[OBIDOS, PORTUGAL] —  About an hour south of Porto is the small castle town of Obidos. If you’re a Game of Thrones fan, which I’ve never really seen, you may recognize this place. But if you’re just a normal castle-loving gypsy, you can stay in the nice pousada inside and get an extra use out of your traveling Glastonbury/Burning Man/Coachella flower bonnet and feel like a queen.

They charge extra for swords, I hear, but available. Ravens on advance request.

A good friend of mine recently stayed in the Pousada Obidos and absolutely loved it. And all the tourists empty out at night and they had the whole town to themselves. Some great restaurants, too.

Obidos is known for their chocolate, so there are oodles of chocolate shops.

They even have their own International Chocolate Festival, which was going on when I was there. Loads of people coming in, with street booths and shops all getting sticky.  But the shops are open year round, lots of chocolate shops. Eat your heart out.

It’s a the perfect one-night stop.

Love this. Like most of Europe, no lawyers. People have personal responsibility, so no guardrails needed.

I think it’d be cool to have an arrow slot in my house…

References

Pousada Obidos website is here. Advice from Trip Advisor here.  More info about the cool castle on Wikipedia here.  More information on the town of Obidos here.

Last visited April 2015