Tiny houses in Portugal

Serra da Estrela is mainland Portugal's tallest range, high enough for a small ski station in winter and known for its own sheep's-milk cheese, made in the same highland pastures the mountains are named for. The schist villages around Lousã are something else entirely: a cluster of hamlets built from the local grey stone, once nearly abandoned, now restored and threaded with hiking trails through pine and eucalyptus forest.

Peneda-Gerês, up in the north near the Spanish border, is Portugal's only national park — a rugged granite landscape of waterfalls and river pools, home to wild Garrano ponies and, more elusively, wolves, and one of the last corners of the country that still feels genuinely remote.

Our eight verified stays here are wooden cabins and chalets, most with one or two bedrooms and room for three to six guests. June to September is warm and dry across all three regions, best for hiking and swimming in Gerês's river pools; Serra da Estrela adds a winter season, December to March, for its small ski area. Our verified selection spans three distinct corners of Portugal's mountain interior, with more of the country still to check.