PT-A-Sud

PT-A-Sud sits off the Estrada das Bicas in the pine country behind Comporta, which is where the good houses here have always been — close enough to the beach to walk it in the evening, far enough back to keep the silence. Five bedrooms, twelve guests.

The pool is heated and private, in a garden that has been left to look like the landscape rather than fight it. Inside there is an indoor fireplace for the surprisingly cold Atlantic evenings, a wine cooler, air conditioning for August, and a laptop-friendly workspace for the stays that run longer than a week.

Comporta's appeal is specific and easy to miss if you arrive expecting the Algarve. The beaches are wide, empty and cold; the villages are low, white and quiet; the rice fields and the pine forest do the rest. Lisbon is a little over an hour away, which is close enough for a day and far enough that nobody does it twice.