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A Day Trip to Monsanto, Portugal

Writer's picture: Lisa TisdaleLisa Tisdale

Updated: 4 days ago

What happened when tiny me visited a town full of boulders


Author stands on a pedestrian street among granite houses
Exploring Monsanto! (photo by random tourist)

After a fun and somewhat chaotic year in Lisbon, I am spending a year living in different towns in Portugal. I want to get to know this beautiful country and its people better and to experience life in different areas. I am eager to see what the next chapter might look like…and where it will happen.


As my year of exploring entered the final stretch, I spent more time in the towns I was living in and less time exploring the areas around them. One stop I made was to explore Monsanto, a “boulder town”, while adding more damage to my rental car.


I’m Getting Better at Driving on Golf Cart Roads!

During my travels in western Portugal, I took a drive to Monsanto, a hilltop town I’d discovered when staying in nearby Castelo Branco. After my harrowing time spent navigating the tiny roads of the Serra da Estrela mountains, I checked my map app to see just how long I might be driving on any golf-cart paths to reach the village. It seemed the death defying driving time would be short so I decided to risk it.


I was pleasantly surprised as I drove up the mountain to find that while the road was a bit narrow, it felt manageable. Either I was getting better at driving on these insane roads or had just become numb to the terror. As I grew closer, the parking spaces were filling up. The tricky part was deciding when to ditch the car. While I did not want to have too much of a hike, I also did not want to find myself at the entrance to the pedestrian only town having to make a three-point turn on the golf cart path while hanging off the edge of the mountain. That might finally be the point where I ditch the rental, throw out my thumb, and begin the hitchhiking part of the journey.


Thankfully, I was able to grab the last parallel parking spot close to the entrance of town.


Steep steps up to a granite house
Typical House in Monsanto (photo by author)

A Good Deed Goes Wrong

As I walked toward the village, I was feeling confident about reaching the place so easily and parking the car in a rather large space. I had given myself plenty of room to easily pull out of the space and began to feel guilty about not leaving the same for the car behind me. What if that person got jammed in by a car behind him? I decided to try and move my car up a bit to leave more space for the stranger parked behind me.


Unfortunately, I somehow lost control and my car lurched forward and rammed the back of the jeepish thing in front of me. I am not a car person so “jeepish” is the best I can do to describe the automobile in front of me that thankfully had a spare tire attached to the back. That saved the front end of my rental from total destruction. The worst of the damage was caused by the spare tire rubbing the plastic number indicating the car model off the front end. I collected each one and put them away for safekeeping until I could find some super glue. At this point, I was mentally practicing my negotiating skills as I was fairly certain I would be purchasing this car after all the damage I’d inflicted.


After my failed attempt to move the car, I settled for putting a few inches between me and the jeepish thing and walked up the hill to Monsanto. Walking into town felt a bit like entering a ride at Disneyland as I left the road and crossed the threshold of the charming village that looks like it does not belong there.



Two tourists sit on a rock bench in front of a poster about “House of the Dragon” filming locations in Monsanto
Poster for “House of the Dragon” at the Entrance to Monsanto (photo by author)

Tiny Towns Overrun by Tourism

As I entered the village, I noticed posters with scenes and actors from what I thought was the show “Game of Thrones” but later realized they were from the prequel “House of the Dragon”. I knew well of the destruction of my beloved Dubrovnik in Croatia after its appearance in “Game of Thrones", now overrun by crowds of tourists that make the tiny town unwalkable and unlivable. Thankfully, Monsanto is not located near any major tourist sights and far from cruise ports, saving this little sanctuary of peace perched on top of a mountain. The town surely was making an effort to attract tourists but for their sake, I hope they do not succeed.


I always feel a bit sad for the residents of these beautiful villages that attract crowds of tourists. After living in the Alfama, the oldest neighborhood in Lisbon, on a tiny, picturesque square that was used as a stopping point for guided tours, I know how it feels to crave days where no tourists are gawking at your home. I always find myself walking around very quietly as if in a library so as not to disturb them any more than I must.


Huge boulders surround a tiny foot path.
"Boulder Way" in Monsanto (photo by author)

Walking in the Path of Boulders

The town was lovely and picturesque. However, given that it was perched in the middle of a flat area, there was not much of a view compared to other towns like Piódão that were in the mountains. There were quite a lot of boulder rocks that terrified more than delighted me. I was afraid they might start rolling and crush me. I mentioned this to a fellow tourist who pointed out the unlikelihood of that given the rocks had been there for centuries. Fair point but I still kept one eye on the potential predators.



A path leads upward among huge boulders.
Climbing to the Top of Monsanto (photo by author)

Wandering around Monsanto was less of a casual stroll and more of a hike up a treacherous rocky path. At the point where I was about to climb the last leg to the very top of the mountain, I paused. There were some tricky foot paths left to navigate. My mind was flooded with visions of wrenching my ankle and getting stuck for what could be a long wait as there were not tons of visitors making the trek up there. 


After a couple of stops and starts, I gave up. I had a cabin waiting for me in a remote village and was anxious to get there and tackle what I hoped was not golf cart roads before dark. I did not have time in the schedule for a side trip to the ER after being airlifted off “House of the Dragon Mountain”. If the crew was here, I could have possibly worked up an assist from the beefy guys in the series but alas, they were long gone.


A quiet, pedestrian only side street with potted plants lining the footpath
One of (too) Many House of the Dragon Signs (photo by author)

Extracting My Car…After More Damage

As I made my way back down, passing far too many “House of the Dragon" posters, I ran into a couple that were also trying to find their way back to the entrance. The couple live in Canada but one was originally from Portugal. Hooray! I might have found someone who could extract my rental car without further damage. I not so subtly dropped references to my terror level about the task in front of me and finally, the man happily offered to spring my car from its parking space prison.


When we arrived, he confidently took the keys from me, climbed in, started the engine, and banged my car back into the jeepish thing. As the man’s wife and I watched and wondered how this was possibly going to end well, she commented that she was nervous for me and now also for them as they were parked a few spaces down. 


Finally, after what seemed like ages, edging inch by inch, he moved the car to a position where I could easily drive it out. When he came over to where his wife and I were nervously watching, he explained that the first snafu where he jammed my car back into the jeepish thing was because his Renault had one less gear than mine and reverse was in a different location. 


Thanks buddy but maybe next time don’t jump on a task like this with such bravado. Check out the gear situation before you go crashing a stranger's car into another stranger’s car.


Nervously Looking Forward to the Next Stop

As my nerves were settling, I focused on the fact that without this man I might have spent the night waiting for the driver parked in front of me to return. Another bright spot I tried to think of was that because of the spare tire, the driver of the jeepish thing will never have any clue of what all happened while he was exploring Monsanto. I thanked them both and easily drove out of the space heading on to my next destination. 


My next experience on this year-long journey was a remote village in the Lousã Mountains. My first experience with rural life had gone surprisingly well. However the village I was heading to was more remote than any I’d ever stayed in and I had four nights there. When I originally made these plans, I was a bit apprehensive about the location. Now I was a bundle of nerves to say the least…


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