Algarve, Portugal

Martinhal Sagres

Price per night from$207.65

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 (EUR191.06), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Style

Fabulous family affair

Setting

Wild western Algarve

A seaside sanctuary in Portugal's Algarve region, Martinhal Sagres makes the most of its location with big glass windows that showcase the beachcomber’s paradise just beyond the door. Natural materials dominate the decor – stone, timber, cork – creating a serene environment for admiring ocean views. This family-friendly hotel also has a pampering spa and outdoor pool on-site, with a beach and national park for quiet neighbours.

Smith Extra

Get this when you book through us:

A glass of Portuguese sparkling wine for each adult and one mocktail for each child, plus a 10 per cent discount on one massage

Facilities

Photos Martinhal Sagres facilities

Need to know

Rooms

Thirty-seven in the main hotel, plus 55 Ocean Houses, 28 Bay Houses, 39 Garden Houses and 10 Pinewoods Houses.

Check–Out

Noon, but flexible, subject to availability and a charge. Earliest check-in, 2pm.

Prices

Double rooms from £173.19 (€203), including tax at 6 per cent.

More details

Rates for Beach Rooms and Suites include breakfast. Other rooms can add it for €24 an adult a day and €12 a child a day. Half-board (breakfast and dinner) is €60 an adult a day; €30 for nine to 12 year olds, and free for under-nines.

At the hotel

Spa, sauna, gardens, gym, tennis courts, library and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: flatscreen TV, iPod dock, minibar with free bottled water and soft drinks.

Our favourite rooms

The Martinhal Village villas are ideal for families: each has two or three bedrooms, and they all have their own private kitchens.

Poolside

There are three: an outdoor heated pool set in a rectangular timber deck (which will have two metres between sunloungers), an indoor pool at the Village Square and an unheated pool at Club 98.

Spa

Tired parents will be rejuvenated in the Finisterra Spa, located near the Village Square. One of our favourite treatments involves being wrapped head-to-toe in giant strips of seaweed: the Voya Leaf Body Wrap treatment eliminates toxins and is a proven cellulite-buster. Plus, all oils use are ethically-sourced and made sustainably with local products so you can relax responsibly.

Packing tips

Tan-enhancing tennis whites for the hotel’s courts (sweatbands optional); heel-free shoes and the most stylish walking gear you can muster for the neighbouring national park.

Also

The hotel is part of Martinhal Sagres resort, so there are plenty of facilities: the Village Square is the resort’s reception and concierge hub, and also has two pools, a gym, sauna and steam rooms; Club 98 is the resort’s tennis and sports club.

Children

It would be hard to find a hotel that's better for family escapes. Extra beds (€60 a night) can be added to the Luxury Villas and Villa Mimosa, and the One-Bedroom Apartment can sleep two additional children (between three and 12) for free.

Best for

All ages; plenty of facilites for tots and activities for teens.

Recommended rooms

Book a Beach Suite or one of the Luxury Villas for more metres than you’ll know what to do with. One-Bedroom Apartments can sleep two extra children between three and 12 for free.

Crèche

There's a crèche for babies aged 6-23 months and kids clubs for ages 2-17.

Activities

What don't they have? Expect water sports aplenty, lots of walks in the national park, and the Blue room for downtime – it comes equipped with video games. During the summer, there's an activities camp for 13 to 17 year olds that includes kayaking, beach games, archery, slacklining, laser tag, windsurfing lessons and afternoons on the water slide. Sessions are split between the morning (10am to noon) and the afternoon (2.30pm to 4.30pm) with prices starting at €15 a person.

Swimming pool

A supervisor watches the pool during the pool’s opening hours.

Meals

Children can eat in the restaurants during normal opening hours. The staff will happily heat up baby milk and can also provide packed lunches.

Babysitting

Babysitting with hotel staff is from €16 an hour, on request only, subject to availability (there's a minimum of two hours a booking and you'll need to give 24 hours’ notice).

No need to pack

The hotel provides toiletries suited to tots, stair and bed- guards and sterilisers. The on-site market has lotions, nappies and baby food to buy.

Sustainability efforts

The hotel relies on solar power, and was built using natural materials; organic local produce features in the restaurant and the hotel is involved in conservation projects.

Food and Drink

Photos Martinhal Sagres food and drink

Top Table

When it’s clement, dine outside on O Terraço’s terrace; in cooler months, bag seats right by the window. Linger over a cocktail in the lounge, snuggled up on one of the enormous squashy sofas.

Dress Code

Nautical but nice: sea blue hues, strands of pearls, navy shirt and deck shoes. Dress up for O Terraço; As Dunas is more relaxed – swim wear and sarongs are the daytime norm.

Hotel restaurant

The hotel’s main restaurant O Terraço surveys the sea, with floor-to-ceiling windows, white linen-clad tables and timber decking. Traditional Portuguese recipes are inventively reinterpreted; try the signature starter of sea urchin with scrambled egg. There’s also As Dunas Beach Bar and Restaurant; casual by day and candlelit by night, it champions fresh fish and seafood at all times. On top of this you’ll find Os Gambozinos (pizza and pasta on the square) and the Beach Club bar (serving snacks, juices and ice creams to have straight on the sands). Back on the square there’s a juice bar, while Club 98 within the hotel’s tennis club also serves snacks and drinks. Because lots of guests are here with tots in tow, meals tend to be eaten early. The hotel has put some Covid-19 restrictions in place. During this time, As Dunas will serve à la carte breakfast (must be booked in advance), some light snacks and drinks, and seated lunch and dinner; Os Gambozinos will be open for pre-booked dinners; and Club 98 will serve drinks and ice-cream – delivery and takeaway options will be available too. 

Hotel bar

For drinks à deux, Lounge Bar O Terraço, attached to the main restaurant, is open from 11am until 11pm. The emphasis is on stylish comfort; a relaxed soundtrack of jazz, bossa nova and chilled beats, enormous sofas strewn with brightly coloured cushions, and plenty of design touches to revel in. Otherwise surf-themed M Bar, complete with a booth inside a full-size retro VW camper, is super family-friendly and open all day long, right the way from healthy breakfasts and light lunches to sundowners after a day by the pool and drinks after dark. The Pool Hangout bar is set steps from Martinhal Beach for post-tanning refreshments and all-day snacks.

Last orders

Drinks served until 11pm. Breakfast is served in O Terraço from 7.30am to 10.30am. The Mercado store will be open from 8am to 7pm.

Room service

If you’re staying in the main hotel, room service is offered 24 hours a day. Dishes range from the sophisticated (stuffed guinea fowl) to the straightforward and more kid-friendly (club sandwiches).

Location

Photos Martinhal Sagres location
Address
Martinhal Sagres
Quinta do Martinhal Apartado 54
Sagres
8650-908
Portugal

Just outside the surfers' paradise in the western Algarve, Martinhal Sagres overlooks the public sandy beach with which it shares its name, and is set in a small villa complex within acres of protected national parkland.

Planes

Faro airport is 115km (just under 90 minutes by car) from the hotel, served by British Airways (www.britishairways.com), Ryanair (www.ryanair.com) and EasyJet (www.easyjet.com). There are plenty of hire-car desks: book in advance in high season.

Trains

International rail services serve Lisbon Oriente, from where you can pick up a daily regional connection to Tunes railway station. It is 60km away (just over an hour's drive) from Martinhal Sagres resort.

Automobiles

If you want to explore the west-coast beaches of the Costa Vicentina and have a little independence, a hire car is a good idea. The resort town of Lagos is 25 minutes away by car to your east; the less touristy port of Sagres is less than 10 minutes' drive west – beyond that are the best surfing breaks and coves to explore. Guest parking is plentiful (and free). If you’re driving, you’ll be coming via the A22 motorway, also known as the Via do Infante. It’s a toll road so be sure to charge up your card (your hire-car company can do this for you).

Worth getting out of bed for

In Martinhal Sagres resort there are tennis courts, a multi-purpose sports field, gym, sauna and steam room, four swimming pools, table tennis and pool table, a den for teenagers equipped with video games and a spa with indulgent treatments using Voya products. There’s also a watersports centre at the beach, with windsurfing, paddling, kite surfing and kayaking facilities. Back on dry land, roam the national park next to the hotel by foot, or borrow mountain bikes. There are plenty of coastal paths to explore by eco-cart (effectively a go-kart with a sail). Sagres’ fishing port is popular for its seductive beaches; there are also the remains of a 17th-century fort and a lighthouse to admire.

Local restaurants

Dine on traditional local cuisine (shrimp soup, Aunt Gabriela’s rabbit, passionfruit cream and the ilk) on the covered terrace at Vila Velha at Rua Patrao Antonio Faustino. Bossa Nova at Avenida Comandante Matoso serves tasty wholewheat pizzas and other light nibbles.

Local bars

Stop for cocktails at Dromedário (+351 28 262 4219), the bar to Bossa Nova’s restaurant, and one of Sagres’ most popular nightspots.

Reviews

Photos Martinhal Sagres reviews

Anonymous review

Way, way down in its southwest corner, Portugal tapers to a tempestuous point, Cape St Vincent. Here, cliffs rise more than 200 feet straight up from the ocean churn, raptors coast rapturously on the penny-whistling wind, and ancient myths abound: the Greeks called this spot Ophiussa (Land of Serpents), and the Romans Promontorium Sacrum (or Holy Promontory), the place from which you could see the world’s edge – out there, where the sun sets. The Cape is the perfect place to run away to when you’re swept up in the riptide of a new passion – an abandoned place for a weekend of abandonment. Or – in our case – when you’re exhausted new parents. ‘Did you book the babysitter?’ asks Mr Smith, breaking the silence instilled by the landscape…

Yes, we have come to this remorseless but beautiful spot for a ménage-à-trois. Mr Smith and I are seeking a few hours to ourselves by candlelight, hoping for a good sound sleep by nightlight, and looking forward to playing with Baby Smith by daylight. We can do this here because the wild Cape is home to a very serene hotel, the Martinhal, pronounced Martinyal as we learn upon arriving. (Pronounce it in too English a way and it’s more evocative of a frumpy suburb of Birmingham.)

The premise behind the resort, a combination of self-catering houses and standard hotel rooms, is that being family-friendly doesn’t mean dowdy decor and a lack of luxe. Having requested the most baby-friendly accommodation, we’ve been booked into a self-catering Ocean house and soon find ourselves whirring down winding paths in a golf buggy to our room. It takes only a glance to see that Martinhal lives up to its intentions. It’s clear where interior designer Michael Sodeau drew his inspiration from when he fashioned the glass-enhanced interiors. It’s a canny move, given the Algarve wilderness that beckons from Martinhal Sagres’ terraces and floor-to-ceiling windows – a national park on one side, and a sandy beach on the other.

The hotel’s architecture is also in accord with the surroundings: low-rise timber-clad buildings covered in pebbles, with stone-paved paths leading to the various rooms. Don’t let the raw and rugged coastal setting mislead you – this is a thoroughly civilised affair, with an indulgent spa, a clutch of dining options, beachside bar and a watersports club. Guests get the best of both worlds: all the facilities of the Martinhal Sagres, with the privacy of the hotel’s sea-surveying boutique boudoirs.

A glance at our digs reveals two bedrooms and bathrooms on the ground floor that are smart, stylish, and practical: wicker light fittings, cork-based coffee tables, tub chairs and timber headboards, and an oceanic palette of sea greens and grey blues. The look is clean and contemporary, without being hard-edged. On the contrary, the organic shapes and well-placed shots of vibrant colour and pattern – oversized Designer’s Guild cushions on the sofa, a bright orange statement lamp over the dining table – emanate warmth.

But the top floor, an open-plan living space, is where the wow factor lies. Wall-to-wall sliding glass doors give onto a balcony from which we can see square miles of ocean. Wide, wild and windswept, the vista is hypnotic in the way that end-of-the-earth places often are.

We quickly unpack and set out to reconnoiter. The resort has four swimming pools, sports facilities aplenty, a village square (OK, a bit twee), and a tempting spa. It doesn’t take long to decide that the hotel pool is where we will spend the rest of the afternoon, happily semi-drowning in the Fatboy giant beanbag chairs that are a Martinhal trademark. The ever-present stiff breeze keeps us cool in the 28-degree heat, and we’re pleased to discover that the vast infinity edge pool is heated, which keeps Little Smith bobbing about happily for hours in his inflatable ring. That's the clever thing about Martinhal is that it is all things to everyone: families get the freedom and boring essentials (microwave, washing machine), and couples get a greater variety of facilities than a 38-room hotel could usually offer.

So, the babysitter turns up on the dot of 8.30pm, and we set off for the fine dining restaurant, O Terraço. Here we enjoy traditional Portuguese flavours given a thoroughly modern spin. Mr Smith has the vegetarian tasting menu which features as diverse ingredients as turnip tops and cheese with honey, punctuated with a refreshing lemon sorbet palate cleanser. I choose a tastebud-tingling codfish carpaccio followed by slow-cooked beef shank flavoured with orange and lemon. Guided by the sommelier, we romp through the Portuguese-only wine list, and revel (even Mr Smith!) in being transported back to the world we took for granted pre-baby.

I carry on the next day by heading for the Finisterra Spa, where I have a 90-minute facial that uses Voya Irish hand-harvested seaweed. Slimy green texture notwithstanding, the experience is extremely pleasant and relaxing. ‘You look so… so… so… well,’ says Mr Smith in a uncharacteristic bout of rhapsody. All that fresh sea air has clearly gone to his head.
 

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Price per night from $207.65