The name Fundão derives from the Latin word "fundanus", which means property. It probably has its origins in two small agricultural villages somewhere around 1300. Fundão is located at 500 meters altitude on the slopes of Serra da Gardunha facing the Serra da Estrela.
Fundão is situated alongside the N23, therefore it is easily reachable. It's infrastructure is very good too. There are several buses going around the area and it even has a trainstation.
For a place to stay you will find that Fundão has several hotels, a camping and a glamping (luxury-camping), rooms in private properties (alojamento local) and complete houses for rent, have a look at this website if you need a place to stay.
On monday-mornings there's a market in Fundão with all kinds of goods, food and farm-animals. Next to the market is another indoor-market where you can find shops that sell regional products, fish, meat, cheeses, fruits and vegetables. All around the market you will find terraces, cafés and restaurants and all kinds of shops.
A bit more on the outside it has supermarkets, builders' malls and a Burger-King. On that side there's also an industrial zone with all kinds of shops, garages, cars, materials like stone, steel, wood and tools and agricultural goods like piping and pumps etc.
In Fundão there are several clinics, pharmacies, dentists and even a hospital. There also are opticians, beauty-saloons and therapists. You will find several veterinarians too. There are banks, notaries, sollicitadoras, lawyers, real-estate managers and even a courtroom.
Fundão is well-known for it's cherries. It has beautiful wines and cheeses that you can only buy in the town and nowhere else. Next to that lots of shops offer fresh products from the agricultural area around the town, from vegetables and fruits to meat and dairy-products.
The town itself has some beautiful architecture, small alleys with tiny shops, a park and a swimming pool.
In and around Fundão there's só much to do: the smaller villages with the local cafés and restaurants are lovely and driving from one to another you will have beautiful views on the Serra da Estrelas and the Serra da Gardunha. You will find pinetree forests and eucalypt forests, one with a tree-top route where you can go from tree to tree and there are several astonishing hiking and biking trails and possibilities for playing tennis, mountain-climbing, canoing and even delta-wing flying in the Serra da Gardunha. Some very old historical villages are very close to the town like Castelo Novo, Alpedrinha, Alcaide and Souto da casa.
If you like swimming you will see that there are many river-beaches in the area and a couple of lakes too. Some of the river beaches are: Praia Fluvial de Lavacolhos, Praia Fluvial de Janeiro de Cima, Praia Fluvial de Castelo Novo and Praia Fluvial do Ourondo but there are many more. At 20 minutes drive you can find the lake near Capinha with grass and some sandy beaches where you're also allowed to stay the night or nights with a campervan.
Only minutes away from Fundão there's a camping with a lovely swimming pool, a café and a restaurant, entrance-fee is 5 euros per person (little children free) and for that money you can stay there all day long and use all the facilities.
At daytime you will find that Fundão has many little and large shops, the center of the town is always busy because Fundão attracts a lot of people from the area around. You can have a stroll in the center and enjoy the cosy atmosphere, have a typical Portuguese "pastel de nata" on a terrace with a cup of coffee and / or look around in the many shops that offer regular products, regional products and products from other countries like the far east and several China-shops.
At lunchtime many restaurants, snackbars and padarias will be open and some are very cheap (but serve high-quality dishes), prices for a complete meal including soup, main dish, a drink and a desert, vary from 8 euros to 25 euros. There are many typical Portuguese restaurants, a Chinese restaurant, a pizzaria, specialized restaurants for if you like fish or meat from the charcoal-grill (brasa) and even a Burger King. Next to these restaurants many padarias and snackbars / cafés offer lunch too, often with surprisingly delicious dishes, made with love and affection.
During the year you can enjoy the many "festas" that are being organised, like the Festival da Tibórnia, Sabores de Outono, Sabores da Cereja and Sabores da Páscoa. The smaller villages almost all have lots of festas too, starting from spring to fall every weekend there will be at least one festa somewhere, with music and dance, food and drinks like chourizos, cheeses, wines, breads, mushrooms and piglet from the grill (often home-made and typical for that specific village). If you are looking for something special like a house or terrain, a tractor or a builder / digger or whatever: these festas are a good opportunity to meet the local people (and the foreigners) living there to ask if anybody knows about something (the people are always very friendly and helpful and many of them speak a bit of English or French).
In the evening ofcourse you can go have dinner in these many restaurants and visit the bars, all with their own character and there's even a nightclub. You will be amazed about how many are opened in the evening and how many people go out too. If you don't speak the language but want to mingle amongst the Portuguese, this is a very good way to make contact, because the younger people often speak surprisingly good English and are always happy to give any kind of information and practise their English language-skills.
