“A huge, rocky, mountainous protected area, hosting mainland Portugal’s highest peak. Spending one night there, we only scratched the surface, and only just survived.”
Unnecessary personal anecdote:
Many moons ago, back in my youth, I had a friend called Billy. We came up with gross games to play on our way to school, as well as inventing our own sophisticated secret language (but more on that later). One day, we got into some arguments with two brothers at school and the four of us decided to settle it the old fashioned way. Queensbury rules. Little did we know however, the brothers had brought backup. In the distance, we could see a pair of brown Timberland boots approaching (the most intimidating shoe at the time) attached to their older sibling. What proceeded next was being spun around by the arms, getting kicked in the stomach repeatedly. The defeat was tough. The fact it was their sister was worse.
Sights – From our little slice of the Serra, we encountered some dramatic views, hard to read military personnel, and even harder to read google reviews (R.I.P T.J). I would say in the midday light, the views are pretty cool but nothing special, but during sunrise / sunset they become something special.
- Lagoa do Viriato – Here is our petition to officially rename this to Lagoa do T.J. With 4.5/5 Google ratings and descriptions such as “absolutely hypnotic” and “a must see” T.J decided to venture from China only to be disappointed by this bang average body of water with pretty meh surroundings.
- Miradouro do Vale Glaciário da Alforfa – A good place to start your hike to the top (Torre de Estrela). There is a sign to show you where the hike starts, and then nothing until you get there. Good luck. Ironically, there were trail markings randomly dotted around Covilhã. Maybe it’s some sort of cruel joke by the locals.
- Torre de Estrela – Honestly not the best views, but there is a bar that has a good Scotch whisky.
- The walk down – Coming back down from the peak to Miradouro do Vale Glaciário da Alforfa, you get some amazing views from the road, so don’t take the trail back down. If you can time this for either sunrise or sunset… absolutely hypnotic.
- Nossa Senhora da Boa Estrela – If you can, don’t look up what this is and just head there. You will feel like you’ve walked into a game of Skyrim.
Camping – As of 2025, wild camping is technically illegal in all nature reserves in Portugal. But luckily there are like 5 campsites spread across the massive 1,000 km² area.
- If you’re coming from Covilhã, there’s basically only one campsite unless you’re going to drive to the other sides of the park. We took an uber which will only set you back about 10-15EUR.
- There’s an occasional bus which can take you to the campsite / further into the park and towards the peak because you really don’t want to walk it. There aren’t really any clear bus stops but google maps takes you to the right spots.
- Be warned, the bus back to the campsite stops at 4pm and it’s a 3 hour walk back from the top.
- The conditions there can get very windy, and very cold at night (from our experience of walking around and definitely not trying to camp without a sleeping bag and spending the whole night holding each other tightly just to try and stay alive…) so be warned!
- If you don’t want to carry all your food up to the top, and don’t have the means to hire a team of sherpas, there is a restaurant but it closes at 7pm.
For the quick checklist, follow the link here:
P.s. If anyone reading this has for whatever reason decided that they will risk it and wild camp in the park, make sure you respect the environment and don’t leave any trace of you being there. There’s also wild wolves and the even more dangerous domesticated rams that live there.
