We do not rent homes. We operate private hotels.

OUR STORY

We started by showing people Portugal. Then we changed how they stay in it.

Portugal Active began in 2017 as an adventure tourism company in Viana do Castelo, founded by Ricardo Viana — a sports scientist who left academia to build something on the coast he grew up on. Bike tours, horseback riding, canyoning, surf guiding. Then a single property changed everything. We took on one lodge and ran it the way we ran our adventures: with obsessive preparation, personal attention, and a team present from the first moment to the last. Guests noticed.

We looked at how holiday homes were rented across Portugal and saw the same pattern everywhere: beautiful properties, handed over with a set of keys and a phone number. No team on the ground. No one behind the experience after check-in. So we redesigned it from the ground up — a full-time housekeeping team, maintenance crews, a concierge who lives in the region, a 147-point preparation checklist before every arrival. Not a rental with extras. An entirely new model: the private hotel.

From one home to 100+, each managed end-to-end by our people. Forbes, The Times, and The Guardian have written about what we are building. We are still based in Viana do Castelo. Still independent. Still growing at over 100% per year. And still driven by the same conviction: the way people experience a holiday home is broken, and we are the ones fixing it.