21/06/2022
Vila Monte Farm House
Algarve, Portugal
Most people flying to Faro rush straight to the coast, to the clipped golf courses of Quinta do Lago, the wide beaches of Vale do Lobo, the hit of dark, chilly Atlantic blue on the horizon of any of the seaside sunspots. It’s a well-trodden path. More interesting, though, is to look the other way, back at the hills, to the farmland, where the manicured lawns and indentikit villas make way for scrubby olive groves and crumbling villages. Moncarapacho is less than half an hour from the airport but a million miles away in essence. Vila Monte has somehow managed to remain a bit of a secret, a mini estate of whitewashed buildings that blend Moorish architecture with Andalusian hacienda style. The grounds are exquisitely pretty: lush gardens, aromatic cypress trees, thick herbaceous borders, orange and fig trees, ripe fruit weighing down the branches. Inside, the look is Comporta-cool, thanks to Portuguese design maven Vera Iachia: rattan headboards, sisal rugs on stone floors, pergola-shaded terraces casting shadows on day beds. It’s a big enough place that staying put is perfectly possible – there are terrapin-filled ponds, a chef’s table set in the kitchen garden, two pools, a tennis court, a kids’ club and film nights with popcorn. But there are also trips with a local fisherman to harvest razor clams and oysters (eaten straight away on the boat, washed down with chilled white wine), and adventures exploring the wilder beaches east of Tavira, with their white sand dunes and warm water. At night, after wood-fired thin-crust pizzas and chocolate mousse served from a giant sharing bowl, children run wild across the fairy-lit lawn, collecting carob pods. Back in the room, a plate of freshly baked warm cookies awaits by the bed – a gesture that defines the place rather well.
