Travel Tales Podcast
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Imagine opening a boutique hotel during a global pandemic.
That’s the situation Vera Camarena and her American husband Cam found themselves in since appearing on Travel Tales earlier this year.
In what feels like a million years ago, Vera and Cam chatted with me in Los Angeles last December just before leaving the US permanently to open a small hotel in Vera’s native Portugal. Soon after their arrival, Europe shut down under COVID-19 lockdown.
Many would take that as a sign that maybe hotel ownership was a pipe dream and not meant to be. But Vera and Cam rolled up their sleeves and got to work.
They utilized their isolation by doing necessary repairs, expanding the hotel’s footprint, and recruiting family members for free labor.
Soon, the couple began welcoming guests from around Portugal to their little country retreat two hours south of Lisbon. Vera fills us in on the quarantine situation in Portugal, what it’s like running a small inn, and what she’s learned in the process.
Thanks, Vera!