Sleeps: From 2–4
Price: Suites from $144, villas from $167
Casa QuatroFrancisco Nogueira/Casa Quatro
Casa Quatro, Algarve
The fourth in this sleek series of authentic, live-like-a-local boltholes has just swung open its doors in one of the eastern Algarve’s prettiest towns, São Brás de Alportel. Sitting within the sound of the bells of the town’s 16th-century church, the house’s old walls house four bedrooms with en suite bathrooms, a rooftop terrace complete with a typically charming Algarvian chimney, and a gorgeous inner courtyard where a pool shimmers. The kitchen is separated from the sitting room by a fireplace for winter nights—an old vaulted stone ceiling above it. There is indoor and outdoor dining, the latter set back from the pool in the shade, and a cellar that the knowledgeable owners have put together to highlight the country’s best wines. Its skillful mix of old and new, its luxurious simplicity and its tangible sense of history make this the ideal place for those wanting to get under the skin of Portugal.
Sleeps: Up to 8
Price: From $1,676 per week
Villa Pedra, Coimbra
Villa Pedra, Coimbra
Arriving here, after winding upwards on narrow roads that cut through wildflower meadows, is like stumbling onto a Merchant Ivory film set, so perfectly formed is the stone hamlet lost in the hills of Serra de Sicó. When the car stops, silence falls, broken only by the whistle of the wind and the distant honking of geese. Victor Mineiro, the architect of these seven fantastically renovated cottages and adjoining restaurant (local olives and wine, tremendous coriander poached fish), will appear, all smiles and warmth, with Jack Russells Olivia and Jackie at his heels. He brims with enthusiasm for a project he has spent more than a decade working on, since he and partner Manuel Casal decided to breathe new life into the abandoned village. Gardens are lush and filled with blossom; tiny wild irises, deep purple, have taken root under olive branches. There is a swimming pool and a set of yellow chairs in the shade of a medlar tree. But it is not just picture-postcard prettiness, there is also soul within these old limestone walls. Inside the little ochre- colored houses, sunlight floods across highly polished stone floors. Portuguese porcelain, old and new, and Mineiro’s eclectic artwork sit side by side in the sitting rooms; mid-century furniture and ancient Berber rugs create a lived-in charm. Kitchens have juicers to squeeze the fresh oranges provided, the fridge is stocked with farmyard eggs and Rabaçal, possibly Portugal’s best cheese, which comes from the goats that you occasionally hear bleating across the hills, and every morning warm bread, baked in a wood-fired oven at dawn, is hung in a cloth bag on your front door. Why come here? Gather your favorite people and rent all the houses: It’s a brilliant take-the-whole-place set-up.
