Vila Vita Parc

Between Armação de Pêra and the pottery village of Porches, the Algarve's cliffs of orange sandstone drop to small coves, and above one of them 22 hectares of gardens, lawns and pools make up Vila Vita Parc. The Deyhle family of Stuttgart opened the resort in 1992 and still own it, which explains a long view on the plantings, the staff and the kitchen that a managed hotel rarely takes.

History

The resort opened in 1992 as a village of low white buildings in the Algarve manner, spread across the cliff top with its own cove below. It grew in stages over the following decades: villas with private pools, a wine cellar cut into the rock, a wellness building and further restaurants. In 2007 the Austrian chef Hans Neuner took over the kitchen of Ocean, the fine-dining restaurant on the cliff edge; Ocean won its first Michelin star in 2009 and its second in 2011, and has kept both since. The same family owns the Herdade dos Grous wine estate near Beja in the Alentejo, which supplies the resort with wine, olive oil and much of its meat. Vila Vita Parc is a member of The Leading Hotels of the World.

Architecture and design

The buildings are whitewashed, two or three storeys at most, with the chimneys, tiles and arches of the Algarve, and they sit in gardens of several hundred plant species that have had three decades to mature. Paths wind between lawns, pools and the villas, and a lift runs down the cliff to the cove. The resort is large enough that a map is handed out at check-in, and quiet enough that most of it is out of sight of the rest.

Rooms and suites

There are about 170 rooms, suites and villas. The rooms and suites fill the main buildings around the central gardens, with terraces onto the gardens or the sea; the villas, with two to four bedrooms and private pools, stand on the cliff and in the gardens' edges and are run with the resort's full service.

Dining

Ocean, with its two Michelin stars, serves Hans Neuner's tasting menus in a dining room on the cliff edge with the Atlantic below. The Adega serves Portuguese cooking in a rustic dining room; Arte Náutica is the resort's beach restaurant on the sands at Armação de Pêra; and the Cave de Vinhos, the wine cellar cut into the rock, hosts dinners among the bottles. In all there are around ten restaurants and bars, with the Herdade dos Grous wines running through every list.

Wellness

The Vila Vita Spa by Sisley occupies its own building with an indoor pool, a hydrotherapy circuit, treatment rooms and a gym. Outdoors there are several pools across the grounds, one of them heated, plus tennis courts, a pitch-and-putt course and the cove below the cliff.

Weddings and events

Vila Vita Parc is one of the Algarve's established wedding venues. Ceremonies take place on the cliff-top lawns with the sea behind, and receptions are held in the resort's clubhouse, on the terraces or in a marquee in the gardens. The resort also runs conferences and incentive groups, with meeting rooms in the clubhouse and the whole property available for exclusive use out of season.

Location

Porches is in the municipality of Lagoa, in the central Algarve. Faro airport is about 45 minutes by car, Armação de Pêra five minutes, Silves and its castle 20 minutes, and Lisbon about two and a half hours. There are few luxury hotels in the Algarve with this much ground, and none with a two-star kitchen on the cliff.