Pensão Agrícola hotel - Tavira, Portugal

Skip the Algarve’s busy beach resorts and shack up at this rustic art-filled haven, surrounded by ancient olive groves and majestic carob trees in the rolling countryside of the Rio Formosa wildlife reserve, east of the city of Tavira. Owned by the Silvia Gomes family, this small farmhouse was built in the 1920s as a wedding present to their only daughter and continued as a working farm until 1970. After 40 years of neglect, the memories of more prosperous times have been preserved and incorporated by owner Rui Liberato de Sousa and business partner Nuno Ramos, who tasked Lisbon-based outfit Atelier Rua, landscape architect Maurice Levy and perfumer Lorenzo Lucena to breathe life into the dilapidated building. Thanks to the owners’ eye for detail and care to preserve precious curiosities, each room is a minimal delight, with carefully considered details such as industrial lamps from the 1940 and 50s, and pieces by local artists including Joana Astolfi and Márcio Vilela. Locally sourced food is served at the restaurant and organic soaps with olive oil and orange extract adorn the bathrooms.