Profile information
Host rating
100 %
Last replied
26 Apr 2025
Reply rate
100.0 %
Usually responds within 3 days
Feedback
31
ID verified
Email verified
Badges (4)
Details
Description
😃🌿Welcome to our peaceful off-grid home in the countryside, with sea views, 10 km areal distance to Odeceixe Beach.
We restarted hosting Workawayers after a tough period following the devastating bushfire in August 2023. It destroyed our guest and Workaway accommodation, but we’ve restored water and electricity and have almost finished rebuilding a new space for Workawayers. Until it’s finished, we offer our guest bedroom and bathroom.
We’re a friendly couple (60 & 70) from Switzerland and Germany. Due to some health limitations, we appreciate energetic, self-motivated helpers. We share our home with an adopted dog who now enjoys the freedom of a safe, loving space.
♻️Living sustainably, we value respect for nature and resources—so minimal waste and mindful use of water and electricity are essential.
🚐 Best suited for those with their own means of transport. It's well-accessible with any vehicle but not connected to public transportation. Still, we can also give you a lift to and from São Teotónio (20 min away) , from where the bus goes to the beaches or to Lisbon or Lagos.
In the dry season, the direct route to Odeceixe Beach is passable in just a 20-minute drive. In winter the road via São Teotónio is safer and our home is well accessible with any vehicle, even big vans.
We enjoy peaceful countryside life, working outside, walking our dog, seeing friends and occasional beach trips. We cook healthy meals at lunch and usually have quiet evenings. Jeannette works as an English coach, and Herbert is a retired software engineer.
If you’re open-minded, honest, proactive, love nature and dogs, and are happy to take on a variety of tasks, we’d love to welcome you! 🤗
Types of help and learning opportunities
Art Projects
Help with Eco Projects
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Animal Care
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Help around the house
General Maintenance
Interests
Self development
Sustainability
Pets
Farming
Plant care
Music
Nature
Cycling
Languages
Gardening
DIY & crafts
Carpentry
Animals
Architecture
Art & design
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
Welcome to our peaceful home in nature in Alentejo, Portugal, just north of the Algarve. ☀️🌳 You’ll be surrounded by Medronho and Cork trees, wildflowers, and a regenerating landscape after the fire. Enjoy nature, learn about herbs for cooking and tea, and take in the sea view (10 km areal distance to the sea).
We love exchanging knowledge and learning from our Workawayers and are happy to share what we know!
🌿 What You Can Learn:
💚Explore local trees, fruits, and vegetables.
♻️Learn about solar energy, water filtration, and grey-water systems. Are you interested in how sustainability connects to water, electricity, and heating without relying on public supply? 🤓 We welcome individuals who appreciate this and seek to understand these systems.
👨🌾Gardening, permaculture, composting
👨🍳Cooking and baking – Swiss cakes, Portuguese dishes, and fresh garden produce.
🚜Meeting local farmers when we buy eggs and fresh milk
🎹Playing piano or 🏓table tennis
🐸Swimming in our rainwater-fed lake (still needs stairs for easier access)
🥗 Food & Meals:
We eat fresh, healthy meals with lots of veggies, salad, and fruit. We occasionally enjoy wine, local meat, and fish a couple of times a week, but we also cook vegetarian meals. Vegans are welcome, but you’d need to cook those meals, as I have little experience with vegan cooking. On warmer days, we can sometimes grill together.
We provide all the food. Lunch is our main shared meal (between 1–3 p.m.), while breakfast, supper, and snacks are self-served.
🌙 Evenings & Atmosphere:
We enjoy quiet evenings in our peaceful area. We often go to bed early. Mutual respect, tolerance, honesty and open communication are key to a great experience here.
If you love quiet nature, simple living, sustainability and cultural exchange and dogs, we’d love to welcome you! 💚
Help
We need various forms of help. If you enjoy working with nature, have skills to share, or wish to learn new skills, and you are proactive, we'd love to have you!
Depending on your skills, there are various possible projects. Lots of this is still needed because of the fire in August 2023 and support needed because of some current health issues:
- pruning, cutting wood
- support diy tasks- sheds with wood, simple furniture with pallets and help creating an outside dry toilet
- gardening, land care
- cooking healthily (main meal at lunch)
- general support, organising, cleaning
- creative sewing (curtains, cushions, etc.)
- designing and creative tasks if you are skilled
👒🥾🧴🕶️Important:
You want to be protected in the rough countryside, so please bring good clothes, good shoes for the countryside and garden, a hat, and necessary sun or rain protection!
🐶Do you love dogs? That's great because we adopted an abandoned dog, a lovable female. Unfortunately, she is always scared of new people, but she’s friendly, and a few workawayers made close friends with her within less than a week, which was great progress for her :-).
Languages
Languages spoken
German: Fluent
English: Fluent
French: Intermediate
Portuguese: BeginnerThis host offers a language exchange
Jeannette is an online English Coach. We are happy to exchange languages if you wish to improve your English or learn Swiss German or German. We are still learning a little more Portuguese.
Accommodation
Remote and Peaceful Stay in Beautiful Nature. Our place is off-grid but with stunning sea views (10 km areal distance away) and a mix of traditional and modern living.
Currently, you can use our guest bedroom. and separate bathroom.
We are soon finalising a comfortable, furnished space in a shed with a separate sleeping area for the workawayers.
In that space the kitchen corner for Workawayers is nearly ready, but it still needs the final touches. You might also like to use your skills of design and some woodwork to make the whole Workaway space look friendlier. A warm shower and dry toilet still need to be installed. But until then, you can use our separate guest bathroom, accessible from the backyard.
We cook a warm lunch daily in our main kitchen (weekend cooking can vary); if you like cooking, you are welcome to take care of that, on working days during your working hours. For breakfast and supper, you get food to serve yourself (in the Workawayers’ kitchen area if you also wish to cook in the evening).
🌿 Important to know
We live fully off-grid, relying on solar power and our well. Respecting water and electricity use is essential.
🌞There will be no heating in the Workaway living area, so we won't take on helpers in cold seasons.
🚭 No smoking, drugs, or excessive drinking allowed. Moderate alcohol consumption is acceptable—we enjoy sharing wine or beer occasionally.
💚🫠This is a quiet place, best for a couple who loves nature and tranquillity. (Many younger volunteers without transport found it too remote and quiet after a few days, even with occasional lifts.)
We'd love to welcome you if you enjoy peaceful countryside living and value nature!
What else ...
😎Free Time & Local Sights
Having your own transport🚗🏍️ is ideal. It's well accessible.
Having said that, it’s also possible we can give you a lift to and from São Teotónio. Buses and coaches run from São Teotónio to Lisbon (about 3 hours) and Lagos (about 1 hour) to and to beaches.
If you’d like to explore more, you can work longer hours on some days and take 3-4 days instead if 2 days off on weekends.
🌿 ☀️Things to Do in Your Free Time:
🚶 Go for walks or runs in the peaceful countryside
🏊Swimming in our new lake (has no pier and stairs yet)
🏖️Going to nearby beaches (25+ minutes driving distance)
☀️Enjoy barbecues (meat, fish, or veggie options)
🎹Play the piano
🏓 Play table tennis
😎Relax on the roof terrace with a sea view ☀️
📖Read, 😎sunbathe, or have a glass of Portuguese wine or herbal tea.💚
We are a quiet couple and can’t entertain much in the evenings due to health reasons, but we’re happy to share our space and enjoy good conversations during the day.
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Can host digital nomads
The mobile reception is at 4G within the area for the workawayers. If you have no mobile internet, we can offer you to borrow our hotspot and upload it at its current cost. We work part-time online. Unfortunately, our separate WIFI is not stable enough for several people to work online simultaneously.
Space for parking camper vans
Our place is well accessible also for big vehicles. There's a lovely space between the cork trees, with a sea view (10 km aerial distance to the sea), gorgeous sunsets, a connection to water and electricity (solar power) and a newly installed outside shower for warmer days. You can also use our separate bathroom, accessible from our house's backyard and our kitchen. We cook warm meals for lunch. For breakfast and supper, you can help yourself. We have a almost finished newly created covered outdoor space with a kitchen corner for the workawayers for breakfast and supper. That space just needs the final organisation and pretty touches. Campervan or motorhome owners are very welcome, particularly since our Workaway accommodation container burnt down in 2023.
Can possibly accept pets
You can bring your pet with you if it's social with other pets. Our dog has always been social with other dogs. She has no experience with cats.
How many Workawayers can stay?
Two
Feedback (11)
Both took on the demanding task of plastering with skill and precision, delivering professional and beautifully done results. In addition to their great plastering work, they also helped with woodcutting, gardening, and… read more
Kim and Arnie were with us for three wonderful weeks, staying in our accommodation container… read more
Photos
Feedback
These are extra optional ratings when members leave feedback. The average rating left for each option is displayed.
Accuracy of profile:
(5.0)
Cultural exchange:
(4.9)
Communication:
(5.0)
Both took on the demanding task of plastering with skill and precision, delivering professional and beautifully done results. In addition to their great plastering work, they also helped with woodcutting, gardening, and… read more
Kim and Arnie were with us for three wonderful weeks, staying in our accommodation container… read more
Jannette and Herbert have a beautifull Quinta and it was very interesting to us learned how to have a sustainable farm.
We enjoyed helping them with their garden, cooking, cutting wood and installed a solar panels.
They were very nice with us, Jannette cooks delicious! she shared and teached us amazing recipes.… read more
Camille and Gonzales were not only incredibly… read more
I wanted to express my heartfelt appreciation for your warm and caring hospitality. Jeanette, your culinary skills are exceptional, and Herbert, your engineering expertise is truly inspiring. Thank you for making us feel like a part of your family and creating such wonderful memories during our stay. Your beautiful home… read more
Łukasz was particularly skilled at cutting wood, and Agata was a master at restoring old furniture. We also appreciated their contributions to our… read more
Marco's gardening skills were impressive, and he tackled a number of challenging tasks with ease. In addition, his painting… read more
Angelika's passion for gardening was truly inspiring - she worked tirelessly and professionally to prune our… read more
Thank you for all again❤️
They are very kind, caring and generous and teached me a lot about gardening, cooking and solar energy. They made me feel like home from the first moment. My own tiny house space was really comfortable and I could also always spent time in the main house. We usually had… read more
Sabrina… read more
I felt very comfortable with both of you right from the start. I respected that you worked along side and gave good instructions. The fresh salat and herbs daily was such a delight... The meals, snacks and evening vine and exchange was nice… read more
Janet and Herbert literally gave us a home when we had nowhere to go.
There is a very nice container room with kitchen and an in-progress
dry toilet where Workawayers usually stay, but we were lucky enough to
stay in the guest room, which is more beautiful than many hotels… read more
They are particularly good at woodwork, they did hard work with digging deep holes and setting poles in the ground for the future dry toilet and… read more
Tereza is a warm-hearted, mature young woman, who is willing to work hard and well and we can still enjoy the result of many of her good jobs. She was great in garden work, cooking and baking,… read more
Thank you so much for the lovely feedback and the perfect description of the wonderful time we could enjoy with you and the great jobs you accomplished.
Alexandra and András are a very harmonious and happy couple, highly educated and yet with a modest attitude, interesting and lovely to chat and laugh with, great for… read more
first of all we would like to thank you again for the experience and the practical knowledge we have acquired and all the deep kindness and caring that you have shown toward us. It was quite a lovely and unique time we had there with you!
We spent there 3,5 weeks at Jeanette and Herbert’s place who are both really… read more
She was a great company in team-work as well as working independently, she did all the jobs really well, worked very hard and she made always sure the result was just what we were hoping for. She was a great support in cooking and… read more
