Pousada Palácio Estoi

Francisco José da Silva, later Viscount of Estoi, finished his palace here in the 1800s and marked it with a party that lasted three days. In the late 1980s Faro's council bought the house in poor repair, and Gonçalo Byrne restored it, putting the 63 rooms next door in a long wing faced in pale stone, so as not to diminish the palace, which would have taken some doing. The palace kept the rest. Reception is in the old chapel, done in the style of Louis XV, so checking in comes with some ceremony, and in the salon cherubs float across a painted ceiling hung with gilt chandeliers. Outside, the rose-pink front looks down a sandy path between clipped hedges to a fountain, in gardens laid out after Versailles. The bedrooms in the wing are white, with a dark wooden bench at the foot of the bed and sheer curtains at the window: somewhere quiet to lie down after all that gilt.

Recommended for couples who would rather spend an evening under a painted ceiling than at a beach bar, and for families, with a children's pool beside the outdoor one and a children's menu at dinner. The palace itself, which guests praise, is hard to overlook. The old kitchen is now O Visconde, cooking Bife à Visconde and a seafood cataplana for two. There is no beach, so the days happen elsewhere: 8 km west to the Roman ruins at Milreu, or across the Ria Formosa on the hotel's trip to Ilha Deserta, an island no road reaches. Back in the garden, the Casa da Cascata keeps a copy of Canova's Three Graces, good company for a house that once threw a party for three days.