Ladies Vintage Tour: An Exclusive Road Trip Through the Northern Alentejo

Five nights from Zafra across the Alentejo, self-guided, in an MGA Roadster, as a women-only tour.

The route crosses from Spain into the whitewashed south of Portugal, and it ends on the N2, the road that runs the length of the country from the Spanish border in the north to the Algarve and is the closest thing Portugal has to a Route 66.

Zafra opens it, then the drive west past the Mourao reservoir with its small sandy beaches, and a break at Reguengos de Monsaraz. Evora follows, the queen of the Alentejo, with its Roman temple and Gothic cathedral and a lunch together at the Pousada Convento de Evora. Beja comes next near the southern edge of the region, with the night in a converted convent and dinner in the monastery’s former chapel. Alcacer do Sal closes the route by way of sections of the N2, with cork oak forest along most of it. As with the operator’s other women-only tour, extra wellness time and cultural stops are built into the schedule.

The MGA for the duration, the accommodation in historic Pousadas and the group meals including the Evora lunch and the Beja dinner are all included. The price shown is per person. Spring and autumn are the seasons, since the Alentejo in July and August is extremely hot. Six days with a monastery chapel dinner in it is a well-judged piece of itinerary building. Starting in Spain and finishing near the Atlantic also gives the route a direction rather than a loop, and the Pousada network supplies the sort of buildings that no modern hotel can replicate.