Casa Mãe

Lagos has a walled old town that survived the 1755 earthquake better than most of the Algarve, and it remains a working town rather than a resort strip. Casa Mãe sits inside it, on a plot large enough to hold gardens, which in a historic centre is unusual.

The property is built around a 19th-century house with contemporary buildings and terraces added around it, so the accommodation ranges from rooms in the old structure to newer garden-facing categories. There are 34 rooms in total plus a separate villa, which puts it at the larger end of what still counts as small.

The gardens are the reason it works. There is a pool, terraces to sit out on, and an organic farm that supplies the kitchen, along with a restaurant, a bar and a shop selling what the property makes. The design leans Mediterranean and unfussy, with a lot of white, natural materials and planting doing the decorating.

The position is the practical argument. You can walk to the restaurants, bars and market of the old town, to the marina, and to the boats that run out to the caves and grottoes at Ponta da Piedade. The nearest beaches, Batata and Estudantes, are five minutes on foot; Dona Ana and Camilo are a longer walk or a short drive.

Lagos is busy in July and August and quiet the rest of the year. Faro airport is around an hour, Portimão twenty-five minutes.