Helping in Lisbon and Estoril, Portugal

It was my first visit Lisbon and I have interest from portuguese style of living, cooking, cultural time in this historic sity!

I am very grateful to Maria and Pedro for these possibilities and would like to come by the next time to visit this dear family;)

We really enjoyed being with seasoned Workaway hosts. From picking us up at the airport to the great conversations over toast and tea, they showed us great spots in the town. A very cultural couple, we met their family and a close friend. Shared meals.

We stayed in their in-town apartment with their young adult children. Had our own room and… read more cooked most days. Their city home had plenty of jobs to be done like painting, weeding, moving furniture, organizational tasks. Their beach home was great to work at as well. Tony and Pedro repaired the garage doors, sprinkler systems, and gardening.
The work was well planned and they tracked the hours so it was fair for all.
Afternoons were typically always time off with plenty of time to see Lisboa. Public transportation is easily accessible and convenient to use. Their neighborhood is sweet with great shopping and really good food.

We are planning a trip back to Portugal! We know we will be seeing Maria and Pedro on the return.

Our stay with Maria and Pedro was very good. They are a very sweet and adventurous couple. They were very kind because even if they didn't need help at the moment they invited us to stay 3 days with them to give us the opportunity to meet Lisbon. We helped them just a couple hours moving some furniture from one apartment to another and some… read more cleaning and painting so we had plenty of time to visit Lisbon. We also had some nice chat around the table, having breakfast, dinner or a glass of wine. Their apartment is located in a nice area of Lisbon and our room was very comfortable!

Thank you so much for receiving us. Big hug from us!
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Sammy and Rémy

Thank you very much for this stay in Lisbon! Very professional hosts, they always take care about their workawayers and needs, the stay at their home was great, cool location and subway nearby, we stay in touch :) Obrigado !

Staying with Maria and Pedro was an awesome experience. They are such a lovely and warm family. They made me feel like home. It was my first workaway experience so I didn't know what to expect but it was amazing. The work wasn't to hard and I had enough time for myself. I am so thankful for the food, comfort, hospitality and inspiration you gave… read more me, both as a host and as a person.

stayed at Maria’s and Pedro’s house for about three weeks. Me and Tilly enjoyed it very much, this was our first workaway so we were a little nervous. However, they made us feel at home and there’s always new people coming and going. It’s a great way to meet new people whilst feeling safe. When you go there you will have Cascais and Lisbon at… read more your fingertips and lovely beaches all around. Maria is a very nice woman, with a business like mind. She is super caring and smiles all the time (I don’t know how she does it with the stress of renovating a house).
Pedro is also very caring and takes a calm approach to work. Overall, the family is very loving.
A normal working day is following Maria round and doing what she asks. We did jobs like fitting stones into the pavement, filling boxes of rubble, insulating, pointing, painting and many more. Basically it’s not very difficult. You have a laugh and for only 3 hours and a half a day or so, it’s worth it.

We just want to say thank you, Maria and Pedro, for all you have done for us. We are glad you took us in for our first workaway and the start of our long trip. I hope we can come back and see the house fully renovated! All the best, love from Hamish O’Brien and Tilly Brenton. XXX

The experience with Maria and Pedro was amazing. They saved us accepting our last minute request. We were doing work-away in Algarve but we had problems with the hosts so we moved to their place. It was the best thing that could happen to us!
We stayed 2 weeks in their house in Estoril: Pedro, Maria and their children were living on the 3rd… read more floor, we were living with other work-awayers on the 2nd floor and the apartament on the 1st floor was our work-place. Sometimes the tasks were a bit heavy but it was always just 3 hours and a half per day. When we did more hours, she gave us more free days: Maria is very careful about this.
The most nice thing was that Maria and Pedro were really interested in knowing their work-awayers, they used to take time to speak with us and to learn about our different cultures, languages and food ;) I'll always remember our lunches/dinners all together.
The place is also amazing, good beaches and Lisbon is just 30minutes by train.

Thank you so much for everything, I wish you the best and I hope that we'll meet again soon! :)
Silvia & Mattia

The workaway with Maria was the 4th one for us and has been really good experience.
We spent 3 weeks in Sao Pedro do Estoril, living in the 2nd floor of the villa with 4 other young workawayers, helping at María and Pedro's house at the 3rd floor and renovating the 1st floor.
Our objective was to maintain the place : painting, gardening,… read more housework...
The location is just perfect, between Lisbon and the large natural parc of Cascais. We really enjoyed our free days there, exploring area. Some days we worked more than 5hours, but Maria respected extra hours so we had more free days later. Maria and Pedro were very nice, we've shared lunch together, we ve learnt about Portugal and also some basic portuguese:)
It was perfect workaway for summertime and an amazing experience for us!

I stayed with Maria's family for 2 months. During the that time, I worked to help renovate her flat's attic into a kitchen with dining area, 2 bathrooms, and roofing for the expansion on the other side. We had some miscommunication in the beginning, but was able to understand each other after discussing it over a meeting. I also helped with house… read more chores and tutored Tomas in math. She accepts other workawayers and workx volunteers, which made living very fun with the exchange of cultures. This was a great experience for work and venturing Lisbon. Obrigado!

I stayed in Estoril for a month last year and had a really good time. They are a lively and interesting family, the work is varied and fair and the location was great too.

I did a large variety of things while I was in Portugal, learning a lot of new skills; from helping in the kitchen to helping to put up a wall in an apartment in Lisbon, and… read more from giving Tomas a bit of a helping hand with his French to painting the window frames for the house.

There were other workawayers about which made for good company, and the family were friendly and kind; the food was incredible and the work/free time balance was great; Maria is very on top of things and good at organisation.

I learnt a lot of Portuguese, a lot about Portuguese culture and the area and got to explore a good bit too, as well as having the opportunity to do a lot of different work so I never got bored. It was a great opportunity.

Maria and her family are kind hearted and generous. They were attentive and thoughtful, going out of there way to make our stay in Lisbon all the more memorable. Maria is also very fair in regards to hours of work and meals etc, and is more than happy to compromise if you have any particular plans during your stay. It was a pleasure to help out in… read more the loft and in the garden.

Muito obrigado.

Ps. Pedro is a super cook.

We had a lovely time with the family (really enjoyed the icecreams!). Nice villa in a great area of Estoril, they were very accommodating and we had a double room to share and a bathroom/ kitchen to share with two others. We stayed for a week in August/September and helped with cleaning, renovation, tutoring (Tomas was a great student). We also… read more really enjoyed meeting other volunteers during our stay and spending time with the family for meal times etc. We really enjoyed our stay, thankyou very much for having us!

Roxanne and Rebekah

I had a wonderful time with the family! They were very sweet with me at all times, even when I made some mistakes while working.... they were very flexible too, this made my life easier!
I stayed more than a month there and i had my own room almost all the time.... and the bathroom is amazing!
The work is varied.... cooking, helping with cleaning,… read more tutoring, gardening, helping with the renovation of the new apartment... I spend most of my time helping Tomas at school, I hope he's better now!
But the best thing was definitely the food Maria cooks... she is very good, a master chef!
I'm happy I've stayed there, I will miss them!

This was a nice experience, the children , parents, and location were all lovely. I would have liked to have known, however, that the accommodation is not a bedroom to yourself as it says above. I was sharing a two bedroom apartment with 4 others, and this was not the most they have had at any one time. That said, I got on with everyone I was… read more living with well, and had a pleasant time.

Just back from spending nearly a month with the Beaumonts, and am already slipping into a post-Portugal depression! They are the most warm, kind and generous family you can imagine! They really helped me with my Portuguese too, and to learn lots of Portuguese recipes!

The work we did was varied and often carried with it a real sense of… read more achievement - from cooking lunch to weeding to putting up false ceilings to drawing pictures for the bathroom walls! They were really flexible with working hours/days so that I was able to fit in all the free time activities I wanted to do.

The flat we were staying in was comfortable and full of character. All in all it was an amazing and unforgettable experience!

I was one of the fellow travellers joining Andrey in december. I moved into the flat, that is being renovated and is one floor above the familiy's flat.
I didn't stay so long and most of my work there was helping in the household. What I didn't know before was that you have to provide yourself eith food during your days off. I really liked that… read more you could arrange with Maria at what time of the day I wanted to work and that she gave every work-awayer the possibility to cook.
Because it was Christmasholiday the day started later (9 a.m.) with a breakfast together. =) I didn't have so much contact to the kids (12, 15. 18), but they were all nice and friendly - like Maria and Pedro =)
When I come again to Lisbon I will come around and say hello =)

I stayed with the family for three weeks in December. It was cold at times and foggy/rainy. Still for a December it was nice compared to Poland ;). The place is about 15 minutes by metro to the centre (Bairro-Alto etc) and you won't have problems to sightsee all Lisbon even in just a few days.

The family is very nice. Kids were a bit shy at the… read more beginning but after few days they opened up a bit. We had a lot of discussions during dinner and some story telling. I tried a few fine portugese wines and dishes. I shared with them a bit of my cuisine too.

Work is 5h 5d and was never hard. In fact I like to get into some serious projects and there wasn't anything big for me. Saying that there are some serious jobs comming as they will move to the next steps with their flat renovation project. I did a mix of cooking, helping in the kitchen, helping with renovating flat (plastering etc.).

I lived in separate apartment so had my own space and privacy. At some point two fellow travellers came by so we had some great time together.

Very big thank you for having me and sharing everything during these 3 weeks. All the best and see you again some day!

Andrzej

We stayed for almost a month the best work away experience we have had they were a wonderful family and we will miss them. Work was varied and managble lots of free time and Maria and Pedro were very helpful and even took us out to the markets. The BEST food and sangria "Master Chefs" I hope we will keep in touch :)