Luxury Hotels Atlas / The Maison / Pestana

Pestana hotels

Palaces, a soap works and a casino hotel turn Portuguese buildings into very different stays.

Pestana carries a Madeiran family’s hotel tradition through Portugal and beyond, with addresses shaped by the buildings and landscapes they occupy. The collection ranges from Porto’s granite and converted Douro industrial buildings to Lisbon’s hills and Oscar Niemeyer’s casino hotel above Funchal Bay, following Manuel Pestana’s first opening in 1972.

11 Pestana hotels in 4 countries on the Luxury Hotels Atlas, each placed on the six LHA Tiers.

• Owned by Pestana Hotel Group
• Worldwide: About 110 operating hotels across Pestana Hotels & Resorts, Pestana Collection Hotels, Pousadas de Portugal, and Pestana CR7 as of 2026; vacation club, golf, casinos, and real estate are excluded. Pestana Group code of conduct
• On the atlas: 1 High Luxury, 8 Accessible Luxury, 2 Near Luxury

History

Manuel Pestana was born in 1919 in Ribeira Brava, a small parish west of Funchal, one of seven children in a household that lived off a banana plot. In 1945, at 26, he left for South Africa. He worked a fruit farm, opened a grocer, then a bottle store, and brought his wife Caridade out to join him. Dionísio was born in Johannesburg in 1952. The first big building came in 1964: the Prédio Funchal, an apartment and commercial block in Lourenço Marques, the city now called Maputo.

Timeline

• 1945 — Manuel Pestana leaves Ribeira Brava for South Africa.
• 1964 — Prédio Funchal is completed in Lourenço Marques, now Maputo.
• 1966 — He buys the Hotel Atlântico in Funchal, the site of the first hotel.
• 1972 — The Sheraton Madeira opens in November, the group's first hotel.
• 1976 — Dionísio takes the Madeira operation; Niemeyer's Funchal hotel opens.
• 1985 — The Madeira Beach Club begins selling weekly intervals, an early vacation-club idea in Europe.
• 1986 — Casino Park, designed by Oscar Niemeyer, becomes Pestana's second hotel, and gaming enters the group.
• 1991 — The group buys the Alcântara palace that will become Pestana Palace Lisboa.
• 1998 — Pestana Rovuma opens in Maputo, in the building the family had lost after 1974.
• 2001 — Pestana Palace Lisboa opens on 18 May; the group passes 5,000 rooms.
• 2003 — The Portuguese state grants Pestana the concession for Pousadas de Portugal.
• 2009 — Palácio do Freixo opens in October on the Douro; rooms under management pass 10,000.
• 2010 — Chelsea Bridge opens in London, the first Pestana in a European city outside Portugal.
• 2011 — Berlin Tiergarten opens on 16 May.
• 2015 — The portfolio is sorted into Pestana Hotels & Resorts, Pestana Collection, and Pousadas de Portugal.
• 2016 — A joint venture with Cristiano Ronaldo launches Pestana CR7; the Funchal house is inaugurated on 22 July.
• 2018 — A Brasileira opens in Porto; Amsterdam Riverside opens in the old Nieuwer-Amstel town hall.
• 2019 — Plaza Mayor opens in Madrid on 13 May.
• 2020 — Park Avenue opens in New York in February as the group's 100th hotel.
• 2022 — Douro Riverside opens on 10 April in a former soap and candle works.
• 2026 — Brussels, Courmayeur, Porto Santo, and Porto Covo join the map.

The houses to know

1. Pestana Palácio do Freixo, Porto, Portugal — Nasoni's Baroque palace on the Douro, the peak of the set.
2. Pestana Palace Lisboa Hotel & National Monument, Lisbon, Portugal — A cocoa fortune's palace on a hill above Alcântara, a national monument since 1997.
3. Pestana Collection Plaza Mayor, Madrid, Spain — The first hotel in the four-hundred-year life of the Plaza Mayor, inside the old meat depot.
4. Pestana Douro Riverside, Preferred Hotels & Resorts, Lifestyle, Porto, Portugal — An 1888 soap and candle works, rebuilt so the balconies read like a liner on the river.
5. Pestana Porto, A Brasileira, City Center & Heritage Building, Porto, Portugal — A 1903 coffee house, with the hotel stacked above the tiled facade.
6. Pestana Amsterdam Riverside, Amsterdam, Netherlands — The 1892 town hall of Nieuwer-Amstel, later the city archive, now a hotel on the Amstel.
7. Pestana Casino Park, Funchal, Portugal — Niemeyer's curves on the Funchal slope, a large Madeira house with the casino beside it.
8. Pestana Cidadela Cascais, Pousada & Art District, Cascais, Portugal — A night inside the Cascais fortress, with an art district in the same walls.
9. Pestana Vintage Porto Hotel & World Heritage Site, Porto, Portugal — Merchant houses on Praça da Ribeira, with the medieval wall still underfoot.
10. Pestana Park Avenue, New York, United States — A small Midtown house on East 39th Street, the group's hundredth hotel.

Newest openings

• Pestana Dunas Porto Santo (Porto Santo, Portugal) was inaugurated in August 2026: a beach eco-resort of 218 rooms, all-inclusive, in wooden villas beside the existing Pestana Porto Santo, with the two hotels sharing the walk between them. The ceremony drew the president of Madeira's regional government and the mayor of Porto Santo. Hotel page. Inauguration note.
• Le Massif Courmayeur (Courmayeur, Italy) joined Pestana Collection on 5 June 2026: the group's first hotel in Italy, an 80-room alpine house at 1,224 metres, designed by Fabrizio Gandolfo, already open since 2018 under Italian Hospitality Collection and a member of The Leading Hotels of the World. Pestana's account.
• Pestana Brussels Schuman (Brussels, Belgium) opened in February 2026: 150 rooms on Place Jean Rey, a four-star Hotels & Resorts house beside Parc Léopold, a short walk from the European Parliament and the Commission. The first Pestana in Belgium. Brussels Times.
• Pestana Porto Covo Village (Porto Covo, Portugal) opened in 2026: 174 tourist apartments on the Alentejo coast, a few minutes' walk from Praia Grande, low buildings, gardens, and pools. Reservations were already on sale by spring. Hotel page.

Opening next

• Pestana CR7 Paris (Paris, France), expected in the first half of 2027: under construction beside Gare d'Austerlitz, on the Left Bank, 210 rooms and a planted roof with a pool and a bar. About 60 million euros, a 50-50 investment with Cristiano Ronaldo, management with Pestana. The sixth CR7 hotel and the group's first in France, and the largest CR7 house yet. ECO, June 2026.
• Rome and Milan — Italy — opening dates unconfirmed — The group’s chief executive described both cities as its next European destinations in June 2026. Hotel names and opening years have not been confirmed in the sources reviewed.
• Second Porto Covo development — Porto Covo, Portugal — opening date unconfirmed — The group describes a further tourist development a few metres from the Village. A hotel name and opening year have not been confirmed in the sources reviewed.

Every Pestana hotel on the atlas

Portugal

• Pestana Palácio do Freixo — Porto · High Luxury
• Pestana Casino Park — Funchal · Accessible Luxury
• Pestana Cidadela Cascais, Pousada & Art District — Cascais · Accessible Luxury
• Pestana Douro Riverside, Preferred Hotels & Resorts, Lifestyle — Porto · Accessible Luxury
• Pestana Palace Lisboa Hotel & National Monument — Lisbon · Accessible Luxury
• Pestana Porto, A Brasileira, City Center & Heritage Building — Porto · Accessible Luxury
• Pestana Vintage Porto Hotel & World Heritage Site — Porto · Accessible Luxury
• Pestana Alvor Praia Beach & Golf Hotel — Alvor · Near Luxury

Netherlands

• Pestana Amsterdam Riverside — Amsterdam · Accessible Luxury

Spain

• Pestana Collection Plaza Mayor — Madrid · Accessible Luxury

United States

• Pestana Park Avenue — New York City · Near Luxury

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