# First trip to portugal



## NickyVer (Nov 20, 2014)

Hello,
My wife and I are interested in living in Portugal and maybe eventually buying property. After some research we think Central Portugal would suit us best, but we are open to suggestions.
We want to live in the countryside, with not to many people around, but still a few and maybe a small expat community would be nice, but our neighbors should be not to close. We think it’s best living close to a village so that we have some basic shops, a market and administrative functions close by, but we don’t mind driving an hour or more to the closest city. Some nice nature and hiking in the area would also be lovely.
We want to start of by renting for 6 months to a year so that we can get to know the area’s around, the people and learn the language and of course be sure that we want to live there. But eventually, when we decide we want to stay, we want to buy a property with quite a lot of land where we can grow our own food (vegetables, fruits and meat). We are open to buying an existing house, or renovating one, but would prefer the building to have a solid structure and roof. In a later future we would like to rent a few rooms as a small B&B, but these rooms can be yurts or something else, so a little bit of tourism in the area is a must.
So my questions are: 
-Any suggestions on regions that would suit us, within central Portugal or somewhere else?
-Does anybody have some recommendations for real estates that are trustworthy and can help us with finding a rental property that also is in the countryside, has a garden that would allow us to grow some veggies and allows dogs. If happy with the real estate we can also use it later on when looking for a property to buy.
If anybody knows about a rental property themselves, info is also welcome.
Also recommendations about a good lawyer, notary, etc….
-What places are not to be missed when we come on a small holliday/first trip to Central Portugal and does anybody knows a good place to stay in the area, we will probably come up there in April.

Thanks


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

We have taken a couple of very enjoyable holidays in central Portugal. The first on the coast at Ericeira was good, but far better was the one we took a little inland from Coimbra near the small town/village of Vila Nova de Poiares where we rented the annex of a place owned by Brits. It was only a short drive to a very well stocked supermarket and close to the Serra da Estrela. We have planned for the future another holiday on the banks of the Douro river a bit inland from Porto.


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## BodgieMcBodge (Mar 8, 2013)

Hi, Welcome.

I would recommend you posted this on the main forum as this one is for 

"socialising, networking and off topic discussions"


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## baldilocks (Mar 7, 2010)

BodgieMcBodge said:


> Hi, Welcome.
> 
> I would recommend you posted this on the main forum as this one is for
> 
> "socialising, networking and off topic discussions"


Hi BMB, can you suggest it to one of your Mods?


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