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With its quaint fishing villages, charming restaurants, gorgeous beaches, dramatic architecture, and lush greenery, Portugal is a destination for the senses. And now, it’s a destination for the eco-conscious traveler. In recent years, stylish, sustainable eco-villa resorts have popped up in the European country adding yet another reason it’s worth traveling for…

For Nature Lovers

Image Courtesy of Sublime Comporta

Sublime Comporta is a sublime 22-villa eco-resort shrouded in a canopy of cork and pines and surrounded by wild sand dunes, rice fields, and white-sand beaches in Comporta.Here villas come with private pools and fireplaces, free-standing tubs, and walk-in rain showers. The spa uses only locally sourced ingredients and certified essential and vegetable oils. Dine in the middle of the organic garden, connecting with the chef, earth, and stars. Spend days surfing, sailing, or simply walking the beach, taking time to enjoy dolphin and bird watching. 

Stylish and sustainable

Check into the bio-pool suites overlooking one of Europe’s largest biological pools, Oversized terraces enable guests to plunge into the ultra-fresh water, treated only with aquatic plants, never chemicals. Each suite is built in the architectural style of the cabanas in the nearby fishing village of Comporta, so they come complete with thatched roofs made from wood and straw. 

For Couples Getaways

Vila Epicurea in Serra d’Arrabida offers couples a sanctuary to slow down, indulge in healthy organic food, and ground back to themselves through nature, and views of the spectacular sea. There are three suites in the main house and two private eco-villas. Spend days walking the coastline, kayaking, or stand-up paddleboarding to hidden caves and isolated beaches, visiting nearby wineries, and indulging in holistic healing treatments like shiatsu, Swedish, ayurvedic, and deep-tissue massage.  

Image Courtesy Vila Epicurea

Stylish and sustainable

The rooms feature natural artworks and decor made by local artisans, the bedding is a sustainable blend of linen or cotton and the bath amenities are locally produced and organic. A highlight is the organic, vegetarian breakfast. We also love the free-standing yoga dome and infinity pool with endless views over the horizon.

For The Style Set

Image Courtesy of Santa Barbara Eco Beach Resort

Santa Barbara Eco Beach Resort on Sao Miguel Island in the Azores, also known as ‘green island,’ for its dense vegetation and stunning sea is the longtime dream of Joao Reis, an entrepreneur, and surfer, who fell in love with its black sand beach. Opened in 2015, the eco-resort features 30 villas and studios, all with living rooms and terraces and some with large carved-stone bathtubs and jacuzzis. The food is farm-fresh exotic, fused with locally grown organic ingredients and Indian, Thai, Korean, and Japanese influences.

Stylish and sustainable

The resort’s earthy design and minimalist architecture celebrates natural locally sourced materials such as the island’s cryptomeria, domestic cork, bamboo, and wood. Furniture is custom designed for the hotel, and repurposed like the restaurant’s chairs and tables made from reused iron and covered with vegetable fiber. We love the huge saltwater pool with submerged stone lounges overlooking the sea. And in room, bath and body products are by Voya, an organic Irish seaweed company. 

For The Soulful  

Image Courtesy of Luz Charming Houses

Luz Charming Houses, a private hotel village in Fatima, rests deep in a mystical forest where it is said, on a clear night, guests can hear the echo of a song from the town’s famous shrine. The exterior of each house features loose stone painted in traditional 19th-century terra rossa (earthy red) and baked lime stone. Wander past fruit trees, oaks and olives along meditative paths, stopping at the ‘Mother House,’ (which smells like natural wildflowers) to dine. Or for a more spiritual retreat, slip into the womb-like cave spa to experience aromatherapy and herbal treatments using local flora passed from generation to generation. 

Stylish and sustainable

So much about this healing enclave is unique and focused on traditional sustainable traditions and methods. The threshing floor (eira), originally built in the 1930s, is now used as an area where guests relax and look at the stars. Traditionally, thrashing floors were used to dry corn, wheat and other grains, and were a place family and neighbors gathered to socialize. A wood oven is still used to bake bread, which guests smother in local jams at breakfast. And rainwater is collected to reduce the flow from taps.

For Foodies

Image Courtesy of Craveiral Farm

Craveiral Farm, a luxurious farmhouse-style hotel in the Alentejo countryside is the dream of Lisbon lawyer Pedro Franca Pinto, who longed to create a sustainable farm on the site, a former carnation farm. Pinto opened his back-to-nature hotel in 2018, mindfully weaving the 38 one- and two-bedroom houses, in and out of the existing gnarled trees he refused to cut down. The luxury farmhouse is this fusion of simplicity and nature with Michelin-star cuisine, four swimming pools, a well-being center complete with a steam and sauna that offers Ayurvedic massage, and Lu Jong yoga sessions.

Stylish and sustainable

As expected, there is an organic garden that overflows with fresh ingredients that supply the kitchen and provide the inspiration behind Michelin star chef Alexandre Silva’s holistic culinary creations. There are also resident farm animals; pygmy goats, Vietnamese pigs, horses, donkeys, and chickens.