Pousada Palacio de Estoi, Small Luxury Hotel - Monument Hotel

Pousada Palacio de Estoi, Small Luxury Hotel - Monument Hotel

Estoi is a small village roughly ten kilometres from Faro, and at its centre stands an 18th-century palace that Pestana opened as a 63-room hotel in 2009, keeping the wall paintings and antique furnishings while updating the rooms with modern comforts. It is the only palace hotel in the Algarve, wrapped in French-style gardens guests can wander straight after checking in, a detail no beach resort along this coast can match. Inside, the mood stays formal without feeling stiff: a chapel, a terrace over the grounds, and a restaurant serving traditional Algarve dishes. There is an outdoor pool set among the gardens and a second, indoor pool for cooler months, plus a spa with sauna, steam room and massage treatments, and a gym for anyone who wants to counter the palace's pace with a workout. Families travelling together will find a children's pool and a kids club, and small pets are welcome for a thirty-euro surcharge per stay. A business center and conference hall exist, but this reads less like a meetings hotel and more like a place for people who want architecture and quiet over a lively strip. Faro's airport is a fourteen-minute drive away, so the setting feels remote without being inconvenient, and the staff cover English, Spanish, Portuguese and Turkish. Check-in runs from 3pm, check-out by noon. Anyone chasing nightlife within walking distance, or a beachfront balcony, should look elsewhere. Anyone who wants to sleep inside a piece of Portuguese history, gardens included, will find little else like it in the region. The only palace hotel in the Algarve sits inland in Estoi, ten kilometres from Faro, wrapped in French-style gardens. Expect indoor and outdoor pools, a spa and a kids club rather than a beachfront strip, with small pets welcome for a fee. Check-in is from 3pm, check-out by noon.