Our guest today is Sara Allen, Real Estate Sales Director at Martinhal Family Hotels and Resorts, who began her Portugal journey in 1999 as a 21-year-old Algarve holiday rep’, after mistakenly thinking she was heading to Egypt!
She fell in love with Portugal, stayed on, and became her company’s Faro airport controller handling dramatic fog-related flight diversions to Seville and Lisbon, and moved into real estate with Winkworth before joining Martinhal.
There, she managed owner relations in Sagres and later drove sales, especially during the Golden Visa boom, helping bring international investment to Portugal that helped revitalise areas like Chiado and later Oriente and Parque das Nações.
Here, Sara shares her deep affection for Portuguese coastal living, food (especially chocolate salami), the warm people, easy travel and blue skies, advising newcomers to step out of their comfort zone to build local friendships. She also has a great hack for airport users.
She is currently training for the London Marathon to raise funds for Pancreatic Cancer UK in memory of her mother, and speaks of her special relationship to running.
