The Bela Vista Hotel & Spa in Praia da Rocha, Portimão, has been chosen in the World Luxury Hotel Awards 2014 as the Best Boutique Luxury Hotel in Portugal.
This top award result from an evaluation of best practices in boutique hotels' facilities worldwide, with the main objective being to encourage and raise quality and service standards in the luxury end of the market where Portugal performs well.
The Bela Vista also was voted Travellers’ Choice 2013 by TripAdvisor readers and is one of the country’s top 25 luxury hotels.
The physical building helps as the hotel was a rather wonderful mansion built in the early C20th and converted into a 15 room hotel in 1934.
The Bela Vista quickly became one of the ‘in’ hotels that saw Praia da Rocha become a destination for wealthy and discerning clients.
The hotel now is a blend of old architecture and rather groovy design overseen by mother and daughter team Graça and Gracinha Viterbo from Viterbo Interior Design established in Portugal in 1971.
The hotel clearly has benefitted from this experienced agency and is now an intimate and luxurious boutique hotel as well as an historical property.
The clifftop location with massive sea views helps too, although this was not one of the award criteria.
The current owner’s recent relaunch of the hotel shows what can be done when an old ambiance is mixed with luxury and modern comforts and the judges seem to have agreed.
