MoS2 Template Master - Algarve Boutique Hotel Quinta Bonita

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February 15 • 2015 The Irish Mail on Sunday More
A
fter a few years of addiction to Latin American
music on the Costa del
Sol, myself and my best
friend, with whom I
usually travel, decided
to break the holiday habit of some years
and instead headed as far west as we
could go on the Iberian peninsula – the
Lagos area in western Algarve, Portugal.
We were blessed to arrive when there
was a rare 30 degrees of brilliant October
sunshine, but like anything, the very best
pleasures in life have to be earned with
effort; they don’t fall into your lap.
And so it was – the one and only
­hiccup in a dreamy Portuguese weekend involved having to complain about
the sun of all things, when Carrentals/
drive4less forced us to stand queuing in
the blazing sunshine for more than an
hour to pick up our car, and another half
hour queue at drop-off (with a €94 sting
in the tail for ‘excess mileage’).
But the car was a godsend and absolutely vital for a trip to this part of the
world. It was also the source of some
hilarity when we got to our destination
just outside Lagos. Following the sign
for our hotel, Quinta Bonita, our challenge appeared: we were confronted
by a small, cobbled hill with a seriously
daunting gradient. On the third attempt,
our rented Citroen made it up and over
the hump and drew to a halt outside tall,
secure gates beautifully hidden away
from the outside world.
I
Anne Kennedy samples the
unspoilt, low-key charms of
the Algarve’s hidden coast
Stay at Quinta Bonita from €105 per room
per night including full buffet breakfast
and tea with cake daily. To book, visit
boutiquehotelalgarve.com. Carrentals.
co.uk is a useful car-hire comparison
website, searching up to 50 different car
hire suppliers, including Alamo, Avis,
Budget, Hertz, Holiday Autos and Sixt, in
more than 15,000 locations worldwide. A
three-day rental for an economy vehicle
from Faro Airport starts from €60.
surfer’s
paradise:
Almado beach
on the Costa
Vicentina
Perfect peace on the
very edge of Europe
nside was a secluded, cobbled
courtyard in front of a rather
fine two-storey house gleaming
white, with windows outlined in
sky-blue in the Portuguese tradition (to ward off evil spirits).
We were greeted by smiling, courteous staff and invited into an
elegant, spacious sitting room, dens. It’s a gardener’s delight,
all soft blue, cream and gold. filled with plants brought from
Amid much introducing and all her the world by her parents.
chatting, we were treated to a Around the swimming pool area
very welcome cool drink. It felt there are trees laden with fruit,
like arriving at the lovely home including a 400-year-old olive
of old friends.
tree. And, best of all, there is a
Up the cream marble stair- charming, walled Italian garden.
case, the bedroom and bathroom And everywhere little fountains;
are spacious and modern and fit- there is a constant soothing
ted out to a very high standard. sound of water.
We got the ‘gin and tonic’ terrace
Next morning after a truly heav– our private terrace which gets enly breakfast we set off for the
the evening sun.
little town of Sagres, which has an
Chantelle, who with her part- enormous fort and a lighthouse
ner Fraser owns the hotel, told perched high above the Atlantic,
us that it used to be her family’s and on to what’s billed as the
holiday home, and the personal western-most point on the contitouches shone through. She nent of Europe, Cape St Vincent.
invited us to take a stroll in the We then headed north on to a
2.5 acres of exotic, mature gar- very driveable dirt road and into
GETTING THERE
travel
Hideaway:
Quinta Bonita,
a perfect spot
for a gin and
tonic with
hosts Fraser
and Chantelle,
inset
a vast coastal area which
is designated a national
park and, oh joy. It is spectacularly beautiful, with no
hotels or high-rise buildings.
A few miles along on the Costa
Vicentina, we found Amado.
Below us was the most beautiful
beach I have ever seen. And, just
yards away, on a clifftop overlooking the fishing boats below,
is a rustic Portuguese restaurant,
Sitio do Forno, where we had a
lunch of superb tiger prawns.
Continuing north there is an
even bigger, glorious beach at
Bordeira. This is a popular surfing area and, in addition to the
big rolling Atlantic waves, it can
be a bit windy. But not when we
were there. The surfers told me
that most come
here in the summer, but the best
surfing is in winter.
Then it was back to
beautiful Quinta Bonita for afternoon
tea. After a lazy afternoon by the pool,
we headed to Lagos in search of some
fado music and dinner. Be warned,
you’ll need to book for fado evenings
before you arrive in Portugal. Next
sun trap: Temperatures of
30C in October
day we visit a sheltered little hamlet called Caldas de Monchique, a
haunting little place, all huge, bending trees, thermal springs, quiet, cool
and calm. It has a spiritual, otherworldly atmosphere. I almost don’t
want to tell anyone about it; I would
love it be a precious little secret.
And that was what we took away –
the break from the Costa del Sol gave
us an experience to treasure.