The best places to stay in Portugal: 2 Portuguese names feature in the best hotels and resorts in the world

CN Traveller has released its 2021 Gold List which details the best hotels and resorts in the world

Photo by CALIN STAN on Unsplash

14 January 2021, 17:02

There are two Portuguese names on the list of the best hotels and resorts in the world drawn up by Condé Nast Traveler. In its "Gold List" for 2021 in Europe, the publication includes the Albatroz, a five-star facility located in Cascais, and Santa Clara 1728 located in Lisbon, officially the best places to stay in Portugal.

"This is the annual rhapsody of our publishers' favourite hotels around the world. In this year's list, we have gone beyond places to stay, including a range of experiences that we consider truly exceptional; including cruises, flights, restaurants, bars and destinations, along with the deeply personal reasons why we love them", the magazine states. The test goes on to mention the pandemic, and states that the aforementioned elements were "the things we dreamed of in isolation."

In Europe, and Portugal to be more precise, the Condé Nast Traveler ranking includes the Albatroz in Cascais. The magazine highlights that although Cascais was once a whitewashed fishing village, the area traded this simple existence for "tangible glamour" long ago. The area is home to a wide range of beautiful 19th century villas, and in the heart of these villas, where large European families enjoyed escapes in the past in search of a cool breeze to escape the hot summer, is "the beloved Albatroz", writes the magazine. "Since it opened as an inn in the 1960s, it has flourished and become one of the first five star hotels in the city", it adds.

And the publication goes even further. It talks about the wonderful restaurant in the Albatroz which is the perfect place to "devour fleshy shrimps" and says that being there, with a "glass of wine in hand" and watching "boats on the waves" is very close to perfection.

Moving on to another wonderful place to stay in Portugal: Santa Clara 1728 in Lisbon also receives many outstanding compliments. Condé Nast states that "this 6 bedroom property in an old cultural district, on top of one of the 7 hills of Lisbon, removes the feeling of being a traveller in a foreign city", achieving what so many promise but fail to deliver: "to be a home away from home".