Revisiting Monsanto Mountain Rock Village in 2023: A Post-Game of Thrones Experience

I recently had the chance to return to Monsanto Mountain and Rock Village, a place I last explored back in February 2020. This time, my visit took place in December 2023, and I must say, the charm and beauty of this Portuguese village remain as stunning as ever. However, there’s an interesting twist – since my last visit, this picturesque location has been used as a filming location for the renowned series, Game of Thrones.

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Visiting Covão dos Conchos: Portugal’s Otherworldly Sinkhole

Deep within the mountainous scenic beauty of Portugal’s Serra da Estrela Natural Park lies a remarkable testament to human engineering – Covão dos Conchos. Not to be mistaken for a natural sinkhole, this awe-inspiring structure is, in fact, a manmade engineering marvel.

Let’s delve into the fascinating world of Covão dos Conchos, where nature and human ingenuity meet. Join me as I take you on a visual journey through Covão dos Conchos, sharing photos from my recent trip to this otherworldly destination that feels like a portal through the mountain to another realm!

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Travel spending diary: 6 nights with kids in Portugal on a budget

Whenever we travel we have a budget to try and stick to.  This is money we have saved specifically for that trip, plus we can add on what we would have allowed for food shopping if we were at home that week.

As well as keeping a travel spending log to stick to our budget (or at least try to), I also like to see exactly where we are spending money and how much things cost.  It means we can see where we can cut costs on travel, if we need to, and also helps me predict how much similar trips will cost in the future.

Hopefully it’s also useful for others to see how much family trips cost or can cost.

When planning our recent six night stay in Portugal, I had a rough budget in mind of £1000.  This all depended on how much we could get our flights and accommodation for as it was half term so prices were, of course, higher than usual.

£1200 was around our maximum and for six nights in Portugal as a family of four with all travel, food, accomodation and entertainment, I think this was a more reasonable amount as a budget.  £300 per person for almost a week’s stay, food and transport.

Read on to discover how close to our ideal budget of £1000, but maximum £1200 we managed to get.

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The most Instagrammable locations in Castelo Branco, Portugal

Castelo Branco in Portugal has a lot to offer.  There are many beautiful traditional Portuguese villages that are almost stuck in time.  The landscape is vast and we discovered lots of beautiful historic places to explore mixed with stunning mountains and the natural environment.  We spent a day in the centre of Castelo Branco, but also ventured to Penha Garcia and Monsanto to explore castle ruins, rock villages, fossil mountains and more.

If you already follow me on Instagram then you’ll have already seen my top Instagrammable locations in Castelo Branco from our recent trip, but here I will share some more photos that I haven’t put on Instagram yet.

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The amazing rock village + castle of Monsanto, Portugal

I can now add another location to my list of most amazing places I’ve seen.  My favourite beach so far is Hemmick Beach in Cornwall (as well as Watergate, Little Fistral and Whipsiderry since writing this blog post!), and now my favourite village has to be Monsanto Rock Village in Castelo Branco, Portugal.

Whilst visiting my brother-in-law who is now resident in Portugal, we took a half-day trip to Monsanto mountain after visiting the amazing nearby fossil mountains of Penha Garcia in the morning.

What a day!  Two really incredible places that can be visited in central Portugal on the same day.  A feast for the eyes!

In this blog post, I’ll share what we discovered at Monsanto in Portugal and lots of our incredible travel photos of the rock village, boulder houses and castle!

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