January 15, 2025, 7:16 am | Read time: 8 minutes

Wintering in Southern Europe—in view of snow, ice, cold, and darkness in Germany that sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? Our author Anna Wengel (now Chiodo) has tried it out. She has been commuting back and forth between Germany and Portugal for years and has experienced several winter months in Portugal. For TRAVELBOOK, she wrote down how it feels to spend the winter in Portugal.

I find myself dreaming of this house especially when I’m in Germany, enduring the cold, wet, and rainy weather, or when the sun struggles to pierce through the stubborn cloud cover. Such dreary days are a rarity in the sunny south of Portugal. My Portuguese reality is one of sunshine, breathtaking backdrops, and a wonderfully slowed-down, minimalist lifestyle that I cherish deeply.

Nevertheless, this text will not be a paean to Portugal and wintering in Portugal. Here’s a mini-spoiler: My dream house must have efficient, low-maintenance heating options and robust defenses against the ever-present threat of mold spores. Or, in the best-case scenario, built in such a way that no fighting is necessary. I learned this when I spent the winter in Portugal. Because this is by no means just dream weather in dreamland and therefore dream life. No. Mold, humidity, and fever may not have completely burst my little dream bubble of the perfect winter ideal, but they did put it in perspective.

Imagination and Reality

I moved to Portugal for the first time in February 2016, more precisely to Aljezur in the western Algarve. A few nice vacations, including in the winter months in previous years, had given me an idea of winter and wintering in the south of Portugal. Lots of sunshine, sometimes so much that you can even lie on the beach in a bikini. It can also get chilly, especially in the mornings and evenings. But with cozy sweaters, hats, and other cozy winter-autumn clothes, it’s wonderfully bearable. It rarely rains and, if necessary, the open fire simply warms you up again.

Then I moved house. Alone in a large four-bedroom villa in a prime clifftop location, which an acquaintance made available to me while I was looking for a new home. The house had a wood-burning stove in the living room. This had been lit more for cozy purposes during my previous visits.

Suddenly, however, the stove was responsible for more than just coziness. It served as the sole source of warmth in the expansive house, with its soaring ceilings. As temperatures lingered far below bikini weather, with the wind howling around the house and rain lashing the roof, I came to the disheartening realization that fire-making was not my forte. Maybe I just didn’t know how to keep a fire going. And actually, I was simply afraid to leave the fire burning all the time.

As a result, I was freezing. And immediately after a few days I had a bad cold and a high temperature. To get at least a little warm, I moved from my bedroom directly in front of the fireplace. The only place in the house that wasn’t damp and cold. I waited there until the fever broke and the rain stopped. It had turned the roads in the area into a barely passable, muddy landscape. It’s not true that in paradise, the sun always shines.

Wintering in Portugal Means Making a Fire

Making a fire and heating with wood was also a constant theme for me and my husband last winter when we lived in a house in the mountains near Coimbra. Here, too, we had a wood-burning stove that heated the whole house. However, it was fitted with pipes that led into every room. Therefore, once lit, the fire heated the whole house relatively quickly. That winter, my husband was responsible for lighting the fire. He, from then on, spent several hours a day just fetching wood, keeping the fire going, and cleaning the stove. Despite the energy efficiency and romance associated with a wood-burning stove, the reality involves a fair share of labor and mess. As we had a crawling toddler at the time, the dirt was a particular pain in the neck. And the longing for a soppy heater grew.

As always, it’s a question of perspective. I notice how different perceptions can be, especially in comparison to our winter in 2020. Here, too, we spent the winter in Portugal. Same village, neighboring house. Yet, it’s the enchanting romance of the fireplace that lingers most warmly in my memory. Snuggled up under thick blankets in front of the fireplace in Portugal, which showed itself paralyzed by the pandemic, cold and wet, but still often sunny. Far away from anything that could be stressful or infectious. Only lush nature in close proximity, peace and quiet, and small daily occurrences such as visiting wild boars. Dense fog every day, which transformed the whole beautiful surroundings into an almost mystical backdrop, while to top it all off, a single bell sounded from somewhere. It was also damp back then and the fire was necessary and associated with work and dirt. But the feeling was different.

Damp and Mold

It’s a question of perspective. And mine has certainly become more critical and anxious and, if I’m completely honest, more German since I became a mother. That’s why I was able to ignore this issue to a certain extent during my first few years in Portugal—and have found it difficult to bear in the last two winters: Mold.

Portugal is very damp in many places in winter, even when the sun shines during the day. And as beautiful as many houses in Portugal are, the humidity is noticeable, especially in the mornings and evenings—and many of them have an extreme mold problem. At least that’s my experience. My examples come from the western Algarve near the ocean, from Lisbon, and near Coimbra in the mountains. Mold was an issue almost everywhere. The same applies to almost all the houses we have looked at in the meantime. Which were a lot.

Favorite Moments of Wintering in Portugal

These were my personal downsides of wintering in Portugal. Now to the beautiful ones—which mainly take place outside: For me personally, there is hardly a more homely sight than the fog over my favorite little Portuguese town, which covers everything from the church tower to the fire department, and is then gradually illuminated and pushed away by the sun rising from behind the mountains.

I love walking along lonely beaches in the sunshine and the wind, with the cliffs I have so often lovingly described standing at the edge. Snuggled up in sweaters and hats that protect me from the damp and wind. And then, completely shaken by the wind, to stop off at some beach café and warm up again with a Galão. I love being surprised by days in winter when I can walk barefoot on those very beaches, and dip my toes in the ice-cold water. And I love sitting in front of a fireplace, listening to the sound of the sea nearby and celebrating my very simple life in Portugal, far away from any stress.

And not to be overlooked, I cherish the tranquility that comes with the absence of tourists at my beloved Portuguese spots during the winter months. That’s why I’m shamelessly asking anyone reading this to just keep traveling to Portugal in all the other months. (It’s warmer and less wet, after all).

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Portugal Is Wonderful and Life There Is Not Perfect

I write both sides so clearly here because I always see the longing looks on the faces of friends and acquaintances when I talk about our winter months in Portugal. As in any other country, the reality in Portugal is a mixture of beautiful and not so beautiful sides. Wintering in Portugal—or any country for that matter—is not all rosy and beautiful. No matter how many social media posts may promise absolute perfection. And it is also beautiful. In the end, you take yourself everywhere with you anyway, and your own view determines the experience.

Personally, I love spending the winter in Portugal and will certainly do so again and again. Nevertheless, during my last stay in November, I was looking forward to returning to our cozy, warm, and Christmas-lit home in Germany. I also eagerly anticipate the festive Christmas season here, and with a bit of luck, a winter wonderland of snow.