Need to know
Rooms
Six houses with six suites altogether (all can be booked for exclusive use).
Check–Out
Noon. Earliest check-in, 2pm. Both are flexible, subject to availability; however, there are no early check-ins before 6am or late check-outs after 3pm.
More details
Rates include breakfast, a welcome basket of Portuguese goodies, homemade cookies, all laundry except dry-cleaning, daily seasonal fruit basket and handmade beach bag. Throughout July and August a minimum five-night stay is required.
Also
We love the subtle ways in which the line between indoors and outdoors is blurred here. For example, the custom scent by Lyn Harris (of Miller Harris and Perfumer H fame) which aims to capture and bottle the freshness of the pine, saltiness of the coast, richness of the wood and cacophony of herbs; the works by Lisboan artist Olga Sanina, for which she collected leaves for over a year; and the jars of clippings for herbal teas in your room.
Hotel closed
The hotel closes annually from early January to early February (dates change each year).
At the hotel
Herb gardens, vineyards, leafy grounds, gym, fibre-optic WiFi. In rooms: Furnished private patios, alfresco shower, free laundry service (excludes dry-cleaning), daily seasonal fruit basket, Bang & Olufsen speakers, small charged wine selection, shopping and beach bags, Chemex filter-coffee maker and a DeLonghi espresso machine with Lucaffé coffee, teas from Companhia Portugueza do Chá, daily housekeeping, custom scent by Lyn Harris, Aesop bath products, mosquito nets.
Our favourite rooms
The feels-like-home sweetness of Pa.te.os cuts through the Brutalism of its extraordinary architecture (designed by Manuel Aires Mateus); imagine percolating a morning cuppa in a James Turrell installation, or tucking into a tray of homemade biscuits while lost in a Richard Serra sculpture. The four symmetrical houses are monuments writ large on the landscape, but with plenty humanity: heated floors (warmed up before guests arrive on chilly days), floating fireplaces, cosy Scandi furnishings, handwoven linens, and even fresh herb-garden clippings for teas. And, outdoors and indoors seamlessly become one here; updating Islamic dar-style houses, and living up to the hotel’s name, patios are a central theme, with window walls opening up to make the whole living room a patio. There are skylights in cubicles and intimate alfresco showers, all-natural materials and earthy hues, and Lyn Harris’ (of Miller Harris perfume fame) custom scent is the essence of Alentejo’s landscape.
Poolside
Aesthetes will feel immense satisfaction on inspecting the pool – open to all guests – whose angles sit flush with the houses surrounding it and come to a point at a particularly agreeable panorama.
Spa
There’s no spa onsite, but the hotel has a masseur on call to come to your house and work out the stress that you’ll probably have forgotten about anyway by that point. Take it on your terrace, or in the living room with the window wall thrown open – either way, the garden fragrances on the breeze will work a hundred times harder than a scented candle. And work-outs are made all the more pleasant with an alfresco LifeStation gym.
Packing tips
Outdoorsiness is the whole point here, so bring shoes that can handle rough terrain, a wardrobe that’s not too precious and cover-ups for sudden chills. And, the architecture begs to be photographed with more than a phone camera, so bag your DSLR if you have one.
Also
With the landscape left as-is – ie rustic – it’s not the easiest to navigate for guests with mobility issues.
Children
Neutrally hued designer furnishings and crayon-toting little ones do not mix – Pa.te.os is for over-10s only, which helps when it comes to keeping the peace. However, children of all ages are allowed during any exclusive use stays.
Sustainability efforts
The hotel’s love for the land is one for the ages, largely because their efforts have ensured the sprawling Alentejo plot will stay a natural beauty for years to come. Property-developer owners Sofia and Miguel Charters picked this particular Serra da Grândola hillside due to their connection with the land, spending childhood summers here, and want guests to embrace that communion too. Whether you’re throwing open the sliding full-window walls, peering over the pool’s surrogate horizon, or looking up through your shower’s skylight, you’re fully immersed in the untouched rusticity. Building was done with as little intervention as possible, with paths on the property made using natural stone and a traditional method. Only three materials were used in construction: slate that surfaced while tilling the hotel vineyards (which now run on a hydroponic system), concrete and wood, of which many furnishings are made; linens are organic. Indigenous trees were planted to offset construction carbon, the hotel is 95 per cent plastic free, water is filtered and reused, energy closely managed and composting duly carried out. In the grounds, wastewater is being used to create a new lake and 50 bird houses have been installed; and the hotel’s beach bags and towels have been sewn and embroidered as part of an empowerment initiative providing work to Bangladeshi women. Plus, they’ve chosen DeLonghi coffee machines to cut down on discarded aluminium.
