does gets cold in the winter in Portugal! Sure it doesn't get as cold as northern Europe, but it can often feel colder. Portugal is well equipped for hot weather: it has houses designed to keep the house cool and the breeze running through, but the houses don't change for the winter - hence it can feel nippy indoors even though the sun is still shining outside. Not a lot of Portuguese houses have central heating and heating a house costs a lot. 

To illustrate our point, we have a friend from Russia who lives in Portugal. The Portuguese laughed at him when he said he was cold in the winter  ("but you're Russian, how can you be cold?") The fact is, he was used to well insulated houses and efficient heating systems, which they just don't have in Portugal. 

So wrap up warm if you're House Sitting in Portugal in the winter. Or of course, you could just make sure you're not in Portugal in the winter and avoid this whole problem. (Like us.)

5. The food is cheap and delicious

You need to be prepared for how cheap and delicious the food is in Portugal. It's great! Pastel De Natas (Portuguese custard tarts) really are to die for, they're crispy and beautiful. Aldi and Lidl are still probably the cheapest places to shop in Portugal, but even shopping at your local isn't going to set you back thousands. We really recommend checking out your local butchers/fruit and veg stall/markets. The food is fresh, tasty and still cheap. We always embarrass ourselves with our lack of Portuguese and point and smile, but they are very friendly. 

6. There are lizards

The warm climate means that there are lots of cute lizards in Portugal. They're not dangerous but if you're cat sitting you may have to put up with one or two being eaten (or presented to you as a fabulous gift). Also, if you care about lizards, you have to be a bit careful when opening and closing doors, so that the lizards don't get squished in-between :(

7. Driving in Portugal

If you're lucky, your Home Owners will lend you their car and you won't have to rent a car in Portugal. It's worth noting though that Portugal has one of the highest rates of car accidents and fatalities in Europe (source). If you're dog sitting or cat sitting, you'll probably need access to the car on the (off) chance you'll need to take your pet to the vets. 

So that was the list of things which are good to know before House Sitting in Portugal, next are: 

3 things you need to know before Pet Sitting in Portugal 

8. There are scary dogs

this is not one of them 

We House Sat one of the sweetest dogs ever in Portugal, but were surprised to hear that a lot of people were afraid of her (she is quite big). Then we met some Portuguese dogs and they were scary - firstly some people in Portugal haven't got the memo about being kind to dogs, and so some dogs are tied up in front of the house all day (in the sun), to bark at strangers and deter burglars (no need for House Sitters there)! 

Secondly, and more importantly, there are also feral dogs in Portugal, which you need to keep away from - especially if you are walking the dog you are sitting. Like most feral dogs, they're generally more of a threat to your dog than to you, but it's good to always avoid them. 

9. There are feral cats 

vicious

As with the feral dogs, the feral cats are more something to be aware of than something to be afraid of. 

Firstly, they can be a bit skanky - they tend to have fleas and can be a bit inbred and scrawny. 

Secondly, depending on what your Home Owner does, it may not be a good idea to feed them - if your Home Owner usually doesn't it's not a good idea to start - the Home Owner is going to come home to some unwelcome guests, and the cats are going to suffer when their food supply stops.

Thirdly, if you are dog sitting, it's a good idea to try and keep the dogs away from the cats. 

10. You might have to look after an exotic animal or two 

You do of course get House Sits in Australia and the UK that come with a reptile or too, but it's not the norm. However, for almost every House Sit we've seen advertised in Portugal, they've all come with an exotic animal (or two)! Actually, when I say exotic I'm including donkeys in this - there seems to be a lot of Portuguese House Sits with donkeys!

Other than donkeys, we've seen sits with parakeets, lizards, tarantulas and turtles. (Incidentally, our sit came with a turtle). 

Don't be immediately deterred because of an unusual pet (though equally don't jump straight in with an animal you can't handle). Generally, reptiles are easier to look after than most dogs (if you have clear instructions). And donkeys are super easy - just give them hay, water and lots of love. 

Useful Portuguese words to know as a House Sitter:

The amount of English a Portuguese person knows varies from person to person. You can definitely survive in Portugal knowing no Portuguese, but we think it's always nice to make an effort and know at least a few words of the country you're staying in. At the very least it's good to know:

Oi - hi 
or if you're super British like me and can't bring yourself to say 'oi' to someone, then try:
Olá - hello
Por favor - please
Obrigado/a - thanks (with an o at the end if you're a boy, and an a at the end if you're a girl)
Desculpa - sorry
Tchau - goodbye 
Cão - dog
Gato - cat
Tartaruga - turtle
Veterinário - vet 


We got by with an embarrassing mix of Spanish, Italian and enthusiastic nodding. 

[ On a side note, if you'd like to see some of my very best enthusiastic nodding, check out the time we were filmed by a tv crew!]

If you're House Sitting in Portugal for a long time, it's worth having a bit more than a handful of Portuguese:  

Portuguese translation services 
Polilingua offers accurate Portuguese translation, transcription and voice over services performed by experienced linguists at the deadlines you require!  


Our personal experience of House Sitting in Portugal 
To end this post, I will tell you about our own personal experience of House Sitting in Portugal - this should give you an idea of what it's really like to House Sit in Portugal. 

• Location: Near Lagoa in Portugal's Algarve (i.e. the South). 
• Animal: One lovely mutt and a turtle
• House duties: Nothing out of the ordinary, just feeding the dog, watering the plants and dog, feeding the turtle and cleaning out its cage
• House benefits: Location! Really sunny and beautiful location near the beach. And the garden! Lots of fig, orange, lemon, pomegranate and apple trees to enjoy. 

This is one of our absolute favourite House Sits - we love it so much we went twice in one year. 

The location is just outside the touristy area (so it's peaceful and the food is cheap). But it's also close enough to the awesome beaches!

The dog is an absolute pleasure, she's really loving and fun to be around. She's also extremely easy to look after.  The turtle is easy to look after too, but he's not as loving. 

Another great thing about this House Sit is the family who own the house - they are some of our favourite people ever! 

All in all, we loved House Sitting in Portugal and will definitely House Sit there more in the future. 

Where to find House Sits in Portugal 

We found our Portuguese House Sitting job, and indeed all our other House Sitting jobs from Trusted House Sitters. They have a whole page dedicated to House Sitting jobs in Portugal here: House Sitting jobs in Portugal. If you haven't House Sat before we highly recommend you check out this page: How to start House Sitting, which tells you everything you need to know. 

So there you have it, everything you need to know before House Sitting in Portugal. 

We are currently working on more of our 'Everything You Need to Know Before House Sitting in...' guides. So if you enjoyed this guide be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest so you don't miss the next guide. 

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Finally, if you really want to make sure you never miss a post, sign up to our mailing list. As a thank you we will give you 10% off Trusted House Sitters (the site where we got our Portuguese House Sit and all our other House Sits).  Subscribe here: 10% off Trusted House Sitters!

Do you fancy House Sitting in Portugal? Let us know in the comments below!

10 Reasons You Have to Visit the Azores

The Azores archipelago is Portuguese, but is situated very far away from the mainland in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. 

The Azores are ripe with delicious foods, geographical wonders and landscapes straight out of Jurassic Park. However, due to their isolated location and how expensive it was to reach them, they're sadly often missed out by visitors to Portugal, and even the Portuguese themselves. 

But this spring, cheap flights finally opened up from Lisbon, so we were able to visit. We loved it and ended up spending a whole month on the largest of the islands - Sao Miguel.

Sao Miguel pretty much has something for everyone so here are 

10 Reasons we think You Must Visit Sao Miguel and the Azores

1. Sete Cidades lake

The Sete Cidades lake was named one of the seven natural wonders of Portugal. Portugal is so beautiful that it had a lot of competition, but when you visit it you can see why it won: 

The lake is situated in an ancient, dormant volcano. You can walk all around the lake and all around the top of the volcano. If you do walk around the top you really notice where the lava has affected the earth (i.e. how the forest looks like four tongues).  

Even though it really looks like there are two lakes, there is actually only one. (It's divided by a bridge). The sunlight reflects differently on the opposite sides of the lake making one part look blue and the other green. 

This prompted a legend about a King refusing to let his daughter marry a shepherd. They cried so much that they filled up the lakes. A guy we met told us the blue lake is the daughter's because girls cry more, but he was wrong (and sexist). The blue lake is the SHEPHERD'S because his eyes were blue (and he probably cried more). 

Sexism aside, this kind of beauty was one of the main reasons we wanted to come to the Azores and it did not disappoint.

Tips for Sete Cidades: 

• DO spend all day there, you can hike round the bottom, walk round the top, even hike from the top to the bottom (that takes ages don't do that). You can also walk right underneath the volcano, but actually.. 
• DON'T walk in the tunnel underneath the volcano, it takes about 20 minutes, is pitch black and is a nightmare for anyone whose seen 'Creep' or 'the Descent' or any horror film really.
• DON'T now go and watch the trailer for 'the Descent' I'm now super scared. Okay, deep breaths..
• DO make sure you go on a sunny day 
• DO see the second reason to go to the Azores for the best view of Sete Cidades. 

2. Sete Cidades' haunted hotel: Monte Palace 

Okay, so speaking of horror films, how would you like to visit the set of a French one? 

Monte Palace was a French, yuppie, bad investment in the 80s. 30 years ahead of it's time it over-estimated the amount of tourists heading to Sao Miguel. Within a year it was closed down. 

For ten years or so, guards (and guard dogs) were employed to make sure no one broke in to steal the furniture/carpets/windows. But when the money finally ran out, nature was allowed to take over.

Photo credit: Petar Dimitrov, polygot

Well nature, the graffiti artists, and the annoying tourists:

Apparently a few years ago a French horror film was shot here, but we can't for the life of us find it's name :( or what it's about. We'd love to see it, so if anyone does know it (or can use Google.fr) please help!

It was creepy, but if you can, you MUST go on the roof. The views are the best. 

Tips for Monte Palace: 

• DO go in the rooms and imagine how luxurious the hotel would be with a view like this
• DON'T worry about being told off about going in there, there are no signs that say you can't, the doors are wide open and there are lots of other tourists there.
• DON'T go at night, unless you are super brave
• DO be careful, there are lots of old lifts you can fall down

3. Caldeira Velha

Located very close to Lagoa do Fogo (another volcanic lake) is Caldeira Velha - and it's the best! It's basically three hot lakes heated by the volcano.

This is the top one, it's about 25°C and has a waterfall

We (foolishly) went in this one first, thinking that it would be warmer than it was. 

Then we got in the next one (38°C) it was much warmer (duh). 

Having complained that the first one was too cold, we soon discovered that the second one was too hot (eat your heart out Goldilocks). No really, eat your heart out Goldilocks: 

Now who has the gold-iest locks?

It really was very relaxing, but because of the sunny weather we couldn't stay in for too long.

The third pool was a whopping 61°C! Drastically dangerous to go in, but perfect to dry off next to. 

Tips for Caldeirha Velha: 

• DO go in the 38°C one first and then the 25°C
• DO make sure you go in the water, it's very relaxing
• DO try and go on a colder day, it would be perfect if it was snowing!
• DON'T step in the 61°C one (duh) 

4. The Wildlife 

Photo credit: Petar Dimitrov

With a great environment and very few humans, there is a lot of wildlife here. Lots of unique birds, cute frogs: 

and absolutely abundant with one of our favourite animals - Lizards: 

As House Sitters, our favourite animals are dogs, closely followed by cats. But the dogs and cats aren't that great here. Okay some of the dogs are cute but most of them are actually SCARY. We walked across the island one day, passing lots of farms with lots of scary (thankfully chained up) dogs. 

The cats aren't a lot better, they're not really scary (what's are they going to do, bite my toe off?) but they are a bit skanky/underfed/flea-bitten/inbred. We felt a bit sorry for them so gave a couple of them some fish heads. It wasn't long before they came back with an army:

but at least it included their cute (inbred) babies!!! 

But maybe skanky cats,  scary dogs and lizards aren't your thing.. Don't worry the Azores save their best wildlife FOR THE SEA:

We saw dolphins and whales with the wonderful Picos de Aventura if you'd like to hear more about that perfect day, please check out this post. 

5. Furnas

The third volcanic lake of Sao Miguel is called Lagoa das Furnas and the volcano is actually still active (though it's last eruption was in 1630). 

Because of the activeness of the volcano, there are plenty of geysers (hot springs where water sporadically boils) hence all the steam:  

They boil eggs in these waters! 

But we didn't eat eggs, instead we opted for a traditional cozido which had been cooked in the ground: 

Yum

Even though it looks like a mud pie, it's a bit more sophisticated than that. Meats, veg and rice are placed together in a pot and then buried in the earth for five hours. The volcano heats them up and gives you a yummy mess of foods cooked in each others' juices. 

Photo credit: Petar Dimitrov 

These cozidos are cooked right next to the lake, which is beautiful

We mountain biked round the edge of the lake and then kayaked on it. It was a great way to see everything in an interesting way and from all angles. But for more on that check out our other post Canoeing and Mountain Biking on Furnas

Tips for Furnas: 

• DO go kayaking and mountain biking with Picos de Aventura 
• DO have the cozido cooked from the ground (unless you're a vegetarian). I can't say it was our favourite food on the island, but the novelty makes up for it. 

6. The Food

So what was our favourite food on the island? All our favourites were found in teeny tiny  place called Capelas on the north side. 

Firstly they have a bakery there which is to die for, not many tourists come to Capelas (there's nothing to do there) so the prices are kept low and the tastes are kept yummy for the natives:

This 'Pastel de Nata' was the best we've ever had. Pastel de Nata is apparently custard tarts, but I've never had custard tarts like this in the UK. I'm no tart expert (haha, far from it) but I think the difference between the UK ones and the Portuguese ones is the pastry. 

Anyway, Pastel de Natas in Lisbon will set you back about 70 cents. The Pastel de Natas in Capelas are just 39 cents! 

But our absolute favourite food came from our neighbours. They kindly invited us round to have food with them and their friends. It was one of the best meals we've ever had! They cooked most of the things in their wood oven:

We had bread, fish, potatoes, beef, chorizo, all cooked perfectly in the super hot oven. 

They also had home made cheese which wasn't pasteurised and may be the best cheese we've ever had.

There was also plenty of wine and homemade tangerine liquor.

All the food was either from their garden or from the island, or from the ocean. It was all delicious. 

7. The People
Our neighbours weren't the only nice people we met in Sao Miguel. We also managed to hitchhike 20 times on the island.

Hitchhiking was another reason we wanted to come to the Azores. Before the Azores we were pretty much hitchhiking virgins. In the Azores you have to hitchhike. Unless you hire a car or like walking for 3 hours. There are basically no buses and the taxis are expensive. 

It turned out hitchhiking was really easy and really fun on Sao Miguel. As long as you stick to the main roads (so you know lots of people will pass). 

We were picked up by a mixture of natives and tourists (German and America, no British I'm sad to say). A lot of the natives didn't speak English, but it was fine. The ones who did revealed that a lot of the natives dislike tourists, they raise the food prices for the locals and crowd up all the lovely nature things. Oops. 

8. The coast

Whilst Sao Miguel doesn't really have any 'proper*' beaches, you can't fault the coast for it's crystal clear waters. 

The sea is pretty rough and should only be ventured into by experienced swimmers, but there are still sections you can swim in, because they've cleverly built up the rocks to create a kind of 'sea swimming pool'. You get all the benefits of sea swimming, without having to worry about being swept out to sea! 

*by proper I mean white-sand, enjoyable to lay on type beaches, this is not the Algarve, but that shouldn't put you off visiting!

9. The landscape 

If you're bored of the coast, be sure to check out the inland, which is super green. There are lots of mountains/hills dotted across the island and most of them are in weird pointy shapes. 

We actually walked one day from Ponta Delgada to Capellas (i.e. from the south coast to the north coast). It took three hours but it was absolutely beautiful! 

10. The awesome activities 

Our final reason that we think you'll love the Azores is because of all the chances there are to do cool sports surrounded by beautiful nature. Alongside mountain biking and canoeing/kayaking (which we loved), you can also go fishing, bird watching, canyoning, hiking, horse riding, hang gliding, scuba diving and surfing. 

All in all we absolutely loved the Azores, it's one of the best islands we've ever been to and one of our favourite places in Europe. No matter what you're looking for, be it relaxation, excitement, wildlife, volcanoes, good food, nice people - you're guaranteed to find it in the Azores. So what's stopping you? Well maybe the practicalities, but let's look at those now

 

Things to know before you arrive:

Getting to the island
We flew from Lisbon and thanks to Skyscanner (a website that lets you compare all the plane prices) our flights were pretty cheap.

Getting around the islands
Like I said, we got around solely by walking and hitchhiking. We really recommend hitchhiking, it was loads of fun.

You could of course hire a car here (we recommend doing this on Skyscanner's car comparison site). 

Please do believe us though when we say buses aren't an option. They go about twice a day, if that,  and don't go to the places you want to go. 

Accommodation: 
House Sitting
Confession: we did NOT House Sit here! When we were booking our flights there were no House Sits on the island! 


Saying that, the moment we got back from the Azores, a House Sit popped up there! So it's worth checking out Trusted House Sitters - Portugal for House Sits before you book. 

AirBnB
Instead of House Sitting we opted for AirBnB, which was good because it meant we got to meet our real Azorean neighbours and share that lovely food. It also meant that we could be out all day, without worrying about being back to let the dog/cat out.

On the other hand, we missed having a pet so much! (Hence the attempted bonding with the skanky cats).  It also meant that our accommodation wasn't very fancy and we actually had to pay for it! Which we never really do. But if you'd like to use AirBnB we can offer you a discount here! 

Hotels 
A third option would be staying in a hotel! If you fancy staying cheap but nice accommodation in the Azores, try Agoda. Here you'll find good hotels at discount prices. 


The weather 
The Azores have some crazy ever changing weather. Sao Miguel is a pretty small island, but you can have bright sunshine on one side and torrential rain on the other.

Hence we recommend going to the Azores for at least two weeks if you can. There is so much to see and do there, and if you only come for 3 or 4 days, there is a possibility that all you will see is fog! 

Food prices
We were surprised by how cheap food was on Sao Miguel - especially outside Ponta Delgada. We'd (dimly) assumed that everything would be imported and thus expensive, but because of Sao Miguel's fertile lands and intermittent weather they can grow pretty much anything! The pineapples in particular were to die for. 

Sao Miguel has been one of the highlights of our last two years of travelling and we are busy recommending it to everyone. Our only regret is not being able to visit the other islands, but we will be back for that!! But what do you think? Would you like to go to the Azores? Let us know!