Luxury Hotels Atlas / Places / Portugal / Portimão / Penina Hotel & Golf Resort
Penina Hotel & Golf Resort
Portimão, Portugal · Independent · Near Luxury
In 1966 Sir Henry Cotton, three times an Open champion, took a flat sheet of rice paddy outside Portimao and planted hundreds of thousands of trees across it. What grew was the first 18-hole championship course in the Algarve, and beside it the first five-star hotel the region had ever had, designed by Leonardo de Castro Freire and opened that November by President Americo Tomas. The old drainage ditches still work as hazards. The Portuguese Open has come back ten times, and the course carries Cotton's name.
- 188 rooms
- Opened 1966
- Architect: Leonardo de Castro Freire
About Penina Hotel & Golf Resort
- Sir Henry Cotton built the Algarve's first 18-hole course here on former rice paddies, supervising the planting of hundreds of thousands of trees and keeping the farm's drainage ditches as hazards.
- President Americo Tomas struck the opening shot in November 1966, and the hotel still keeps the ball and club he used.
- Cotton liked Penina enough to stay: he went on to lay out three more courses in the Algarve and is remembered locally as the father of Portuguese golf.
- The Sir Henry Cotton Championship Course has hosted the Portuguese Open ten times, most recently in 2006.
History
Penina began as a bet on a flat, wet field. John Stilwell, founder and administrator of Sociedade Turistica da Penina, assembled a team in the mid 1960s to build a golf resort on 360 acres of former rice paddy between Portimao and Alvor: the Portuguese architect Leonardo de Castro Freire on the hotel, the Conde de Lencastre on the interiors, the hotelier Jack Gauer to run it, and Sir Henry Cotton, winner of three Open Championships, on the course.
Cotton had the hardest job. The ground was dead flat and had grown rice, so he planted trees in enormous numbers (the resort's own accounts say 360,000, other tellings put it closer to 400,000), cut streams and lakes, and left the farm's drainage ditches in play as hazards. The course was ready on 1 June 1966. That November, President Americo Tomas formally opened the hotel and struck the first shot; the ball and club are still kept on the property.
The hotel was the first five-star in the Algarve and the course the region's first 18 holes, and between them they started the golf boom that reshaped the whole south coast. Cotton went on to design three more Algarve courses. The championship layout now carries his name and has hosted the Portuguese Open ten times, most recently in 2006. The resort is owned and run by JJW Hotels & Resorts, with a second nine-hole Resort Course alongside the championship track.
The setting
Penina sits inland from the coast on the Alvor estuary plain, roughly midway between Portimao and Alvor, which is why there was flat farmland here to convert in the first place. The 360-acre estate is effectively its own landscape: Cotton's planting turned rice fields into pine and eucalyptus woodland, and the Serra de Monchique rises behind to the north. Praia da Rocha and the estuary beaches are a short drive south, and the resort runs a beach club at Dunas. Alvor itself is an old fishing town with a castle and a sixteenth-century church; Faro airport, which made this coast reachable in the first place, is about an hour east.
Restaurants and bars
- Sagres — Restaurant · Buffet
- Le Grill — Restaurant · Fine dining
- L'Arlecchino — Restaurant · Italian
- The Sir Henry Cotton Club — Restaurant
- Dunas Beach Restaurant — Poolside · Snacks & Tapas
- Bar Monchique — Bar
- Spikes Bar — Bar · Tapas & Wines
Experiences
- Golf at Sir Henry Cotton Championship Golf Course and Resort Golf Course — Golf courses, including the Algarve's first 18-hole Championship course; driving range, putting green, pro shop and lessons.
- Beach concession at Alvor Beach — Free use of private concession area with sunbeds, shades and towels for hotel guests.
Amenities
- Air conditioning
- Nespresso coffee making facilities
- Mini bar
- Safety deposit box
- Balcony
- Bathrobe and slippers
- Broadband internet
- Interactive national and satellite television
- Wi-fi internet access
- Live entertainment
- 24-hour security
- 24-hour concierge service
- Laundry service / Dry cleaning service
- Luggage storage
- Free shuttle service to the beach (seasonal)
- Three golf courses
Open Penina Hotel & Golf Resort in the atlas for live weekend rates, photos, and the full folio.
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