White Exclusive Suites and Villas

Beautiful 18th-century summer house built on the cliffs facing the ocean. The tiled patio has plenty of seats and a boma is ready to make a fire. — (Image credit: TBC)

At last, this archipelago of islands, famous for their natural beauty, which lie scattered in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean have somewhere to stay which does them justice.

On São Miguel, the largest of the nine islands, an 18th-century summer house clinging to the cliff tops on its southern shores has been flawlessly renovated to house nine suites and one villa. Each one brims with a sense of place from whitewashed walls studded with black basalt to views over the ocean. Décor draws on the island’s natural colours with hues of grey, a dominance of white, driftwood, large flagstones and doors wrought locally in iron embracing at its core, simplicity, with the added luxury of space.

Food is home cooking at its best: the island’s speciality of limpets, with garlic parsley and lime; freshly caught scorpion fish wrapped in melt-in-the mouth tempura, a carpaccio of the intensely sweet, local, pineapple and mineral-rich wine from neighbouring island Pico, where vines grow low between the volcanic rocks.

But it is the view that reigns supreme. Beyond the infinity pool cut along the very edge of the cliff is the blue, boundless, ocean shimmering with promise.

Lounge area with a white couch with white and light blue pillows on top of it. It has a modern coffee table and in the corner is a high round table with two white chairs.

Bedroom with bed and white linen. There is a built-in dresses with drawers on the one side, a tapestry on the wall behind the bed and a aluminium door leading outside.

The deck is right above the sea and it has seating with a stunning view

Kitchen area with wooden tables and chairs. Woven lights hanging from the ceiling and a bar in the one corner

ADDRESS

Rua Rocha Quebrada, 10

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Mary Lussiana is a passionate hotel-lover and freelance travel writer contributing to many of the UK’s best magazines and newspapers. A mother of three, she has lived in Portugal's sunny south since this century began, and continues to live there with her husband, their yellow Labrador, Bellini and returning children.