Quinta Do Lago adds a new jewel to its lifestyle crown with Conrad Algarve Hotel
Quinta do Lago, the Algarve resort whose pristine fairways and padel courts shelter many an off-duty billionaire, has much to boast about.
Its setting amid the Ria Formosa natural park—a playground for wading birds and skittering fiddler crabs—is one of superlative beauty, with pathways among the pines and a shimmering estuary framed by endless miles of golden sand dunes.
Then there’s the world-class golf, with Quinta’s three courses ensuring the resort’s trophy cabinet is topped up after each awards season. Current gongs include Portugal’s Best Golf Course for the South Course, which recently saw a €7 million upgrade, and World’s Best Golf Real Estate Venue in 2024’s World Golf Awards.
Also pivotal to the resort’s appeal is The Campus, a beautifully landscaped sports hub that hosts a year-round churn of international football and rugby teams and pro-level tennis players—while also being the social glue for wealthy families who have moved to this part of the Portuguese coast for the outdoors lifestyle.
Quinta do Lago’s CEO, Sean Moriarty, asserts that the resort “stands as a benchmark for luxury lifestyle and golf, blending world-class facilities with the natural beauty of the Algarve. And through The Campus, we have redefined sports excellence, attracting top athletes and enthusiasts from around the world, solidifying our reputation as an international leader in sports performance and wellness.”
But there is one thing that this 52-year-old resort has always lacked: its own luxury hotel. That may be confusing for anyone who has cruised along the palm-lined boulevards past a luxury Wyndham Grand here, a Martinhal there, or the Quinta do Lago hotel with its front-row views over the estuary. None of these hotels is owned by the resort, however. Only The Magnolia, a four-star boutique hotel designed like a 1950s motel, beyond the resort’s boundaries.
Now, Quinta do Lago has brought a behemoth of a hospitality veteran into the fold: the Conrad Algarve, whose huge white building set at the end of an imposingly long, straight driveway you might mistake for a sheikh’s palace. Founded in 2012 as part of the Hilton Group, the 154-room Conrad Algarve is now in the resort’s clutches, and so are 80 large apartments that line the driveway, soon to be launched to market.
A gleaming white beacon of Portuguese hospitality: the Conrad Algarve is now owned by Quinta do Lago resort. (Conrad Algarve)
Why is this a big deal? Well, from Quinta’s point of view, it’s been a long time coming. As Moriarty puts it, the acquisition of the Conrad Algarve “marks an exciting new chapter in Quinta do Lago’s evolution, enhancing our world-class hospitality offering with the most prestigious hotel in the region.”
Then there are the branded luxury residences, which, says Moriarty, “combine the prestige of home ownership with five-star service in one of Europe’s most sought-after destinations.”
And in line with the masterplan for development that was drawn up in the 1970s, when property developer André Jordan founded the resort, there is limited scope to build much more at Quinta do Lago. What can be built is drip-fed on the market over time, so any new release is met by pent-up demand.
For buyers of the apartments, there will be tangible benefits of having a home managed by the resort, says Francisco Garcia at Portugal Forbes Global Properties. “As the resort’s owner, Quinta do Lago can be more competitive than the other hotels on site. They can give owners preferential rates and green times for golf, and owners will have access to the hotel’s amenities and facilities.”
The lock-up-and-leave potential of these apartments is likely to appeal to Quinta’s growing 40s/early 50s demographic—a transient bunch “who are still working or in the process of selling companies,” comments Moriarty.
But unlike at the Wyndham Grand Algarve, where owners have a maximum of 12 weeks annual usage of their property, owners at the Conrad can live there all year round—a trend that has been on the up at Quinta since the pandemic made remote working possible for many.
“I used to come here as a child and thought it was just a holiday resort full of old people playing golf. When we were looking at where to relocate to in Portugal, I wondered whether my wife and I would run out of things to say to each other,” laughs one 39-year-old resident, a former investment banker from London who moved to Quinta with his young family three years ago, and now runs a software company from there. “I was so wrong,” he adds. “There’s a big year-round community here and a great social life, especially as so many of us have kids in the nearby international school. And everyone gravitates around The Campus.”
The protected natural beauty of the Algarve, coupled with year-round sunshine and the amenities of Quinta do Lago, has made the region a magnet for the health-as-wealth lifestyle. (Quinta do Lago)
During lockdown, many homeowners from abroad decamped to their homes at Quinta. “It used to be a seasonal resort, but Covid sped up its transition to a year-round place to live,” Garcia says. The number of people arriving by private plane at Faro airport’s private terminal—almost all of them coming to Quinta, he adds—points to the resort’s appeal as a sanctuary for the super-rich.
Consequently, the old property price barriers are being shattered. Until recently, the €20 million threshold remained untroubled. In the past year, two houses have sold for above that price, one for more than €30 million to a British hedge-fund multi-billionaire. Meanwhile, Villa Soprano, an off-plan mansion that overlooks the Formosa estuary, remains Quinta’s most expensive listing to date, priced at €42 million. Elsewhere on the resort, new properties are soon to launch at Victory Village, one of Quinta’s older schemes that is undergoing a dramatic upgrade.
Long a sanctuary for British and Irish homeowners, Quinta do Lago is now seeing more Americans joining the mix—numbers likely to be boosted by the launch of direct flights between Faro and Newark airports from May 2025. “I think Americans will take a big chunk of this market, as they have done farther north in Portugal. The Algarve is like Florida—except here you can feel totally safe and you can play golf all year round,” comments Garcia.
And while you may be surrounded by homeowners who are titans in sport, business or entertainment, they come in disguise. They’re dressed down, relaxed, here to keep fit and healthy with their families. It’s less barefoot luxury, more luxury in sneakers. And those who get to be part of it in the Algarve are the lucky ones indeed.
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