Tavira, Portugal

Palácio de Tavira

Price per night from$186.86

Price information

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

Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR160.96), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.

Palácio de Tavira Photos

Style

Heir of ease

Setting

Tiles and tides

Explore

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Boutique hotel Palácio de Tavira is every bit the Algarve aristocrat — elegant, poised and exuding a sense that life was always meant to be lived beautifully. Once the stately home of the noble Tavares family, the 18th-century palace now hums with new energy: rooftop pools for lazy afternoons, an ocean-inspired restaurant for zero-kilometre feasting, and rooms that balance Moorish heritage with locally spun textiles. Proof that old souls still throw the best slumber parties. 

Smith Extra

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A welcome cocktail each at the bar

Facilities

Photos Palácio de Tavira facilities

Need to know

Rooms

36, including one suite.

Check–Out

Noon; check-in is at 3pm. Both are flexible, on request and subject to availability.

More details

Rates include an à la carte breakfast of local dishes, including made-to-order eggs and pancakes.

Also

Palácio de Tavira is a listed building with lots of stairs, but a lift makes the restaurant and spa accessible. There are also two adapted rooms (a Palácio Junior Suite and a Medina Deluxe) for guests with limited mobility.

At the hotel

Courtyard, terraces, charged laundry service and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: TV, climate control, tea- and coffee-making kit, minibar, free bottled water, bathrobes, slippers and Per Purr bath products.

Our favourite rooms

If you’re here for the view, book one of the Palácio rooms overlooking the cobbled square — all pale oak, limestone, and sunlight pouring through full-length windows. For a more open-air experience, the Medina suites win with their private terraces and bronze outdoor showers.

Poolside

Perched above the terracotta rooftops, the twin plunge pools are made for leisurely Algarve afternoons — all shimmering tiles, sun-warmed stone and views that stretch to the sea.

Spa

Massages and facials are delivered across two all-white treatment rooms, with a relaxation area to lounge in and admire the courtyard (where a hot tub will soon be added). Also in the pipeline are a sauna and hammam.

Packing tips

Surrounded by glazed tiles and soft wool underfoot, you’ll soon be plotting which local artisan can ship a few pieces home.

Also

Consider the minibar a hyper-local tasting tour, filled with caramelised almonds and sea-salt chocolate from the neighbouring sweet shop, plus Algarve tipples.

Children

Welcome, but not especially catered for. The adjoining Attic rooms can be connected for families of four.

Food and Drink

Photos Palácio de Tavira food and drink

Top Table

Ask for a table by the window, where sunlight catches the sea-toned art on the walls and the scent of citrus drifts in from the terrace.

Dress Code

Take your cue from Vanessa’s woven waves: think tactile linens, coral tones and just enough texture to rival the walls.

Hotel restaurant

Mirsal, Palácio de Tavira’s elegant restaurant, feels like dining inside a coastal artwork with textured ocean-inspired pieces by Vanessa Barragão rippling across the walls. At the helm, local talent Chef Fábio Domingues channels his Michelin-honed finesse into zero-kilometre dishes that honour Algarve ingredients: golden olive oil drizzled over tomato gnocchi, slow-cooked lamb with couscous and yoghurt foam, oxtail croquettes that melt on contact, and line-caught sea bass in herb butter.

Hotel bar

Bar du Lua is made for lingering in candlelit corners, over cocktails laced with local fruits and herbs or a bottle of Portuguese wine.

Last orders

Breakfast is served from 7.30am to 10.30am; lunch is from 12.30pm to 2.30pm, and dinner is 6.30pm to 10pm.

Room service

Whenever the mood strikes, call down for round-the-clock room service (especially lovely if you have a terrace or balcony).

Location

Photos Palácio de Tavira location
Address
Palácio de Tavira
Praça Dr. António Padinha, n°35 & 37
Tavira
8800-637
Portugal

Along a lesser-trodden stretch of the eastern Algarve, Palácio de Tavira sits on a quiet square just a short stroll from the Gilão River.

Planes

Faro Airport is 30 minutes away by car.

Trains

Tavira’s railway station lies about one kilometre west of the old town and is a stop on the Algarve Line. You can board regional trains from Tavira to Faro; from here, connections to Lisbon take around five hours.

Automobiles

Driving out of Faro Airport is one of the easiest ways to unlock the Algarve’s hidden coves and hilltop villages — several major car-hire firms operate right from the terminal. There’s valet parking at the hotel.

Worth getting out of bed for

Tavira is the Algarve at its most authentic, with its church spires, terracotta rooftops and cobbled lanes where mornings smell of coffee and warm bread. Stroll across the Roman bridge and climb the castle walls for stretching views over the town and the shimmering Ria Formosa Nature Park beyond, a patchwork of salt pans and flamingo-dotted wetlands. Hop on the little ferry across the lagoon to Ilha de Tavira, a sweep of sand so golden you’ll wonder why it’s just you and a handful of locals, then drift back for sunset spritzes by the Gilão River. Beyond town, the eastern Algarve hides wildflower meadows, whitewashed villages and Moorish towns like Olhão and Vila Real de Santo António. 

Local restaurants

For a dinner to remember, Michelin-starred A Ver dazzles with creative, region-rooted cuisine and lovely terraces overlooking the Gilão River. Meanwhile, À Mesa pairs Portuguese tradition and modern flair — opt for one of the tasting menus for fresh cod, prawns or corvina in unexpected, artful combinations. 

Local cafés

The Table is an ultra-modern, minimalist coffee house serving cold sodas, iced matcha lattes and dark chocolate cookies on locally made ceramics.  

Local bars

Head over to Cabanas for natural wines, artisanal beers and herbal cocktails at Wild Thing (aptly named for the roaring Atlantic soundtrack, especially when sat out on the rooftop). 

Reviews

Photos Palácio de Tavira reviews

Anonymous review

By Mr & Mrs Smith

Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this noble residence in Tavira and unpacked their Santa Catarina ceramics and Marafada beer, a full account of their beach-hopping break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Palácio de Tavira in eastern Algarve… 

There are a few ways to reinvent an aristocrat: give her a rooftop pool, a dash of sea salt and a chef who knows his way around a fillet of sea bass. Palácio de Tavira, once home to the noble Tavares family, has swapped its formal airs for something softer — pale oak floors, oatmeal-glazed clay tiles and bronze outdoor showers made for slow mornings. Rooms layer Moorish lines with Burel wool rugs, woven in the Serra da Estrela mountains, and hues that echo Tavira’s terracotta rooftops and faded tiles. Between view-blessed dips and zero-kilometre dishes, you’ll soon slip into Tavira’s gentle rhythm. Sunlight slants through tall windows, the Gilão shimmers nearby and the passing of time is best measured in sips of local rosé. 

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Price per night from $186.86

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