Anantara Vilamoura Algarve Resort

We’ve been telling you something unusual is happening in Portuguese tourism, and it turns out the Bangkok-based Anantara hotel group agrees with us. They’ve got properties spanning Asia and the Middle East, but as a setting for their first European hotel they’ve chosen Portugal’s southernmost region. Anantara Vilamoura Algarve Resort isn’t exactly secluded — it’s adjacent to an Arnold Palmer–designed golf course, just a few minutes from the beaches and marina at Vilamoura and a few more from Faro. But that doesn’t stop it from delivering the luxe tranquility for which the Anantara name is so well known.

The look, in both the public spaces and the accommodations, is contemporary, and while you could call its slightly minimalist sensibility Asian-inspired, they’ve gone out of their way to use local materials and arts and crafts. The vast majority of the hotel’s 280 units are 40-square-meter Deluxe rooms, and unless you’re traveling with a party larger than three, it’s not easy to see why you’d need anything more.

Naturally, there’s an Anantara spa, as well as four pools, an elaborate kids’ program, and a beach club, connected to the resort by a regular shuttle service. There’s the Victoria Golf Course, home of the Portugal Masters, as well as half a dozen others within easy reach. Meanwhile three restaurants make the most of the Algarve’s much-vaunted seafood, while a handful of bars provide drinks for all occasions.