Portugal by Horse Quinta da Alegria-Vale da Alegria,LDA

A lifelong dream come true! My husband and I stayed here a week and a half ago for a couple nights. As soon as we arrived we knew we would regret not booking our stay for longer. It is impossible to truly capture just how incredible this place is in photos. Since I was a little girl I have always wanted to learn about what true horsemanship entailed, and here I got to experience a glimpse of it. We wanted to spend as much time with the horses as possible and João & Liesje made sure we did: we got to experience feeding the horses at night and in the mornings and releasing/stacking them, brushing them, cleaning their hooves, and saddling, before riding them: in other words, earning the horses trust before riding them (João took the time to make sure we could ride them appropriately and adjust our prior habits from western riding, which we truly appreciated and will take with us going forward). We learned and experienced so much here, and we are so sad we didn’t stay longer. We also had arranged to get massages on site prior to arrival and it was great! Everything about our stay was amazing. Liesje and João have built a life and safe-haven for the animals in their care that is the stuff of dreams if you are an animal and nature lover (with a LOT of work), and our cottage was everything we could have hoped and super comfortable. We absolutely hope to return someday!Thank you for the trip of a lifetime!Laurie & Michael