Portugal’s Newest Luxury Resort Is Reimagining Algarve Travel

“I can compare it to Ubud in Bali” 15 years ago, says Duarte Gonçalves da Cunha, the general manager of the new Viceroy at Ombria Algarve, the most significant luxury resort to open in southern Portugal in recent memory. “It’s different in every way, really,” he says when asked how it compares to other developments in the perennially popular Algarve region. “It’s the first project of this size that focuses on the interior.”

Cunha, who lived in Indonesia at that time during his tenure with Aman Resorts, explains the comparison. The Ombria resort—of which the Viceroy is the hotel anchor, as well as the luxury brand’s debut in Western Europe—lies far from the ocean in a region renowned for its beaches. The resort is in a zone of rolling hills—the Barrocal, filled with fig, olive and cork trees—surrounded by small villages that preserve a slow and traditional way of life, and close to a regional hub of creativity and culture.

“In [nearby] Loulé, there’s artists, there’s artisans, and there’s a countryside. It’s green, and you’re away from the more touristic part where you just see people going to the beach and enjoying the sun,” he continues. “I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that. This is just thought out to be a completely different experience.”

The hotel, which opened in October, was created from scratch, by the international hospitality design agency WATG and the Lisbon architecture firm Promontorio. It resembles a traditional hillside village, with its limewashed buildings and central clock tower standing nearly 100 feet tall. Its 141 rooms occupy a collection of three-story buildings, linked by sinuous walking paths with parked bicycles waiting for guests to hop on, outdoor art, water features and simple benches that add to the village feel.

Everything looks simple and elemental, a prettified version of the traditional villages that have dotted these hills for generations. But a closer look (or a detailed property tour given by a hotel manager) reveals the conscious thought that went into it all. Five shades of white paint were used on the buildings’ exteriors, enhancing their beauty in the slanted late afternoon light—but in a way you can’t quite pinpoint.

Inside, the rooms, designed by Wimberley Interiors, have subtle nods to regional motifs. Instead of headboards, the walls behind the beds are patterned with mismatched Portuguese tiles. The warm-toned hardwood floors are softened with locally handcrafted rugs, and vintage pieces give everything a homey vibe. Their bathrooms have freestanding slipper tubs in front of shuttered windows, which can be opened to the bedroom and the views beyond, or closed for privacy.

Many of the rooms have large private terraces with built-in seating or even plunge pools or Jacuzzis. Some of them also have kitchenettes for longer stays or family vacations. They mean it when they say the feeling is residential.

There’s also a lot to do, and not only in the hot, crowded summer. Even if it’s not a beach resort, it’s still an Algarve resort, which means golf all year long. The 18-hole signature course is the work of Jorge Santana da Silva, one of Portugal’s leading golf designers for more than 30 years. He followed the natural landscape to weave the course around ancient rivers and trees that have stood for generations, and he ticked enough sustainable-design boxes to pick up some of golf’s most prestigious ecolabel certifications.

There are four swimming pools—three of them heated—for guests of the hotel and owners of the apartment residences within the 370-acre Ombria resort. A central plaza with a café is meant to be a community gathering place, or at least a hub for owners and hotel guests.

Also on that square is Solalua, the most ambitious of the hotel’s six food and beverage venues, all of which are overseen by executive chef Pedro Pinto, a veteran of other top Algarve resorts like Pine Cliffs and Vila Vita Parc. The creative small plates menu is full of playful interpretations of local classics, like a savory twist on bolas de Berlim—the egg-yolky cream-filled doughnuts Portuguese like to eat on the beach—made with a crab filling, and local squid pressed and sliced thin like fettuccini.

There’s also the expected crowd-pleaser restaurant in the golf clubhouse (itself in the shell of an old castle on the grounds), an oysters-and-Champagne snack menu at the summer-only pool bar, and the inevitable Portuguese egg-yolk custard tarts at Café Central. More interesting are Bellvino, the “sommelier’s playground” where award-winning wine director Gonçalo Mendes leads private tastings and oversees the pairings for the gastronomic menu that highlights local fare like Iberian pork, air-dried beef, and goat’s and sheep’s-milk cheeses, and the all-day Ombria Kitchen, which serves refined takes on classic dishes, like seafood rice with monkfish and cockles presented in a clay pot.

A lavish, holistic spa with a thermal pool and eight treatment rooms is slated to open around March, but for now, slow-living activities lean more toward encounters with local artisans. Retired women from a nearby village teach guests how to braid reeds into basketry—the granddaughter of one of them, who is part of the hotel’s excellent, largely local staff, might come by to act as a translator—or guests can head out to meet the third-generation beekeepers from a local family apiary, suit up to examine the hives, and picnic on fresh cheeses and bread paired with the super-fresh honey.

And of course, for those who insist, the beach is just a half-hour drive away. Viceroy at Ombria Algarve may be offering a new way to experience southern Portugal, but it’s still connected to the coastal Algarve that’s lured visitors for generations.

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