The Algarve
Area: 4,997 km²
Time zone: GMT

The name “Algarve” comes from the Arabic الغرب (al-ġarb), meaning “the west”, and now refers to the southernmost region of Portugal. It’s Portugal’s biggest and most important tourist region, with 5.2 million visitors in 2024.

The first thing that hits you as you arrive at the Viceroy at Ombria Algarve is the scent of rosemary. Upright and trailing varieties warmed by the midday sun greet us as we step out of our car. The resort is arranged like a village around the central praça, which is home to a cafe, restaurant and bar, and which hosts an outdoor cinema in the summer. A 30 metre clock tower sits a short walk to the north and houses the reception area, with rooms and apartments fanning out across the hillside.

It’s a different vision of the Algarve compared to what the term usually conjures up: white sand, azure sea, hulking glass-and-concrete mansions along the coast. Tourism accounted for approximately 11.9% of Portugal’s GDP in 2024, and in the Algarve around two-thirds of residents derive their income from tourism, either directly or indirectly. The Viceroy at Ombria Algarve instead sites itself in inland Portugal: a terrain of traditional sheep herding practices, ceramic tile studios, dusty walking paths and bee-loud glades. Designed to mimic a traditional Portuguese village, the hotel sits low in the landscape with far-reaching views of the hills and plains. Here, you are never more than a couple of minutes walk from a restaurant, pool or spa where the residents congregate. Yet the overall experience is calm, and the roads and paths that connect the accommodation are rarely busy.

The overall sense is of a place in dialogue with its surroundings. Little paths shoot off on asymmetrical routes; bikes are parked along the road. All of the experiences available to guests are led by locals whose families have lived in these hills for generations, and so we were invited to come into communication with a way of organising time and the landscape that belongs to a very old lineage. Here, among the olive and carob trees, tradition takes shape – as a form of peaceful, meaningful cultural wisdom. .

On our first day at the resort, we saw how the honey is harvested from the hives that dot the hills around the resort, painted variously sky blue, faded green, and butter yellow. Our hosts were a third generation family-run business close to the resort, and the hives are moved around the countryside according to the season by the two brothers that run the business.

The Algarve region of Portugal provides abundant resources for the local bees to harvest nearly year-round, so at different points the honey might have notes of heather, rosemary, eucalyptus, orange blossom and chestnut.

At the creative weaving workshop in Alte, Sardanas. Maria showed us how the blades of the esparto, a long, green-grey grass, are woven together into long braids. Then, these braids are woven into baskets and sewn together – note Maria’s daunting needle.

The hills are also populated with cork trees. Portugal is the world’s leading exporter of cork, responsible for over 60% of global exports. The spongy material we recognise as cork grows on the outside of the tree, and can be stripped off without harming the tree every ten years. Here, the cork goes to produce floor tiling and the material inside cricket balls. Only the highest grade are used for wine; a tree must be at least 38 years old before the cork can be used as a wine stopper.