The Alentejo plain around Beja is dotted with whitewashed villages and Roman sites. Several make excellent half-day excursions by car.
The Roman villa at São Cucufate, about 40 kilometres northwest near Vidigueira, is one of the largest Roman rural complexes in Portugal. The ruins of a three-storey villa from the 1st to 4th centuries AD are surprisingly intact, with the conversion of part of the building into a Visigothic monastery visible in the surviving walls.
Alvito and Viana do Alentejo, both within 40 kilometres of Beja, are typical Alentejo villages: low whitewashed houses, castle or fortified church, and the particular quality of light that defines this part of the country. Neither has much for tourists beyond their general atmosphere and architecture, but that is often enough.
Évora, 80 kilometres to the north, is the obvious larger-scale day trip from Beja — a UNESCO World Heritage city with a Roman temple, medieval walls, and the famous Chapel of Bones in the Igreja de São Francisco.
