Sublime Comporta

For those who are not fully up to speed on the current trends and predilections among Portugal’s A-listers, let us shed a little light. Comporta, a casually chic beach destination located an hour’s drive south of Lisbon amid the rice fields and forests of the Tróia peninsula, has been garnering comparisons with Ibiza — and, perhaps more aptly, with Uruguay’s José Ignacio. There are high-end boutiques and rustic beach bars, beautiful people stretched out on chaises longues, restored fisherman’s cottages available for rent; it’s frequently been referred to as “Cool Comporta,” and only partially because alliteration is what headlines are made of.

With a name like Sublime Comporta, this high-end country retreat is hardly underselling itself. But the aesthetic is more classic, the look and feel more elegantly restrained, than you’d expect. The hotel is located on a 42-acre estate dotted with umbrella pines; the place is partly powered by solar energy. Accommodations span 34 rooms and suites across a handful of buildings, balancing a starkly modern first impression (concrete floors, crisp white and light gray color palette) with subtly cozy elements (soft cotton sheets, a bedside table made of petrified wood, a lived-in armchair). Each room has floor-to-ceiling windows and sliding glass doors that open onto private wood-planked patios. Villas and upper-tier suites extend the luxe atmosphere with private plunge pools, indoor/outdoor fireplaces, and visually striking textures.

Sem Porta (“Without Doors”) restaurant plates seasonal, hyperlocal interpretations of traditional Portuguese cuisine in a space just as minimalist as any other in the hotel — here, as in the guest rooms, the architecture seems designed, Frank Lloyd Wright-style, to draw the eye outdoors. And outdoors is where you’ll mostly want to be, of course, drinking wine around the sleek fire pit, or lounging beside the swimming pool, or wading into the Atlantic at the beach nearby.