It’s beautiful, great service and the food was fine, if not special.

What is missing is people. And that’s mainly because the Tourist Bureau does not do a good job for the Alentejo. Most people in England are unaware of the area, there is very little publicity generated and so much overlooked.

Overlooked, too, from D.Joao IV. There was very little information in this Pousada or any of the others we have just stayed in. It’s not enough to print out a map of the village. There was no indication of music – it would have been good to know what was on and where. It would have been good if reception knew what was on and where. We didn’t want to spend every night eating meals – it would have been good to find music, festivals, classical, jazz, performances of anything.

You are undersold. More publicity needed not just for the pousadas but the region, what to see, what’s on. We felt abandoned and the extraordinarily attractive surroundings of the pousada were not enough. We visited villages and towns that we had never heard of but, with many, nobody seemed to care and there was little effort made to involve us. Even some with Tourist Information treated us as though we were troubling their day (only some).

It was the same with other pousadas, at Evora, at Palmale. Distinct lack of information, a brochure for pousadas and a print-out map of the town. We left brochures in our rooms from the tourist offices in the hope that it might occur to anyone in the pousadas to do the same thing – at least provide the same brochures as the tourist office.

So much more could be done – and then the pousadas would not be half empty and cutting staff (the poor manager of the Palmale pousada had no-one to carry baggage except himself).

So – get it together, be more pro-active, don’t just toss out the same old blurb year after year. There is so much more to bring the jaded English – and other nationalities – to the pousadas and to the Alentejo. It just feels that there is no imagination at work.