Luxury Hotels Atlas / Places / Portugal / Albufeira / Pine Cliffs Village
Pine Cliffs Village
Albufeira, Portugal · Independent · Accessible Luxury
The townhouses came first. They opened in 1992 at the same time as the hotel, which makes the Village the oldest place to sleep at Pine Cliffs, and it is still laid out as a small Algarvian town in the middle of a pine forest: Moorish-influenced houses along garden lanes in the heart of the estate, each with a patio or a balcony, a kitchen and a dining room of its own. Forty-five townhouses, plus apartments, contemporary terraces and villas. The tilework here is enough of a story that the resort runs a guided tour of it.
- Opened 1992
- Neighborhood: Pinhal do Concelho
About Pine Cliffs Village
- One German guest has taken his holidays at Pine Cliffs for thirty-four years running. In August 2026, believing it would be his last visit, he hosted a dinner for the staff who had looked after him.
- The contemporary Pine Cliffs Terraces townhouses, usually counted as part of the Village, were on sale in 2014 at 1,275,000 euros for a two-bedroom and 1,650,000 for a three.
- Aníbal Silvestre arrived on 15 June 1991, aged twenty-two and more than a year before opening, and spent that year hiring people and building the teams that would run the place.
- Porto Pirata, the pirate-ship children's village on the estate, is billed as the largest kids' club in the Algarve.
History
When Pine Cliffs opened in August 1992, two things opened together: the hotel, then the Sheraton Algarve, and the Pine Cliffs Townhouses. Those townhouses are the core of what is now called Pine Cliffs Village, which makes this the oldest accommodation on an estate that kept building for another twenty-six years. The architecture followed the hotel's lead, traditional Portuguese with the Moorish inflection the Algarve has carried since the Moors held the region, and it was arranged as a village rather than a block: houses along lanes, gardens and pines between them, patios and balconies instead of corridors.
The Village grew as the resort grew. Counts published in the 2010s put it at forty-five townhouses, fourteen apartments and seven private villas, and the contemporary Pine Cliffs Terraces townhouses are usually folded in with it. Nine of the Terraces were redecorated in 2014, part of a run of investment that also brought a 50 million euro, eighteen-month overhaul of the hotel and the 1,000 square metre Serenity Spa, finished in June 2016. Today the Village sells three styles side by side: the original Algarve townhouses, the sleeker terraces, and light-filled villas.
The estate belongs to United Investments Portugal, the Portuguese arm of the Kuwaiti Al-Bahar group, and is run by the resort itself. Only the Hotel, the Ocean Suites and the Residence at Pine Cliffs carry The Luxury Collection name. Village guests use everything else on the estate regardless: the Hawtree golf course, Serenity, the Annabel Croft tennis and padel academies, the Porto Pirata children's village, fifteen restaurants and bars, and the lift down the cliff to the beach.
The setting
The Village sits in the middle of the estate rather than on its edge, which is the trade: no ocean view from most of the houses, but the shortest walk to almost everything. Pine Cliffs covers more than 70 hectares of pine at Pinhal do Concelho, on the clifftop above the western end of Praia da Falésia, and you come in along the Estrada das Açoteias toward Olhos de Água through an entrance arch that gives nothing away. From the cliff edge a panoramic lift and a wooden walkway drop you onto six kilometres of sand below red and ochre cliffs. East along the water is Olhos de Água, still recognisably a fishing village, where freshwater springs break through the rocks at low tide and gave the place its name. West along the sand it is five kilometres to Vilamoura marina. Albufeira is seven kilometres by road, Faro airport about thirty minutes.
Experiences
- Pine Cliffs Golf Course & Academy — Golf course and academy available to guests.
- Annabel Croft Tennis Academy — Tennis academy available to guests.
- Porto Pirata — Kids village.
- Adventure Park — Adventure park within the resort.
Amenities
- Fully equipped kitchen
- Furnished balcony or patio
- Washer and dryer
- Air-conditioned
- Wireless internet, complimentary
- Coffee/tea maker
- Complimentary water
- In-room safe for a fee
- 24-hour security
- Concierge service
- 24-hour room service
- Housekeeping
- Evening turndown service
- Kids club
Open Pine Cliffs Village in the atlas for live weekend rates, photos, and the full folio.
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