Cocoon Portugal

( the story )

A 275-acre coastal farm near Vila Nova de Milfontes with two twenty-four-person shalas, eleven rooms, a freshwater lake and the Atlantic ten minutes away.

where it begins

Cocoon occupies 275 acres of Alentejo coast near Vila Nova de Milfontes. There are two shalas, each holding twenty-four students: one indoors, floored in Portuguese Santa Catarina tiles, and one outdoors in the pines three minutes from the main house. Eleven rooms open onto courtyards — eight with private bathrooms, three sharing, four convertible to triples. On the land there is a freshwater lake and a wood-fired pizza oven; beyond it, the Rota Vicentina trail and, ten minutes by car, the Atlantic at Praia do Cavaleiro. The kitchen is farm-to-table and mostly grown here: no red meat, pork or poultry, but eggs, cheeses and the occasional wild-caught fish.