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13 Mar 2026
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Description
😃🌿 Welcome to our peaceful off grid home in the countryside with sea views, about 10 km from Odeceixe Beach.
Are you motivated to support us as we continue catching up with work after the devastating bushfire in August 2023? Workawayers have already helped us rebuild a bedroom in a new space for Workawayers, which now includes a room with a simple kitchen for you. 😃
We are a friendly couple in our 60s and 70s from Switzerland and Germany. Because of some health limitations, we really appreciate energetic and self motivated helpers. Our 95 year old dad lives with us. He is still very independent and does not need special support.
We also have a rescued dog who enjoys the freedom of a safe and loving space, and two kittens who joined our family in August 2025.
♻️ Living sustainably is important to us. We value respect for nature and resources, so we try to minimise waste and use water and electricity mindfully.
🚐 Our place is best suited for two people travelling together (a couple or two friends) who have their own means of transport, as we are in a rural location and public transport does not reach our home.
Our home is easily accessible with any vehicle, but there is no public transport nearby.
We are happy to occasionally give a lift to São Teotónio (about 20 minutes away). From there buses go to the beaches as well as Lisbon and Lagos.
The direct dirt road to Odeceixe Beach can usually be driven with a normal car in about 25 minutes. During wetter seasons the route via São Teotónio is safer, and our home is easily accessible via that road with any vehicle, including larger vans.
We enjoy a peaceful countryside life, working outside, walking our dog and spending time with friends. We like healthy meals for lunch and enjoy sharing time together during the day.
Jeannette works as an English coach and Herbert is a retired software engineer. Jeannette’s 95 year old dad, Ätti, was a carpenter. Besides small woodwork projects he enjoys looking after flower beds and weeding. Our dog, who is usually more cautious with men, absolutely adores him.
Ätti also bakes his homemade “Butterzopf”, a traditional Swiss butter braid bread, a couple of times a month.
Are you kind, open minded and honest in your communication?
Are you proactive and comfortable with a variety of practical tasks?
Do you enjoy nature, dogs and cats?
Do you try not to waste food and keep shared spaces tidy and respectful?
If that sounds like you, you are very welcome here. 🤗
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, partly permaculture, composting.
👨🍳Cooking and baking – Swiss cakes, Portuguese dishes, and fresh garden produce.
🚜Meeting local farmers when we buy eggs and fresh milk.
What you can enjoy:
🎹Playing piano or 🏓table tennis.
🐸Swimming in our rainwater-fed lake (still needs peer/stairs but can be accessed ).
🥗 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 also 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. Weekends we don't always cook but you get all necessary food and you have a kitchen area.
🌙 Evenings:
You can enjoy the peaceful countryside here or go to the beach or a place of your choice or the next café 10 minutes drive away. We are a bit quieter and sometimes withdrawn in the evenings and often go to bed early.
😊 Atmosphere
If you love quiet nature, simple living, sustainability and cultural exchange and dogs, we’d love to welcome you! Mutual respect, tolerance, kindness, honesty and open communication are key to a great experience here.
💚
Help
At the moment we are mainly looking for help with cutting firewood, installing a small fence and other woodwork projects. We prefer two people or a couple so you can work together.
There are also a variety of tasks around the property, both outdoors and indoors. This can include gardening, land care, maintenance, cooking and helping with small building or DIY projects.
If you enjoy nature, like practical help and are proactive and reasonably fit, you will probably enjoy your stay here.
As we have some age related health limitations, we cannot always manage the heavier work ourselves, so practical help is greatly appreciated.
Current priorities (some tasks can be physically demanding):
• Cutting and preparing firewood for winter
• Cutting grass with a brush cutter
• Building a small fence
• Gardening and land care
• Cooking healthy meals (we usually share the main meal at lunch)
• General help with organising, cleaning and maintenance
Possible additional projects depending on skills and interests:
• Building an outdoor dry toilet and covered shower near the Workaway space
• Improving insulation in the Workaway space
• Painting
• Simple DIY wood projects or pallet furniture
• Pruning small trees regrowing after the fire
• Sewing (curtains, cushions, etc.)
• Creative or design tasks if you have relevant skills
👒🥾🧴🕶️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. Watershoes are useful if you wish to enjoy swimming in the nearby small lake.
🐶😺🐱Do you love dogs and cats? That's great because we adopted two cats and an abandoned dog. Unfortunately, our dog is typically scared of new people (more of men) and then barks, but she’s friendly, and a few workawayers made close friends with her within less than a week, which was great progress for her.
✅ If this sounds like a place you would enjoy, please write a few lines about the practical skills each of you has and the type of projects you both enjoy most.
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.
We have a newly created bedroom in a shed with an attached spacious room that includes a simple kitchen corner plus an outdoor shower. A warm shower and dry toilet still need to be installed. But until then, you can use our separate guest bathroom, accessible in the backyard of the main house.
We cook a warm lunch daily in our main kitchen (weekend cooking vary); if you like cooking, you are welcome to take care of that. For breakfast and supper, you get food to serve yourself and you can use the Workawayers’ kitchen area.
🚰 You have access to (officially tested) drinking water.
🌿 Important to know
We live fully off-grid, relying on solar power and our well. Respecting water and electricity use is essential.
🌞There is no heating in the Workaway living area yet. Until we or Workawayers can insulate it, we won't take on helpers in the cold season.
🚭 Not allowed on our property: smoking, loud music, drugs, or excessive drinking. Moderate alcohol consumption is acceptable—we enjoy sharing wine or beer occasionally.
💚🫠This is a remote place and best for a two Workawayers travelling together who love nature and tranquillity.
Many younger volunteers without transport found it too remote and quiet after a few days, even if we can offer occasional lifts.
We'd love to welcome you if you both enjoy peaceful countryside living and value nature!
What else ...
😎Free Time & Local Sights
Having your own transport🚗🏍️is ideal. Unless you like spending most evenings alone it's best you have a travel buddy. It's well accessible with any vehicle.
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 a nearby lake. (Our lake has no pier or stairs yet.)
🏖️Going to nearby beaches (25+ minutes driving distance)
🎹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 from our garden.💚
We are a quiet family 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 lovelyspace between Medronho bushes, a sea view (10 km aerial distance to the sea), gorgeous sunsets, a connection to water and electricity (only 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 newly created covered outdoor space with a kitchen corner for the workawayers for breakfast and supper.
Can possibly accept pets
You can bring your pet with you if it's really social with other pets. Our dog has always been social with other dogs. She is also friendly with our cats.
How many Workawayers can stay?
Two
My animals / pets
Kayla - and cats: Daisy & Cindy
7-year-old sweet, obedient female. Shy, scared of new people because she had been treated badly by a man before we rescued her. Sociable with all other dogs and our kittens, born in August 2025.
Chat with Workawayers who've visited this host
Feedback (14)
They were a wonderful help during their stay and it was truly a pleasure to host them. Both are extremely friendly, polite, and thoughtful people, and they brought a very warm and positive energy to our… read more
Lynn was always willing to help and approached every task with care and a great attitude. She helped with cleaning, gardening, weeding and cooking, and she… read more
Mahshid works with joy. She helped us with so many things — from deep cleaning, to putting… read more
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Chat with Workawayers who've visited this host
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Accuracy of profile:
(5.0)
Cultural exchange:
(4.9)
Communication:
(5.0)
They were a wonderful help during their stay and it was truly a pleasure to host them. Both are extremely friendly, polite, and thoughtful people, and they brought a very warm and positive energy to our… read more
Lynn was always willing to help and approached every task with care and a great attitude. She helped with cleaning, gardening, weeding and cooking, and she… read more
Mahshid works with joy. She helped us with so many things — from deep cleaning, to putting… read more
They are a warm, generous, and inspiring couple who brought so much energy, kindness, and good humour into our home.
Roni is an incredibly hard worker, always smiling and ready to help with anything. He supported us by digging in the garden for greywater collection, planting trees, raking huge… read more
We had the honor of getting to know you as people, learning from you, and being of service to you.
You are honest and good people, clean, tidy, punctual, just the way we like.
You took care of our food and everything we asked for with a big heart.
Dear Janet, thank you for the food and the cakes you baked. It was… read more
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
