From romantic cliffs to family hideaways, these are the latest Algarve addresses to know about
Andre Pires Santos
Ah, the Algarve… that light, the long expanses of burnt butter sands, blue waters washing against golden limestone cliffs; the smell of sizzling fresh fish, drizzled with local olive oil and the clack-clacking of storks sitting atop the squat olive trees that border the winding roads. There is a wealth of magic in this region, of hidden beaches where fishermen still mend their nets, small white-washed Portuguese villages where the only sound is that of the sonorous church bell, and vineyards where you can stay to taste the wine from the vines around you, immersing yourself in the terroir. And then there is the lively Algarve, where warm nights are filled with music and cocktails and beach parties, days with surfing or riding. There is something for everyone in this region and below are the best hotels in the Algarve.
In this article
Editor's picks of the best hotels in the Algarve
- For couples: Viceroy at Ombria Algarve
- For families: Pine Cliffs
- For a beach location: Vila Vita Parc
- For an affordable stay: Martinhal
Rachel Everett
Praia do Canal
Karin Mueller
James Cochrane
Praia do Canal
A 56-room private estate on 220 hectares of land in the Southwest Alentejo, Praia do Canal is intentionally small, while the surrounding landscape of Portugal’s dramatic Vicentine Coast is majestic. Rooms and suites are tucked into a series of low-rise blocks that seem to hang organically from the hillside, painted in the same warm tones as the main hotel building. The sheltered pathways that connect the buildings have a subtle North African, almost medina-like, feel. We stayed in one of the premium rooms that occupy the upper floors and are definitely the pick of the crop when it comes to views. From our balcony we could just about spot the Atlantic across the valley. The ground-floor suites open onto private garden terraces where it's not unusual to see wild boar, foxes and rabbits meandering through the surrounding shrubs and bushes.
Breakfast and dinner are served at Azeitona, the restaurant in the main hotel building where soaring wood-beamed, double-height ceilings create a contemporary take on a traditional farmhouse, and floor-to-ceiling glass doors open onto the courtyard with a view. At the serene pool, crocheted sun umbrellas shade guests dining on shrimp corn tacos from the poolside restaurant Zimbro. It can be easy to laze here and never want to leave, but you should muster the energy, especially if your a keen horse rider. The hotel's concierge can arrange days out with Carrapateira Extreme, a local outfit made up, as he put it, of "genuine local people" who know this stretch of coast inside out. Or take the hour-long downhill hike to the cobble beach overlooking Pedra da Agulha, considered by locals to be the last of the Algarve’s wild and untouched beaches. Karin Mueller
Price: Rooms from around £260 per night.
IEVA.STUDIO
Pine Cliffs Resort
The famed Pine Cliffs Resort, by Marriott's Luxury Collection, is popular for good reason: set by Europe’s top-ranked Falésia beach and its orange-hued limestone cliffs, golden sandy sweep and Atlantic deep blues, it’s an utter dreamscape. As a family resort, it is gold-standard and designed so that guests never need or want to leave. There are six different accommodation categories spanning rooms, suites, apartments, private residences and townhouses. We stayed in one of the 148 light-filled Pine Cliffs ocean suites with a luxurious summer beach house vibe and brilliant white, caramel and terracotta hues, which was huge and perfect for families with older children. There are an incredible 20 restaurants and bars in the resort, yet everything is as smooth as silk in terms of the customer experience. Even the powerhouse breakfast buffet service at Lemon Square was outstanding: a banquet spread of fruits, juices, yoghurts and patisserie, plus hot made-to-order stations, with table service also.
The amount of activities on offer at Pine Cliffs really impressed us as a family with teens, with moods that change like the wind. The hardest part is choosing from the countless options — there’s golf, football, padel and tennis coaching at the Annabel Croft Tennis & Padel Academy, an escape room, a pirate ship-themed playground with a bouncy castle and mini-golf for wee ones, and activities such as face painting, aquaball, free birds of prey shows, and paintball target shooting (for kids aged 8-12 years). Then, there’s a treetop climbing circuit with a zipline, the biggest kids' club in the region, a calendar of daily hotel events including food tastings, culinary workshops at MIMO and Portuguese tile tours around the hotel – and that’s before you’ve gone for a swim at one of the eight pools. There’s even an arcade room, and the hotel has an array of bespoke local tours to book. Rachel Everett
Price: Rooms from around £260 per night.
GEORGE FAKAROS VISION REQUIRED,GEORGE FAKAROS - VISION REQUIRED
Domes Lake Algarve
Set around a pretty, private seawater lake in Vilamoura, Domes Lake Algarve is a do-it-all family resort impressively equipped to deliver a seamless multi-gen stay. There are 192 rooms and 31 private residences, all with modish designs and soothing natural interiors. We stayed in a two-bedroom tropical family retreat, which was spacious and light-filled, with a calming neutral palette and botanically-inspired wallpaper. Beds were huge and wide, and the retreat had small balconies overlooking the palm-fringed pool area. The hotel offers five restaurants and two bars, my favourite being Blend Nikkei & Wine, an intimate steak-and-sushi restaurant set on a moored boat on the lake. Certain room types are also privy to Haute Living Room access — similar to executive club access, but for families.
There are four outdoor pools, including the beachy sand-bottom pool, a children’s pool, an adults-only pool and a heated pool. The kids' club is free for ages 4 to 12 years, plus there’s a crèche and a roster of free daily activities for children. Grown ups can spend their precious free time in the Soma Spa, which includes Roman and Turkish baths, a sauna, hydrotherapy amenities and an indoor spa pool. The hotel is also a haven for outdoorsy types, with a whole host of activities including cycling trails, kayaking on the lake, jet-skiing, tennis, football and basketball courts. Rachel Everett
Price: Rooms from around £175 per night.
Viceroy at Ombria Algarve
For some, Viceroy at Ombria Algarve’s allure will be in the GEO-certified 18-hole golf course, designed by Jorge Santana da Silva; for others the chance to get under the skin of Portugal in the unspoilt, rolling, landscape of the eastern Algarve, where storks outnumber people in hilltop villages and donkeys graze in flower-filled meadows. This is a resort that reflects its surroundings; from the fragrant honey at breakfast collected from the local beekeeper to the pottery made in the hills by a young artisan and the wines from vineyards right across this sun-drenched region. 76 hotel rooms and 65 residences are mixed together in houses that cluster to resemble an Algarvian village. Some have a private pool in a small garden (lined with Portuguese rosa aurora marble, as are the three main pools) or a private jacuzzi on their terrace. Some have balconies, or terraces. All the residences come with small kitchens, while the hotel rooms have pantries, a wine fridge, Nespresso machine and fridge.
Portuguese cuisine is at the core of the culinary offering here – even handmade pizzas emerge from the wood-oven topped with figs, smoked tuna or Iberian pork. But each of the six restaurants and bars has its own personality and riffs on the national food. Many of the experiences are suitable for older children from riding to learning how to look after sheep for the day accompanied by a local shepherd. There are bikes to hire and trails to walk, and a Beach Club to linger in. Of the two main swimming pools, one is specially for families.
Price: Rooms from around £255 per night.
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Bernardo Lúcio
Palacio de Tavira
Raising the bar significantly in the loveliest of Algarvian towns, comes Palácio de Tavira. A member of Marugal’s charming portfolio of hotels which includes, in Portugal, the Christian Louboutin-designed Vermelho in Melides, a few hours further north up the coast from here. Palácio is a gem in a quieter way though, reflecting the tranquillity that Tavira is loved for. Behind the imposing 19th century façade, up the original stone staircase are 20 light-filled rooms which mostly look onto the pretty little square the hotel sits on. A square dominated by the white-washed, 17th century, Church of São Paulo and its melodious, if not so punctual, bell-tower.
Another 16 rooms can be found in the Medina (a nod here to Tavira’s Moorish heritage) wing, a jumble of dazzling white doors and staircases, with a couple of plunge pools on the roof and floors of sun-warmed Santa Catarina tiles, a quintessentially Algarvian element. Textural artwork by Vanessa Barragão, porcelain from Vista Alegre and colourful blankets decorate the bedrooms, woven with wool from the Bordaleira sheep who graze in the Serra da Estrela mountains in the far north. At the table, Tavira-born chef, Fabio Domingues delivers sublime locally caught sea bass in herb butter or grilled octopus with white bean hummus and caper vinaigrette, both of which brim with flavour and a real sense of place.
Price: Rooms from around £200 per night.
www.giannidalmagro.com
Vila Vita Parc
This is the grand dame of the Algarve’s resorts, with something for everyone. Private yacht with which to set sail on the seas? Tick. Two Michelin-star restaurant? Tick. Extraordinary wine cellar? Tick. The country’s only Sisley Spa? Tick. Brilliant kid’s club? Tick. And so, it goes on. The choice of restaurants is huge, ranging from Michelin star dining at Ocean where you really must try Chef Hans Neuner’s sublime dishes to traditional Portuguese favourites at Adega, Japanese teppanyaki and sushi at Mizu and tuna tartare and salmon poke bowls, next to the infinity pool at Whale. They have their own private beach, great shops and tip-top service throughout the 202 rooms and villas dotted around the 54 acres of sub-tropical garden.
Price: Rooms from around £210 per night.
Yves Garneau
The W Algarve
Just opened and already making the waves it promised it would, The W plays to its own beat. DJ booths – clad in iridescent mermaid scales obviously – can be found on the wet deck by the (heated) pool, in the W Lounge where the décor of turquoise and mirrors mimics the glinting Algarvian coast and up at the roof-top Sea Sky Bar. Try the homemade cheese ravioli with Piedmont truffle cream in chic restaurant Paper Moon or indulge in a lobster and crab roll at the W Lounge Bar. In between times stroll to the beach, dip your toes in your private plunge pool or head to the spa for a serious make-over before dancing the night away.
Price: Rooms from around £210 per night.
Alex Reyto
Casa Brava
Hidden in the undulating landscape of the Barrocal, removed from the madding crowds of some of Portugal’s most popular beach towns, a community of hoteliers are pursuing a quiet shift in the traditional perspective of the Algarve, swapping sand and sea for slowness and simplicity. Leaders of the movement are Marco and Julie Pinto, who were both born to Portuguese parents, and moved here from Paris to renovate a crumbling old farm. Now also consultants in sustainability and olive-oil-soap producers, they rebuilt it as Casa Brava, an eco B&B with an organic vegetable garden flanked by unbroken thyme fields.
Three former animal stone barns were reimagined as restful rustic retreats filled with repurposed objects sourced from the region’s vintage markets. Sun-speckled terraces – perfect for vegan breakfasts in the morning or a glass of organic wine in the evening – face the biological pool filtered by plants and river stones and trimmed with humming lavender. Nearby is the lively town of Loulé where locals congregate on Saturday for the weekly ritual of gossip, almond tarts and shots of medronho brandy at dive bar O Postigo. The slow life here is alive and well, passed into the hands of new custodians who repurpose ancient rituals in a conscious effort to create an alternative and altogether more sustainable future for the Algarve. Sarah Allard
Price: From around £200 per night.
Martinhal
Nowhere quite does family fun as well as this flagship of the child-centric Martinhal brand. Situated on the very west of the Algarve, the hotel overlooks the little beach of Martinhal where teens can paddleboard whilst toddlers play in the sand. Comprising 38 hotel rooms, townhouses and villas with private pools, there are swimming pools scattered throughout the resort, as well as tennis courts, bikes to ride and three dedicated kids' clubs. For screen addicts there is a blue room with play stations galore, and family films feature nightly. Best of all perhaps is the Baby Concierge who prepares everything you need before you arrive, allowing you that elusive rest.
Price: Rooms from around £150 per night.
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Oliveira Milenar
Morgado do Quintão
This much-loved family winery, now run by the fourth generation of the same family, has recently opened three small cottages and four bedrooms in the renovated main house to tourists who wish to make it their Algarvean base. Clean and cool with muted colours and a simple, period, charm these houses, dotted around the estate are blissfully free of televisions but come with enticing swimming pools. At their centre is a magnificent 2,000-year-old olive tree under which farmer’s lunches and wine tastings are a regular occurrence.
Price: Rooms from around £300 per night.
Octant Vila Monte
There is plenty of charm here with courtyards filled with fountains and orange trees and gardens overflowing with bounty for the kitchen. Just 55 rooms are dotted around the lush gardens, their design paying homage to the region’s Moorish heritage with high ceilings lined with straw reeds and the characteristic latticed chimney pots. White-washed bedrooms have driftwood branches where colourful kaftans for the beach hang alongside straw hats. Two swimming pools, a tennis court and a gym are there for the active and a shuttle bus takes you to the nearest beach. Evenings are given over to al fresco cinema and delicious dishes at the rustic Terra Restaurant.
Price: Rooms from around £235 per night.
Samuel Elkins
Casa Mãe
More for urban lovers than beach bums, although the beach is only a hop, skip and jump away, Casa Mãe has a young and vibrant buzz to it. There is an all-day restaurant serving local, artisan-sourced cheeses and hams alongside typical regional fare like octopus and squid with fresh herbs and vegetables brought in from the hotel’s own, extensive, garden. The 34 rooms come in three different categories, from cabanas near the swimming pool, complete with hammocks and outside showers to elegant heritage rooms with vintage furniture in the main 19th-century house and contemporary rooms in the Joga da Bolo with futon beds on terracotta floors.
Price: Rooms from around £200 per night.
Mary Lussiana is a travel writer, contributing to the English and US press, including Condé Nast Traveller, House & Garden, The Telegraph, The Times, Evening Standard and Airmail. She has lived in Portugal with her family for over two decades. ... Read More