The best hotels for a secret escape in Portugal
We all love to escape from reality from time to time. These seven stunning hotels in Portugal will help you turn those day dreams into real life experiences you will never forget.
Sublime Comporta
Just a one-hour drive south of Lisbon, in between sand dunes and rice fields, lies Sublime Comporta. A magical unspoiled place offering simple luxury on a stunning 17-hectare estate dotted with pine trees and cork trees. The hotel has 23 rooms and suites and 22 villas. Each villa has a private pool, a fireplace, several terraces and large outdoor spaces.
Indulge yourself in the local Portuguese cuisine at Sem Porta, the hotel´s main restaurant, and make your stay as relaxing as possible at the Sublime Spa, where you can enjoy treatments like massages, scrubs and facials. Ingredients used at the Spa are locally sourced and/or organic.
The owners of Sublime Comporta, Gonçalo Pessoa and Patrícia Trigo, believe in sustainable and socially responsible tourism and have put several sustainable efforts in practice. There is an organic garden, forest garden and orchard, and the hotel features a large Bio Pool (one of Europe’s largest), where the water is treated solely with aquatic plants, excluding the use of chemicals.
Six Senses Douro Valley
This Six Senses resort in the Douro wine country is located in a 19th-century manor house overlooking the beautiful Douro river and its surrounding hills. Everything at the hotel is aimed at your well-being, including yogic detox programs, citrus-based spa treatments, river-view suites, nature trails and organic produce from its own garden. If you feel like doing more than just care for your mind and body, there are plenty of activities on offer, such as tile painting, cooking classes, visits to quintas (wine houses), tree climbing and of course wine tasting. For those who like to be more active, you can go kayaking, mountain biking and engage in various water sports.
Being a UNESCO World Heritage Site means all of the region’s stakeholders have a strict obligation to its 3,500 botanical species. Six Senses Douro Valley is continuing to protect and regenerate a 10-acre (4-hectare) woodland on the property, highlighting its commitment to sustain the environment and beautiful old growth trees. The hotel's Sustainability Fund, which is a percentage of the overall revenue and fifty percent of sales from Six Senses water, goes towards funding underprivileged children, at-risk animals and a beautiful community forest.
Colégio Charm House
Boutique hotel Colégio Charm House is located in Tavira, a small town in the east of the Algarve. All 20 rooms and suites at this charming hotel are individually decorated by owners Cristina Guevara and José Carlos Gonçalves. The history of the building where the hotel is situated goes back to the mid-18th century, when the king of Portugal D. João V built the manor for his cook. Later, the building turned into a Catholic boys´ school.
Enjoy your days here lounging around the pool and most of all, take it slow. Cristina and José want you to learn to live slowly, with quality and to enjoy life in the company of those who give you pleasure. The team at Colégio is on hand to provide unique and relaxing experiences, such as massages, dinners and boat trips exploring the area.
Santa Bárbara Eco Resort
Santa Bárbara Eco resort offers 30 villas and studios harmoniously situated over the beautiful Santa Bárbara coastal areal on the northern side of São Miguel in the Azores. The hotel has a huge saltwater pool with submerged stone lounges and a manicured patio that provides views of the ocean that promise to relax and delight. On the wooden deck, which was built on top of the cliff overlooking the beach, you can have a massage, while relaxing to the sound of the waves, wind and seabirds. Individual patios with thatch parasols provide personal spaces for meditation, leisure and peace.
The hotel was designed using sustainable materials such as timber and cork and integrated into the landscape with an emphasis on the surf-lapped scenery of its setting. Furthermore, the Farm-to-Table concept - where organic produce from the farm is used in the healthy dishes at the restaurant, environmental support and energy/water efficiency programs were put in place to reduce the ecological impact, maintain the natural beauty and environmental balance of the coastal ecosystem where the resort is located.
Estrada Regional nº1, 1º Morro de Baixo - Ribeira Seca, Ribeira Grande, Açores 9600-219
Belmond Reid’s Palace
Surrounded by lush subtropical gardens, Reid’s Palace has been welcoming guests for over 130 years. The gardens are open to the public some days of the week with guided tours available. In the heart of the island´s capital Funchal, the resort has stunning views over the Atlantic Ocean and direct access to the water via stairs built into the rocks. If you are not much of an ocean swimmer, don´t worry, you can use the seawater or freshwater swimming pools of the resort. There are also two tennis courts with a coach available for lessons, you can relax at the spa, or book one of the tours that the hotel offers (such as a jeep tour). One thing that you cannot miss at Reid´s Palace is the famous afternoon tea, with scones with clotted cream and mini sandwiches (book in advance because it is usually busy with outside guests).
Belmond has been able to keep the hotel´s original charm, with vintage photos, soft cream colors, marble and various artifacts of the British families out on the island before. The majority of rooms have kept the shape and size of the original building and the best ones are those with sea view and a balcony. At the Michelin-star William restaurant you can try modern seasonal cuisine inspired by local ingredients, or you can choose Villa Cipriani, where dishes seem to come straight from Venice.
Penha Longa Resort
Only a 30-minute drive away from Lisbon, the Penha Longa resort (a Ritz Carlton property) is located in the beautiful Sintra-Cascais national park. The Sintra palaces are only a 10-minute drive away. Originally a monastery built in 1355, the resort was once a retreat for Portuguese royalty. Now it counts with two golf courses, a spa, indoor and outdoor pools, tennis courts, a fitness center, jogging track and a kids club and outdoor playground.
Rooms and suites are spacious and comfortable with a balcony overviewing the stunning grounds of the resort. There are no less than nine restaurants at the resort, with two Michelin star ones: LAB created by Sergi Arola and Midori, offering Japanese gourmet cuisine.
Penha Longa is a Green Key Resort and makes an extra effort to protect the environment and the climate. Green Key is the international eco-label of the tourism industry, which is awarded to companies that comply with a number of environmental requirements in many different areas. Green Key Hotels must introduce environmental management, reduce its energy and water consumption, sort waste, use environmentally friendly cleaning products, promote organic products and avoid chemical herbicides.
Praia do Canal Nature Resort
Praia do Canal Nature Resort, with 56 rooms, is located in a natural park of 220 hectares, stretching from a higher plateau, down a valley to Praia do Canal. Here you can fully immerse yourself in nature and rural living, while at the same time enjoy all that this beautiful hotel has to offer. The design of the hotel has Moorish influences, while the outdoor areas are decorated with natural materials, wood sculptures and stone features.
The rooms feature spacious balconies or terraces with direct access to a semi-private garden area, offering panoramic views over the valley onto the Atlantic Ocean. Everything from the outside of the property to the hotel itself is spacious, comfortable, authentic and discreet.
You can relax to the fullest at the spa, or enjoy the indoor, heated, swimming pool, the cold plunge tank or the fitness room with Technogym equipment. You can also explore the hotel´s surroundings as bicycles are available for rent. Other experiences that can be organized by the hotel are cooking lessons with the chef, picnics in the natural park and visits to regional wineries.
The hotel has three restaurants: Azeitona, Medronho and Zimbro, all offering dishes with ingredients that are preferentially sourced from local producers.
