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Pestana Alvor Praia Beach & Golf Hotel
Alvor, Portugal · Pestana · Near Luxury
Faro got an airport and the jet set needed somewhere to land. In 1967 Alberto Cruz answered with this: a five-star hotel stepped along the cliff above Praia dos Tres Irmaos, on a coast that was still mostly fishing villages. Daciano da Costa did the grill room, the coffee shop and a curved lounge chair so good that it was revived in 2004 for Rem Koolhaas's Casa da Musica in Porto. Docomomo lists the building among the significant modern works of the Portuguese coast. The lift cut down through the cliff to the sand still runs.
- 215 rooms
- Opened 1967
- Architect: Alberto Cruz
- Interiors: Daciano da Costa
About Pestana Alvor Praia Beach & Golf Hotel
- Alberto Cruz designed the hotel with Francisco Pereira da Costa and it opened in 1967, one of the first luxury hotels of the Algarve tourism boom. Docomomo Iberico catalogues it as a key modern building.
- Daciano da Costa's Alvor chair, drawn for this hotel in the mid 1960s, was brought back in 2004 to furnish Rem Koolhaas's Casa da Musica in Porto.
- Guests arriving in 1967 walked into a lobby with a wooden ceiling, a marble staircase and a mother-of-pearl chandelier, the full jet-age idea of what the Algarve could be.
- A lift runs down through the cliff onto Praia dos Tres Irmaos, and it has been working since the hotel opened.
History
Alvor was a fishing town until Faro airport put the Algarve within a short flight of northern Europe. The Hotel Alvor-Praia, designed by the architect Alberto Cruz with Francisco Pereira da Costa, opened in 1967 on the cliff above Praia dos Tres Irmaos and became one of the first luxury hotels of the Algarve's tourism boom, alongside the Hotel Algarve at Praia da Rocha (1960) and the Hotel do Mar at Sesimbra (1963). Cruz organised the bedroom block along a central corridor so that the best rooms faced the beach with deep terraces, and set the building so that only the pool, the sand and a gentle cliff stand between it and the sea. Docomomo Iberico catalogues the building as a significant work of Portuguese modernism.
The interiors were the work of Daciano da Costa, who designed the coffee shop and the grill restaurant as self-contained rooms and drew the furniture for them. His Alvor chair, with its curved frame, was well enough regarded that it was revived in 2004 for Rem Koolhaas's Casa da Musica in Porto, in company with pieces he had made for the Gulbenkian Foundation and the Belem Cultural Centre. The original lobby paired a timber ceiling and a marble staircase with a mother-of-pearl chandelier.
The Pestana Hotel Group acquired the hotel in the 1990s and ran a history-minded renovation in the 2000s, with further refurbishment later. The cliff lift installed with the original building still carries guests down to the sand.
The setting
The hotel sits on the cliff at Praia dos Tres Irmaos, named for the rock stacks offshore, on the edge of Alvor rather than in it. At low tide you can walk the coves and sea caves through to Prainha. Alvor town, about twenty-five minutes on foot or six by car, keeps its cobbled lanes, a castle and a sixteenth-century church, and the riverfront is still lined with seafood restaurants. The Alvor estuary behind the town is a birdwatching reserve, the Roman ruins at Abicada are a short drive north, Portimao is around fifteen minutes away, and the golf courses that followed Penina in the 1960s are scattered within a twenty-minute radius.
Restaurants and bars
- Almofariz Restaurant — Restaurant
- Sul Restaurant — Restaurant
Experiences
- Beach access — Proximity to the sea and direct connection to the beach allow a wide range of experiences.
- Golf — 8 golf courses to choose from within a 15km radius.
- Tennis — 5 tennis courts available to guests.
Amenities
- Direct access to the beach
- Parking
- Room service
- Tennis court
- 2 restaurants
- 2 bars
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