Imani Country House

Luxury – a word so overused these days, don’t you think? ‘Pass me the luxury double-chocolate Belgian biscuits, sweetheart.’ Or maybe: ‘Darling, do get some more kitchen roll – the extra-absorbent luxury range – when you’re at the supermarket.’ It’s a term that means something different to everyone – especially when it comes to travel. It once stipulated brass taps, fussy, formal service, staff in penguin tailcoats and rich over-the-top fabrics. For me, it’s something really simple. When it comes to deeming time away to be special, it means being able to close your eyes after holidaying at a certain spot and evoking a vivid recollection that inspires butterflies in the stomach and the urge to book a return trip.

So. I’m applying my lux-o-meter (patent pending) to Imani Country House, a farmhouse hotel in the Alentejo region of Portugal… Eyes are closed. The first memory that springs to mind is us lying by the perfectly circular pool in the grounds listening to the chirping of birds, the air is scented with oranges and donkeys are hee-hawing in a field beyond the sprawling, green – oh so green – lawn, with a backdrop of thick cedar forest. I scroll forward to the next slide in my mind. We’re relaxing on benches on a chequerboard terrace by the whitewashed, converted 100-year-old country house, watching our daughter swinging on the hammock. There’s no pressure to be anywhere, or do anything.

That, fellow peace-seekers, is the luxury of Imani – being surrounded by nature and detached from any of the usual trappings of life back home. Instead of the old-fashioned tropes of five-star travel there are simple, interestingly accessorised rooms (a piece of head-turning artwork here, a creative credenza there…), facing rows and rows of fruit trees. Hand-picked furnishings ensure this feels nothing like a traditional hotel – in addition to original beams and restored wooden floors you’ll spy curios such as a vintage telephone as well as a 19th-century Hornung & Møller piano. A small statue of a pig reminds us that they’re big on pork in this part of Portugal as well as delicious produce. Even the reception area is relaxed yet characterful – a little pug named Kitty was trotting around during our visit. 

This corner of Portugal, an hour’s drive from Lisbon, genuinely feels like your own little secret. The owners spent three years fashioning this rural property into a stylish boutique hotel, giving it contemporary characteristics such as concrete terraces for each ground-floor bedroom, and some of the suites have four-poster beds, others freestanding bath tubs. The result is that dream scenario: you feel like a houseguest in a stylish home rather than a customer. We were sad not to meet owners Mariana and Jose during our off-season stay, but we could feel their personal touch in the artfully arranged interiors. 

It’s sensible to suppress any desire to be a spoilt, demanding traveller who wants 24-hour room service or hi-tech facilities while staying at Imani. Low-key comfort is part of this ancient agricultural home’s deliberate charm. Here you’re invited to enjoy wood-burning fires and old-fashioned hospitality. The restaurant – more of a room that opens onto the terrace, with lots of white-clothed tables – only has a small menu; and when you tire of that, museum-city Évora, a colonnade-dotted Unesco World Heritage site dating back to Roman times, is just a 10-minute drive away. We took a recommendation of where to eat, but it doesn’t pass the closed-eyes test, and I can’t recall much about that. However, I do remember that we parked just outside the 15th-century walls and got to see a very impressive Roman temple. 

When I cast my mind back to the time we spent at Imani Country House, it’s not just flashbacks to the hotel’s most charming aspects, our romp through historical Évora or how the country air was sweetly perfumed that I appreciate – yes, the stand-out recollection is how Imani treated us to a feeling of calm in its pastoral setting, a truly rare thing. And, as the lux-o-meter’s needle swoops wildly, I have to ask, what greater luxury is there than that?