Bela Vista Hotel & Spa

Praia da Rocha is where Algarve mass tourism began, and most of the seafront reflects it. The exception is the mansion on the outcrop at the eastern end, which predates almost everything around it and still looks like what it is: a private house that happened to end up in the middle of a resort.

The name means beautiful view, and standing on the bluff looking down the length of the beach and its sandstone stacks explains it. The building stayed in the same family across the decades, which is why the restoration was a restoration rather than a gut. Original elements survive, including the bar in the main house, the azulejo panels and the carved dark wood staircase, set against contemporary furniture and some fairly bold modern decoration.

There are 38 rooms and suites, which at this end of the Algarve makes it unusually small. Vista, the restaurant, holds a Michelin star and works with Atlantic ingredients and a strong wine list. There is a spa, a pool on the terrace above the beach, and direct access down to the sand.

The Michelin Guide gave it two Keys, putting it in the top handful of hotels in the country, and it is a member of Relais & Châteaux.

The one thing to weigh is the setting. This is a genuinely characterful hotel on a beach that is not. Praia da Rocha is built up, lively and loud in season, and while the hotel sits above the strip on its own promontory, you are still in the middle of Portimão's main resort. If that trade is acceptable, few places in the region give you this much building for the money.

Note that sources differ on the construction date, variously given as late 19th century and 1918, with a period operating as a fifteen-room hotel from the 1930s. Faro airport is about an hour.