Boutique Hotel on the Algarve

There are place names in the great European atlas that are enough to make the discerning traveller scuttle in the opposite direction – for example, having travelled to almost every corner of the EU in 30 years of writing travel articles, I’ve always managed to avoid the Algarve thinking it to be overcrowded and over-exploited.

Lagos, not at all busy in winter

But one generalises at one’s peril. I am sure there are parts of Portugal’s southern coastline which are overbearing in certain seasons, but the south west corner is less developed than the rest, much of it is beautiful, and outside high summer the place is an absolute joy.

I was recently sunbathing on a vast and picturesque beach down near Sagres – which is Portugal’s version of Land’s End – on a day when my Exmoor home was quivering under three inches of snow. 

Apart from my wife and me, the warm sandy beach was completely and utterly empty – not a soul came near the place in the two hours we were there. I needed the afternoon sunny snooze because we’d just partaken of a huge and wonderful seafood lunch in a restaurant which contained half a dozen local folk and not a single tourist.

Hesp on an empty Algarve beach in winter

And here’s the real joy: this warm and lovely escape-chute from freezing Britain is less than a two hour flight from the UK.

I take back all I’d ever imagined about the Algarve – but would not have been in the position to if it hadn’t been for a friend who is one of the doyens of the British travel trade. This particular chap is a connoisseur of small boutique hotels – the kind where they pamper you in lovely settings without having the annoying hordes come knocking at the door. 

“You must go to Quinta Bonita, near Lagos, in the South West Algarve” he told me. “It is beautiful – there are only eight suites located in an old family house set in enchanting gardens.”

He was correct in every detail. Quinta Bonita won my own personal award for Secret Find of the Year.

Quinta Bonita and owners in 2011

There are lots of flights to Faro and from there it’s an easy hour long blast along the main Algarve motorway to Lagos, which is the last town before you get to Portugal’s abrupt, wild and rocky south west corner. 

Lagos came to prominence during the 15th century when the Portuguese were the planet’s greatest explorers – it’s said locally that the port was as important during the Age of Discovery as Cape Canaveral was during the early years of space exploration.

seabirds on an empty Algarve beach

It’s a fascinating place – but more about it later because we must just check-in at Quinta Bonita, which located five minutes west of town near the coastal village of Luz. 

Set back on a hillside about a mile from the sea, the spacious property was designed and built by a successful Yorkshire businessman who obviously fancied creating for himself a kind of sunlit gentleman’s estate.

Later it was sold to a lovely family who gave it a great deal of tender loving care. Some years ago they made the decision to turn the place into a small boutique hotel: “We wanted to maintain the laid back and friendly atmosphere so that people instantly feel at home and leave refreshed and revitalised,” the owners told me.

Empty beach on a winter’s afternoon in Portugal

It was a real hands-on affair with members of the extended family lending a hand during the year long conversion . 

And it’s all very tastefully done indeed – our suit boasted a huge double bed (all beds have Egyptian linen), flat screen TV, two balconies and a vast bathroom complete with a bubbling hot tub style bath. 

We looked out over the hotel’s heated pool to the exquisite gardens in which rare birds like hoopoes cavorted in the sunshine.

Anyway, the Algarve is extremely rich in restaurants – and one of the delights of visiting this coast is to go out and eat. Lagos alone has countless eateries and you can be fed in any manner you please – from basic cafes where local fishermen refuel to high-end joints that know how to charge. 

We went to a couple of thoroughly charming local restaurants during our short break - Restaurante do Camilo is perched above a fantastic beach just outside Lagos and specialises in local fish dishes. It’s most famous for its amazing views looking east back along the Algarve, but it was pitch black the winter’s night we were there so we concentrated on the food, which is good, generous, simple fare. 

On another evening we went into the heart of town where the incredibly busy Adeja Tipica A Forja was bursting with neon light and local folk enjoying yet more seafood. Again, best go hungry – my dish of tiny local clams would have fed an entire family.

I liked Lagos a lot. Two main cobbled shopping streets run parallel to the estuary on the banks of which the town is built and there are numerous sites of historical interest that will keep you absorbed for a day. I would definitely recommend a visit to the large riverside market where they sell fresh fish – but then I tend to recommend local markets in every travel article I write. 

The name Lagos is Celtic in origin but was first colonised by the Carthaginians, who recruited Celtic tribesmen in their war against the Romans. Later it became colonized by the armies from Italy becoming part of the Roman province Lusitania – there are still plenty of remains from that period to be seen to this day. 

Delightful though the town is, I’d say it’s the far south west corner that really earns all this region’s brownie points. From Lagos west the sandy, cliff-bordered coast is punctuated by a handful of sleepy fishing villages which I reckon are the real charm of the area. 

Places like Burgau, Salema, Figuera and Zavial beckon few visitors, yet are the jewels in the Algarve’s crown. We took to calling into such places for a quiet drink at the end of the afternoon and watching the fishermen come in from the sea. 

Cabo Vincente

These are all cove fishermen who must haul their boats up the beach, but at Sagres things get altogether more serious. The deep water port here is home to dozens of sizeable trawlers and a large fish-market – and it really is the Portuguese version of Newlyn, tucked safely away from the protection of the nation’s Land’s End. 

Sagres

The lonely rocky spur is known as Cabo Vincente and it is capped by a giant lighthouse. In true Land’s End style it rained heavily when we went out there for some sightseeing, so we beat a hasty retreat to Sabres where Chantelle had recommended we lunch at the locally famous Tasca restaurant. 

As this place is a just a flying fish’s jump from the harbour it’s not surprising that it specialises in seafood. And what truly fabulous seafood it is. Don’t expect to leave for a couple of hours – and don’t expect to have room for a smidgen of food for days after your visit. I had a kind of prawn risotto that was the most filling thing I’ve eaten in years. 

I am leaving the best until last. All this coast a few miles west of Lagos is a national park, but it’s where it rounds the corner and begins its journey north that the littoral becomes breathtakingly empty beautiful. 

Past the little agricultural town of Vila do Bispo the landscape gets wilder and more scenic – and the thing to watch out for are the occasional tiny side roads that disappear through the woods and hills to your left. These, inevitably, lead down to vast and stupendously wonderful surfing beaches that would make the average Cornish wave-rider turn green with envy. 

This must be one of the least spoilt coasts in all of Europe – no wonder I’m swallowing all I ever thought about the Algarve. We drove home via an inland route past occasional villages through low wooded mountains wondering why we’d never heard of any of this magical land before. 

Quinta Bonita is the ideal base from which to explore the area and having taken three decades of travel writing to discover it I’ll be making amends by going again.