Fantastic for all that enjoy hiking, walking, exploring nature’s wonders, and meeting like-minded people along the way. Incredible vegan recipes to prepare and taste together, while sharing stories and enjoying the world renowned Portuguese wine and our own made organic herbal infusions.
This hiking trip to the Peneda-Gerês National Park, touristic region “Porto and the North”, located at one hour ride from Porto International Airport, is not to be missed. Fantastic for all that enjoy hiking, walking, exploring nature’s wonders, and meeting like-minded people along the way. Incredible vegan recipes to prepare and taste together, while sharing stories and enjoying the world renowned Portuguese wine and our own made organic herbal infusions.
Intimate experience with a small group of maximum 12 people.
This special holiday is held at the magical region of Porto, northern Portugal, in Peneda-Gerês National Park. Considered by UNESCO a World Biosphere Reserve, it is one of the greatest natural attractions of Portugal, due to the rare and stunning natural beauty, the ecological and ethnographic value and variety of fauna and flora.
Fill your evenings with moments of conviviality and sharing, as every evening we feast, offering you the tastiest flavours to your palate, which include, of course, a taste of delicious local wine.
This programme also integrates free time for you to relax by the pool in the sunshine (salty water) or explore the farm strolling around the orchards and vegetable gardens.
This HIKING & VEGAN EATING-COOKING EXPERIENCE HOLIDAY is a wonderful opportunity to live with local people, admire the beautiful landscape and experience the Portuguese culture from within.
Discover the Peneda-Gerês National Park majestic mountains and highland villages in the north of Portugal. Enjoy hands-on group cooking experiences introduction to vegan cooking with lots of chatting and storytelling. Gather around the table, eating, sharing, talking, and laughing dinning out in the open air in Peneda Eco farm’s kitchen patio, or inside in the beautiful farm’s kitchen.
Peneda ecofarm, located on the fringes of the Peneda-Gerês National Park, is an organic certified farm dedicated to the organic production of chestnuts, varied fruit, vegetables, mushrooms and aromatic herbs. Peneda ecofarm is also Biosphere Sustainable tourism certified.
What’s Included in This Package
EVERY DAY:
Info:
VEGAN GROUP COOKING EXPERIENCE CLASSES
OUR INCREDIBLE MENUS
These meals are not only delicious, they are also jam-packed with seasonal healthy veggies and fruits! Whether you are new to the concept or having adopted it a long ago, you will love the feast of flavours inspired by the Portuguese cuisine we present you in these menus. They include starters, soup (because in Portugal soup season is all year), main course and dessert, and it’s accompanied by good Portuguese wine and/or herbal teas.
We adapt meals to special diets (food allergies/intolerances, others).
BREAKFAST: homemade vegetable drink, homemade granola sweetened with agave, orange juice, gluten free bread, veggie butter, humus, jam, fruit, coffee and/or tea.
LUNCH BAGS: Veggie pie, piece of fruit, dark chocolate, water (1.5 litters) for participants to take on route
LUNCH 1: Vegetable juice, Poke bowl including season salad, tofu pad Thai and season fruit, Mango Cashew Cheesecake
LUNCH 2: Vegetable juice, Poke bowl including season salad, black bean burritos and season fruit, Almond pie
DINNER 1:
DINNER 2:
DINNER 3:
DINNER 4:
DINNER 5:
Meals include local green wine/red wine or organic herbal infusions, water, and coffee.
HIKING
HIKE 1: SOAJO Mountains
Explore remote traditional village of Soajo and its famous granite granaries. Hiking old paths that takes us through sidewalks, corn fields, levadas and water mills, and strolls along the riverbed just to make us discover more fields, levadas, mills and a whole culture and nature in synergy for the survival of the people of the mountains: the people of Soajo.
Extension: 7 Km
Difficulty: easy to moderate
HIKE 2: LINDOSO Ermida
Follow well-maintained tracks dating back to medieval times and enjoy the surrounding vegetation of gorse, heather, grass and granite as well as the magnificent views of the Amarela and Peneda-Gerês mountain ranges. You may also encounter the long-horned cows as they wander freely to graze on the surrounding slopes before returning to their barns each evening. We will visit «Branda de Bilhares». The «Brandas» and «Inverneiras» served the agro-pastoral economy of survival that implied transhumance: in the summer months, the shepherds went up to the “Brandas” with the cattle, and stayed there while the weather favored the highest altitude pastures, then descending to the lower villages, the “Inverneiras”, to withstand the rigors of the winter cold. The “Brandas” are generally located at levels above 600 meters, while the winter villages are usually between 400 and 600 meters.
Extension: 7 Km
Difficulty: easy to moderate
HIKE 3: SISTELO
This track takes you along ancient paths and constitutes a fantastic opportunity to discover the Sistelo natural and cultural landscape, classified as a national monument. Sistelo is the national winner of the “7 Wonders of Portugal”, in the category of Rural Village. It is an ancient medieval town, known as the “little Portuguese Tibet” for its fabulous terraces shaped over hundreds of years by human intervention, true symbol of the secular coexistence between Man and Nature, creating a unique landscape. It is considered one of the best hidden gems in Europe.
Extension: 7 Km
Difficulty: easy to moderate
HIKE 4: MEZIO – SOAJO
The starting point of this route is Portela do Mezio, one of the gateways to the Peneda Gerês National Park (PNPG). This place is worth visiting due to the existing Megalithic Nucleus. This archaeological area, in addition to encompassing around a dozen prehistoric funerary monuments – the “Antas do Soajo” – built around 5000 years ago, holds a significant set of rock engravings, consisting of around 100 engraved rocks.
Extension: 5 to 10 Km
Difficulty: easy to moderate