John Hornick — Chef’s Apprentice
Óbidos is a medieval walled town of shops and restaurants, and of course the 12th Century castle, less than 50 miles north of Lisbon. It’s an easy day trip from Lisbon, but it’s much more fun to stay overnight. This is your Chef’s Apprentice travel guide of Tastes & Toasts for a 1-night stay in Obidos.
Obidos Introduction
Óbidos is a small medieval walled town in central-west Portugal, less than 50 miles north of Lisbon and less than 10 miles inland from the Atlantic coast. Founded on pre-Roman settlements, it was fortified in the Middle Ages. The castle and walls were expanded from the 12th–14th centuries. Believe it or not, it was a royal gift beginning in the 13th century, given by Portuguese kings to queens, earning it the nickname “the wedding present” of Portugal.
The area inside the castle walls is easily walkable and compact. The narrow, cobbled streets are lined with shops, booksellers (books are big here), chocolate makers, restaurants, ginjinha de Óbidos shops (cherry liqueur served in a chocolate cup), and whitewashed houses with colorful doors.
The splendid countryside can be viewed from the ramparts.
Obidos is an easy day trip from Lisbon, but it’s much more fun to stay overnight. Warning: automobiles are not allowed inside the wall. Park outside and walk in. If you are staying at the Pousada do Costelo de Obidos Hotel (see below), the hotel staff will golf cart you from your car to the hotel.
Check out my Travels, Tastes, & Toasts series at www.chefsapprentice.com.
Getting There
We flew directly into Lisbon. To book your trip to Portugal, or anywhere, and to get good prices, use this Expedia box:
We used United points to fly to Lisbon. If you have slightly fewer points than you need, you can buy enough to get you a free trip from United. If you want to stay in Marriott hotels and don’t have enough points, you can also buy more here.
We travel with only one bag and a backpack each. I have been using this Pathfinder bag for many years. It has a large compartment with top or bottom access, and a nylon panel can be unzipped to combine the soft upper compartment and the rigid lower. The whole bag is heavy duty, including the retractable handle and wheels, as proven by the fact that I have been using it for well over five years. It still looks new despite having been in many, many overhead luggage compartments, and Sarah just bought one because mine has served me so well for so long. What I like most about it is the pockets. I love pockets and it has many pockets both inside and out.
Check out my Benable Essential Travel Gear rec list.
Where to Stay: Pousada do Costelo de Obidos Hotel
The group that created this hotel did a great job of repurposing part of the castle to become a luxury hotel.
We were torn between staying in one of the tower rooms (recommended for Knights (a suit of armor is available) and for Damsels who feel more secure in towers), or one of the cottage rooms.
Instead we chose the cottage room for its spaciousness, fireplace, dramatic vaulted wooden ceiling,
tile and architectural details, balcony, and windows, which filled the room with sunlight and provided a wonderful view of the town and the realm beyond.
But staying in the tower room would have been a hoot, even if the steps would have been a bit of a challenge. Next time.
The hotel has a fine dining restaurant but we opted to eat only the included breakfast, which offered a full range of buffet breakfast items.
There was also a lounge for guests, where tea and biscuits are available 24/7.
If you are so reclined, you may enjoy a cocktail view of the town from the hotel terrace’s tables and chairs.
To get to the hotel, you must park outside the wall. One of the hotel’s great staff will meet you at your car in an electric golf cart, then drive you and your luggage (pack lightly!) to the hotel’s reception area. They also take you back to your vehicle when you check out.
We enjoyed our stay very much. CLICK HERE TO BOOK POUSADA DO COSTELO DO OBIDOS Hotel. You’ll be so glad you did.
Castelo de Obidos
Visiting Obidos is like attending a Renaissance festival during the Renaissance. This walled castle fortress town has roots back to about 700 AD but what you see today seems to be from around the time of the Renaissance. So, it’s mostly really old, and partially really, really old.
Twice in the 13th Century, kings gave the village to their wives as wedding presents (warning to Grooms-to-be: don’t let your fiancé read this).
To get a thrilling view of the countryside and a bird’s eye view of the town, walk the circumference on top of the crenellated fortress wall, but be warned: the crenellations are high enough to make you safe and secure on one side but there is no wall or railing on the other side of the wall-top walkway. So, walking the wall can be scary and dangerous, especially if you need to pass someone who is hugging the ramparts. In some spots, it’s a long way down.
But while you’re up there, imagine defending the fortress from attacking Visigoths, which they did as Rome fell.
The town itself is one big photo op. White buildings with blue accents, lush Bougainvillea, and potted geraniums dominate, which make the town reminiscent of Santorini but without the Mediterranean.
But the intricate tile work and ancient Romanesque stonework remind you that you are in Portugal.
It only takes a day or so (we had most of one day and the next morning) to walk every street and side street, even if you browse the many shops, which sell everything a tourist could want, much of which is very nice, traditional, unusual, drinkable, or edible.
Many shops sell Ginjinha de Obidos, the indigenous cherry liqueur often drunk from a chocolate cup.
Igreja de Sao Tiago Church Bookstore
If only all former churches could be repurposed as bookstores, and to be as well done as this one, bookstores may not be as challenged as they are in the U.S.
Most of the books here seem to be in Portuguese, but I did find some in English.
But unless you happen to speak Portuguese, the main reason to explore this bookstore is to appreciate it AS a bookstore in a dramatic and historical setting.
Fabrica das Bombokas Chocolate shop
Of Obidos’s many chocolate shops, we found this tiny one the most charming.
The CD and CVPSM (chocolate density and chocolate variety per square meter) is very high and almost overwhelming, but the expert chocolate guide on duty directed us to several fine choices.
Madok Restaurant
While looking for a lunch spot while strolling the Obidos streets, we chose Madok. Why? They tolerate muggles (like us), though they prefer wizards of course.
They also had an available table outside, with an umbrella to shield us from the sun.
I think wizards would also like the stone wall, wood beams, and rustic wooden tables of the front inside dining room.
But in case you are not a Potterhead, I still recommend the restaurant. We had a bowl of tiny but delicious clams (finished the broth with a spoon) and a plate of assorted sliced cheeses, along with plenty of fresh bread and tinto. Service was excellent.
Livraria do Mercado (Bookstore & Greengrocer)
Two things make this bookshop stand out: 1. Bookshelves full of books 📚 soar into the peaks — past the rafters — of the high ceiling, at both ends of the shop, and
2. The shop also sells fresh fruits 🍎 and vegetables, leading one to wonder who buys them in this town of fewer than 100 full-time residents (the demand must be there, or the vegetables 🥕 would not be).
If there had been a way to identify a book on the highest shelves, I would have bought it just so I could see how the bookseller would have retrieved it.
A few methods came to mind: a. Ladder 🪜 (there was a library ladder along a side wall, but it was too short). b. Crossbow with a retrieval string attached to the arrow (I saw a few antique crossbows around this ancient village). c. Await an earthquake, like the one that rocked the village in the 1750s (too slow, even by medieval 🏰 standards). d. Send a flying monkey 🐒 like the ones in The Wizard of Oz (they would feel quite at home in the castle, but this seems to be a MFZ (monkey-free zone)). Maybe you will have your own ideas.
Museu de Sardinha tinned fish store
I have seen many locations of Museu Sardinha Portuguesa in Portugal, but this one stands out. They are all very fun and colorful places. I hope they do well because the world needs shops like this if only to make visitors feel good.
The product is various types of tinned fish, such as sardines, cod, and tuna, which are big in Portugal.
This location is particularly striking, with a library of old books on the cast-iron scrollwork mezzanine reflecting the library of tins below, the communication between which is a beautiful cast-iron spiral staircase.
The ceiling is a map of the world, which the Portuguese mastered in the Age of Exploration.
Go here. Buy something if you can, such as a tin of fish with your birth year on it (don’t worry, the year on the tin doesn’t mean the fish has been inside since that year 😀).
Alcaide Restaurant
Based on a recommendation from our hotel, we had dinner here on our only night in Obidos. In fairness, there are many restaurants in town with attractive atmosphere and I suspect much of the food is similar, but we really enjoyed our choice.
The restaurant is on the second floor, reached by a staircase from street level, through a Portuguese-tile-wainscoted hallway.
The single, comfortable dining room has an old-world feel with rustic dark wood clothed tables, arch-backed chairs, herringbone terracotta brick floor, tongue-and-groove ceiling, and plenty of wine bottles everywhere.
But we were led straight through it to one of only two balcony tables, which overlooked a green garden, village cottages, and the countryside outside the village wall.
We started with the cherry tomato 🍅 and mozz salad (the way to assure that the tomatoes are fresh and ripe in such a salad is to use sliced or halved cherry tomatoes, as this chef did).
As for my main, for the second night in a row I had an Iberico Secreto (at a different restaurant, not in Obidos), which is the best cut of pork in the world. 🌎 Grilled briefly over high heat, it was perfect and juicy. Check out my “Grilled Iberico Pork Secreto” video to see how to make it.
Sarah enjoyed the sea bass.
Portions were more than we could eat, even after our 14,000 steps that day. We capped the meal with the luscious chocolate mousse.
Conclusion
After dinner we strolled back to the hotel, enjoying the night in magical Obidos.
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