Farm Feasts: Six Of Europe’s Tastiest Rural Retreats For Autumn

Autumn has arrived, brushing pastoral landscapes with its burnished tones: fields are a thousand shades of gold, orchards are turning copper, and woodsmoke is scenting the air. It’s a time of abundance across Europe’s vineyards, forests and farms, and the continent’s rural kitchens and countryside stays are leaning into the culinary rituals of the season, inviting guests to slow down, tug on boots and sweaters, and taste the land at its most generous. We’ve rounded up six destinations to visit this autumn, from a Menorcan finca to a Bavarian barn, all with top-notch dining offerings – and access to some of the best seasonal ingredients available.

Sibbjäns, Sweden | Credit: Mike Karlsson Lundgren

Sibbjäns, Gotland, Sweden

On the southern tip of Gotland – the Baltic island beloved by Swedes for its long beaches and storybook villages – Sibbjäns has just opened in a restored 19th-century farmstead. Nine sleek hotel rooms, each with an ensuite, and access to a library and kitchen to hang out in, plus 13 more rustic quarters that offer cosy double rooms with their own patios but shared bathrooms, are scattered across limestone barns and newly built houses crafted using traditional methods. Exteriors might be old-school, with local stone stacked by hand, beams carved with broad axe, and even a thatched roof woven from sedge gathered by the sea, but interiors are elegantly up-to-date. Rooms, whether large or small, promise a seashell colour palette of soft cream walls, folded linen blinds and crisp white sheets, with delicate posies of wildflowers decorating windowsills throughout.

The working farm – home to pigs, hens and sheep – is fully accessible to guests (tomato harvest, anyone?) and supplies much of what arrives at the restaurant, so set farm menus shift with the seasons. Autumn dishes are set to include an open courgette lasagna, grilled lamb with kohlrabi and cabbage, and a creamy pumpkin risotto. After dinner, drinks in the bar come with views over a natural swimming pond. Days here are made for slow explorations, from cycling along wooded trails and wandering the shore to heading north to Visby, where medieval walls and cobbled streets speak to Gotland’s layered history.

sibbjans.se

A bedroom at Off Grid in Girona | Credit: Ariadna Puigdomenech

Off Grid, Girona, Spain

Tucked into a restored 17th-century masia at the base of Mare de Déu del Mont, the newly opened Off Grid offers an intimate farmhouse stay in the Catalan hills. The 10-bedroom hotel is the brainchild of Gerard Greene, who left his life in the city for a slower, more rooted existence. The space invites guests to avoid more typical holiday ambitions and embrace community over solitude when settling down here. Evenings centre around convivial, family-style dinners guided by a hyperlocal ethos: daily-changing menus pull from neighbouring farms, cheesemakers and bakers, and are served poolside or around the farmhouse table. Expect to find locally foraged chanterelles, bitter farm chicory and the start of the season’s squashes among ingredients. Honesty bars throughout the property, meanwhile, stock local wine, craft beer and small-batch coffee. In the rooms, limewashed walls, terracotta floors and reclaimed wood meet monsoon showers, stone basins and hand-cut La Bisbal tiles, while, outside, a wildflower-fringed pool and yoga studio invite slower rhythms. From the doorstep, cycling and hiking routes lead straight into Catalonia’s ancient forests and to dormant volcanoes – best explored, perhaps, with a new friend made over last night’s meal.

offgridgirona.com

Osip in Somerset, England | Credit: Dave Watts

Osip, Somerset, UK

Once a tiny restaurant located in the centre of a diminutive Somerset town, Osip has grown into a fully fledged farmhouse escape. The Michelin-starred restaurant of Devon-born Merlin Labron-Johnson recently moved into a whitewashed, 17th-century coaching inn on the edge of Bruton, adding four tastefully dressed bedrooms to the renowned farm-to-table dining experience. Labron-Johnson brings the surrounding countryside onto the plate, utilising fresh produce from his two nearby farms, Dreamers and Coombe. The result? A tasting menu that shifts daily, leaning into the harvest with dishes like beetroot tacos, salt-sprinkled tomatoes and hazelnut-studded miso nasturtium blooms.

The bedrooms – reached by clambering up a winding staircase; each named after Somerset rivers – mirror the kitchen’s pastoral outlook, with jute rugs, brass fittings, vaulted beams and – in two – deep tubs for long soaks. Mornings begin with a simple but generous spread of fresh bread, farm honey, cheeses and just-baked pastries, before guests set out into the rolling West Country to explore.

osiprestaurant.com

Quinta do Pinheiro, Algarve, Portugal

Set within the flamingo-dotted protected natural area of Parque Natural da Ria Formosa in Portugal’s Algarve, this transformed 19th-century farmhouse sits just a short walk away from dune-lined beaches, oyster farms and only-reachable-by-boat-or-swimming islands of the lagoon landscape. Dutch couple Martijn Kleijwegt and Monique Snoeijen purchased the low-slung farmhouse property in 2021 but the estate has only just made it to the finish line, opening this year as a collection of five stylish whitewashed cottages to rent. Each features two or three bedrooms, a dining area and a kitchen. Father-and-daughter designers Frederico and Marta Valsassina have added nods to local traditions throughout, from red-painted window frames to Santa Catarina tiled floors, with original bread ovens left intact.

There’s no on-site restaurant but renowned chefs visit for short stays (such as Amsterdam-based Ben van Geelen) and a private chef can be arranged. Alternatively, you can shop for local produce in the nearby town of Tavira and whip up a feast of your own liking. Reachable by a 25-minute ride on one of the estate’s electric bikes, the ancient town is all scenic cafés, stretching bell towers and farmers’ markets stocked with the season’s bounty, from the seductive scarlet orbs of pomegranates and sweet, soft persimmons to the ever-abundant seafood offering of the Atlantic coastline, the latter lending itself to a classic cataplana stew. Also nearby are the Algarve’s wandering dunes and pine forests – perfect for a picnic lunch.

quintapinheiro.com

Rosso in Bavaria, Germany | Credits: Ulrike Meutzner, Bartek Kolaczkowski and 8am Aesthetics

Rosso, Bavaria, Germany

For a do-it-yourself food-focused escape, head to the Allgäu, where the Alps soften into fairy-tale meadows, fruit orchards and cow-dotted pastures. Here, just 30-minutes’ drive from Memmingen airport, a former haybarn has been reborn as Rosso – three rustic-chic self-catering apartments created by Christian Müller and Lisa Rühwald. Inside, sloping floorboards and wonky walls set a storybook tone, complemented by vast copper bathtubs, playful bunk beds and fully kitted-out country kitchens. Step outside to find chickens and ducks strutting through the grass and a wild rose climbing the rust-red facade. A pool in the yard is fed by natural spring water (don’t worry – the local cows are kept well away from it). There’s no restaurant but the on-site self-service farm shop more than makes up for it: shelves brim with local dairy produce and everyday essentials, as well as some top-notch German beer. You’ll want to fire up the grill on the sun terrace and set up camp by the outdoor fireplace for long, lingering autumnal evenings. Feeling chilly? There’s a sauna on site to warm up in, too.

dasrosso.com

Son Blanc Farmhouse in Menorca | Credit Karel Balas

Son Blanc Farmhouse, Menorca, Spain

As summer gently yields to a sepia-tinged autumn, Menorca’s rural rhythms come alive. Nestled between Alaior and Es Migjorn Gran, Son Blanc Farmhouse opened in 2023, breathing new life into a 19th-century stone finca following a thoughtful, seven-year transformation by Benedicta Linares Pearce and Benoît Pellegrini. This low-impact, eco-conscious retreat blends seamlessly into its 320-hectare estate. Crafted from local stone, olive wood and clay, its 14 rooms have vaulted ceilings, private gardens or terraces, plus outdoor tubs that invite lingering under the open sky. At the open-kitchen restaurant, the menu is intentionally plant-centric, with dishes shaped by smoking, pickling and drying, as well as the freshest local produce: ingredients are almost exclusively sourced from the farm itself. Dinner is about community as much as cuisine, with regular social dinners bringing guests together over long, convivial feasts, and artists, chefs, creatives and healers invited to the property to support a programme of activities and experiences throughout the year.

sonblancmenorca.com

Main photo credit: Rosso, Lisa Ruehwald