Unhais da Serra is a village at 750 meters altitude, next to the Serra da Estrela (Star Mountain Range in Portuguese) Natural Park, which is the highest point in continental Portugal.

It is about 3 hours drive from both Lisbon and Porto airports, and around 5 hours from Madrid. Very conveniently located exactly in the middle, right? The Portuguese airline TAP and KLM have direct flights from Amsterdam to Lisbon 2 ot 3 times a day and TAP flies once a day from Amsterdam to Porto.

If you have traveled that far, it is worth taking a few hours to drive up to the top of the mountain and enjoy the sights along the way. On the top there is a ski lift that also works during the summer if you are in for a sunburn You can get some more information about the area here.

The hotel is located in the Alforfa Glaciar Valley and offers great views up the mountain. The hotel replaced the old thermae of Unhais da Serra. It is now a medical spa, still offering the medical thermae treatments but it also has some new facilities for entertainment and relaxation. If you are not into the whole spa thing, at about 10 minutes walking from the hotel there is a small creek beach with grass. If you are feeling like a dive in cold but crystal clear water, we can definitely recommend.

At 10 minutes driving from Unhais da Serra is Erada. Erada is a small village where Rita’s family comes from and where she spent all her childhood summers. Rita’s grandma and a lot of the family still lives there. Erada has a public swimming pool with nice views of the mountains, e couple of cafés, three small shops and a big church. If you are around, give us a call! We’ll give you the tour! If we are not around, take a picture in front of Rita’s grandma house and send it to us!!! 😉

How to get to the Hotel?
The hotel is relatively new so it might be difficult to find with a navigation system. The easiest is to type in the following address:

City: Unhais da Serra
Street: Avenida das Termas
Number: 26

Once you are there you can see the hotel name on the opposite side of the road and the parking lot. By the way, this address is of a restaurant called Restaurante das Termas.

ATTENTION!!
If you are driving there, be aware of the electronic tolls. Most highways around that area have this type of tolls. Be sure to arrange a way to pay for tolls BEFORE you enter a toll road. You cannot pay with money or card once you are on the road because there are no toll booths. It is all done through electronic gates along the road, so make sure to use one of the payment methods as explained here: Toll Info.