Cascais, Portugal

Farol Hotel

Price per night from$174.31

Price information

If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR160.38), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Slick and fashionable

Setting

Local to Lisbon

Farol Hotel is a stylishly designed Cascais hotel perched on an outcrop of rock a few feet from the Atlantic Ocean. This contemporary crib marries a traditional Portuguese villa with a modern wing encasing a slick restaurant and additional rooms. The blend of old and new is a triumph. While the exterior is stark white and minimalist, the interior is wood-panelled and luxurious; the result is a Pandora’s box. The design savvy extends to the grounds, which ooze Café del Mar cool.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A bottle of Portuguese wine and fruit basket in your room on arrival

Facilities

Photos Farol Hotel facilities

Need to know

Rooms

33, including eight rooms styled by different fashion designers and four Junior Suites.

Check–Out

Noon, but ask for flexibility. Earliest-check in is 3pm.

Prices

Double rooms from £145.38 (€170), including tax at 6 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional local city tax of €1.00 per person per night on check-out.

More details

Rates include American breakfast buffet.

Also

Each room is individually designed; its location and view will vary, depending on the room. If you have a preference for a specific style, room or location, please contact the hotel once you have booked.

At the hotel

Outdoor swimming pool, massages on request in your room, free WiFi throughout. In rooms: TV and designer rooms feature Nespresso machines.

Our favourite rooms

For a modern influence, plump for the new wing; for high ceilings and more space, go for the old building. Ask for a balcony overlooking the sea. Room 216, black and gold, is very rock ’n’ roll. Room 215, all-white, is sleek with breathtaking views

Poolside

The saltwater pool and secluded, minimalist sun terrace overlook the sea. The pool is open every year from late April or early May until late October.

Children

Welcome, but the hotel’s location on a rocky shoreline could be considered hazardous for smaller children. Baby cots and extra beds are free for under-6s, €70 a night for 7–11 year olds and €100 a night for over-12s.

Food and Drink

Photos Farol Hotel food and drink

Top Table

Outside on the terrace.

Dress Code

Gloss up for the evening.

Hotel restaurant

The Mix is modern and airy, with three distinct dining areas and floor-to-ceiling windows affording you a greedy view out onto the deck, and rocky coast beyond.

Hotel bar

The minimalist On the Rocks lounge bar is cosy, with doors opening on to the terrace, and gives you the feeling of floating on water.

Last orders

Food: 11pm; drinks 2am.

Room service

7am–11pm from the restaurant menu. At other times there’s a snack menu with sandwiches, salads and desserts.

Location

Photos Farol Hotel location
Address
Farol Hotel
7 Avenida Rei Humberto II de Itália
Cascais
2750-461
Portugal

Planes

Lisbon’s Portela Airport (www.ana.pt) is 38 kilometres from the hotel; the drive should take around half an hour.

Trains

From London, you can take the Eurostar (www.eurostar.com) and then connect with a Caminhos de Ferro Portugueses (the Portuguese national rail train service) train to Cascais and other destinations in Portugal (www.cp.pt).

Automobiles

The A5 and the A16 are the main roads that lead into Cascais. Hire cars are available from Lisbon airport and private shuttles are also available upon request.

Worth getting out of bed for

Local restaurants

For Italian flavours, oysters and sushi, La Villa on Praia do Tamariz (+351 21 468 0033) is a chic eatery, 15 minutes away by car; ask for table 20 by the window for a panoramic sea view. Or for similar fare, but more humble price tags, try Pizzeria Lucullus (+351 21 484 4709). Refugio da Roca on Estrada do Cabo da Roca, Azoia is where to head for seafood at sunset. Order a seafood platter and a few bottles of wine at Mar do Guincho on Estrada do Guincho. The decor is not what you go for, but there’s plenty of eye candy in the form of seafood tanks and view of the beach. Just down the road, Furnas do Guincho is ideal for Portuguese meat and fish specialities. A short distance from Guincho beach, and with an ocean view as perfect as the fresh seafood, Porto de Santa Maria is one place where you'll definitely want to reserve a window table.

Reviews

Photos Farol Hotel reviews
Juliet Kinsman

Anonymous review

By Juliet Kinsman, On-the-go editor

‘Mouth of hell’. Say what? The literal translation of the destination to which we are heading isn’t entirely enticing. Having just driven past the most stunning stretch of Portugal's unfettered westernmost coastline, where wide white-sand dunes stretch to Atlantic waves, it doesn't seem so fitting either.

Swerving into Cascais itself, we soon pootle past a lemon-coloured 15th-century fairytale castle complete with a pointy turret. Next to Cidadela de Cascais, peacocks roam the surrounding parkland. At the end of this pedestrianised seaside avenue we see Farol Hotel. Right on cue Mr Smith announces ‘Are you sure you've got Cascais' meaning right? Because the next time you tell me to go to hell, I'm heading straight here.’ He’s a card that Mr Smith. But he's right: it does look distinctly like a gateway to good times.

Farol is a traditional 19th-century Portuguese villa with a modern extension perched on a rocky outcrop on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. Parking up alongside shiny Mercs, we roll out of our slightly shabby rental car wondering if we should excuse ourselves with some sort of bumper sticker (although ‘My other car’s a Honda Civic Hybrid’ might not have that much cachet in this distinguished Portuguese town).

Truth be, I can be wary of establishments that choose to use words such as ‘design’ in their name – pointing out such a trait shouldn’t be necessary. But here it adds a playfulness to what otherwise looks at quick glance like a grand seaside home. In the lobby, painted portraits of supermodels are the first indication of the private owners' appreciation of the fashion world. We’re reminded by the friendly receptionist that we’ve plumped for one of the suites that were originally decorated by Portuguese fashion designers. Of the 34 rooms, 10 had their interiors concocted by names such as Ana Salazar and José Antonio Tenente.

When the designer behind our simple, white sea-view abode mapped out its look, perhaps she was riding the Noughties' minimalist wave – it contrasts refreshingly with the hotel's more flamboyant areas. The restraint lets the view do the loudest talking: which is appreciated when you have a panorama of the Atlantic to appreciate.

We are here in spring, but the sun is in a summery mood and it shines high in a deep blue cloudless sky, luring us poolside. Padding down through the hotel’s plush black-carpeted hallways treats us to a swagger through the cocktail lounge (complete with actual ashtrays – retro!). Doors are open to the all-black private dining room where huge eccentric muslin-wrapped chandeliers float above like exotic sea creatures. We squeeze pass a throng of glamorous Russians enthusiastically smoking away, out onto the pared-down concrete-floored decking that exudes contemporary cool. The old-fashioned lighthouse and Portuguese villa of Santa Marta, just visible around the corner near the Museu Condes de Castro, remind us of we're in Portugal.

The soundtrack of the waves on the rocks below (best enjoyed from a four-poster lounger) certainly helps guests take thoughts down a gear. But if there's any danger of becoming too lethargic a bracing dip in the pool will slap you awake. It is hard to prise ourselves away from the Café del Mar vibe at all, but the tantalising platters of sushi we’ve seen being served are like Getty Images come to life and are making us hungry. Saving our appetite for Japanese cuisine until the next night when we're booked into the in-house restaurant, we hit that coastal road again.

Admiring those windswept beaches, we take a table in the glass-fronted Furnas do Guincho, where we're presented with a plate of rubbery long goose barnacles seconds after sitting. If I'd been asked to visualise a sci-fi cartoon called Mouth of Hell, these terrifying rubbery orange tubes might have been what I'd visualise being eaten. Thankfully, after we snap open the crustacea's leathery jackets, their shiny salty fishiness prove surprisingly moreish.

Our next meal is more conventional, but delicious too. Scrambled eggs and coffee from the mega buffet in the hotel's voyeuristic Atlantic-edge restaurant has us revved up to explore. We start with a stroll around the Parque Marechal Carmona, and then nosey around the town’s beaches. Busy, but ideal for people watching, there's no doubt we're in Portugal as we watch young families, teenagers and pensioners happily claiming their squares in the sand.

It’s a pretty, chocolate-box town that gets cooling sea breezes – no wonder Portugal’s royal family liked to retreat here to Cascais from the capital during the sweltering summer months. It remains just as popular today with couples and families from Lisbon, eager for a dose of sea air. Before we’d come away we’d weighed up whether to spend a long weekend in a beach resort, or book a European city break a whirl at Farol Design Hotel has been the ideal compromise.

Our second and final evening feels like a significant anniversary (helped along by prices usually reserved for special occasions). It's so popular that service is not so snappy, but we barely care once the local well-priced vinho verde we've been recommended starts to slip down. Those cheeky Portuguese winemakers are known to save the best stuff to serve on home turf. Thankfully the secret is out about all this magnificent coastline has to offer, and Farol Design Hotel is a reliable bet for a cultured coastal mini-break.

 

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Price per night from $174.31