Spring in southern Portugal: housesit in beautiful Alentejo with two adorable dogs

About this assignment

We are looking for dog and housesitters for about 4 weeks starting in early April, exact dates still to be finalised.

This housesit would suit a dog loving couple (non smoking and vegetarian if possible), to look after our two older rescue dogs and house. Ideally someone with experience in looking after older dogs and someone that is happy to stay somewhere quiet and do a few bits of gardening (no major jobs, mainly watering).

What responsibilities are required of the house sitter

We are looking for dog and housesitters for about 4 weeks starting in early April.
This housesit would suit a dog loving couple, non smoking and vegetarian if possible, to look after our two dogs Monty and Maddie and our house. Also someone that is happy to stay somewhere quiet and do a few bits of gardening (no major jobs, mainly watering).

Our dogs are rescues so please note that we cannot take housesitters with own pets or children, thank you for your understanding.

Monty and Maddie are nice natured and very much used to their daily routine. It includes feeding twice a day, 2 walks a day and lots of love/cuddles in between. Monty is 12 years old, he has a chronic eye condition and needs eyedrops every day, any potential housesitter must feel confident to do that or have experience in giving medication to pets and dealing with older dogs. Maddie is 10 years old, and a happy healthy little soul.

If you want to go out for a bit of exploring or shopping, it’s best to do that after the breakfast routine. The dogs will be fine to be left for up to 4-5 hours but we would prefer this not to occur on a daily basis. If you wanted to have a few longer excursions or a day out to the beaches or so, we have a couple of local friends (whose details we’d provide) that would be happy to come over to let the dogs out and be with them for a while.

In addition to that just looking after the house and some gardening (regularly watering pot plants and young citrus and fruit trees on our land).

What are the good features of the property and location

We live in beautiful Alentejo countryside surrounded by cork oaks in a comfortable modern 2 bedroom 2 bathroom house on just over one hectare of land, very peaceful, with walks straight from the door.

The housesitters will stay in our spacious guest bedroom and have exclusive use of the main bathroom (bathtub, shower, toilet, basin and bidet, towel radiator).
The house has all mod cons and very good internet via Starlink so ideal for people who work from home.

Spring in Alentejo is a wonderful time of year, the landscape is stunning with the meadows full of wildflowers and the weather is usually warm and sunny with the occasional rain shower, but not hot yet.

Summer can be very hot here, it’s best to adopt a Mediterranean lifestyle: get up early, air the house and walk/work outside in the morning and then again later in the evening.

The house is well insulated and it rarely gets too hot (or too cold!) inside. It has double glazing, insect screens on all doors and windows, interior black out blinds, ceiling fans in the bedrooms, aircon in the livingroom/kitchen and exterior shutters to keep the heat out. For cooler days and nights we have a pellet burner in the living room and the aircon units also function as heating. The house always feels cozy and comfortable.

Whilst we live in a rural area, we are not isolated, the house is only 200 metres from a tarmac road and only a couple of kms from the village of Aldeia de Palheiros and the IC1, the main road connecting our local town Ourique with the Algarve. Albufeira for instance is about 50 minutes south from here. The stunning west coast beaches are under an hour by car.

What does the house sitter need to consider before applying for this assignment

As we are taking our car on the trip, you would need your own car/hire car. Our local town Ourique with supermarkets, shops, bars, restaurants, vet, hairdressers, health centre, etc. is about 6km from us. There are a couple of restaurants and bars in our village Aldeia dos Palheiros, about 2km from our house.

We don’t have a pool, but there is a public pool in Ourique, as well as in the towns of Castro Verde and Almodôvar, both about 25 minutes from here.

We are planning a road trip to Germany to see family, leaving some time after 2nd of April but no later than 9th of April. Ideally we’d like any potential sitters to arrive a day or so before our departure. We will be away for just over 4 weeks, back from 3rd of May, but definitely no later than 10th of May, depending on our departure date in April. But we can be flexible and exact dates can be discussed with any potential house sitters.

Our dogs are rescues so please note that we cannot take housesitters with own pets or children, thank you for your understanding.

We are a non smoking and vegetarian household. We wouldn’t like meat or fish being cooked in our kitchen so ideally we’d prefer to find someone who is also vegetarian/vegan or someone who doesn’t mind to use the BBQ/summer kitchen area outside for cooking meat/fish.

Can I bring my own pets?

No, sorry.

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