Comporta and Melides: my trusted address book, before it changes

Many people have asked me for my Comporta recommendations after our stay last summer. It’s probably a sign that it’s becoming even more popular than before, which is also a bit worrying in a way. More on this later..

Comporta has been the chic Portuguese summer place for a good ten years now. Some French friends call it the “Cap Ferret” of Portugal, which of course intrigued me given our many summers there.

After our week there, I was seduced. There’s a rare combination of wilderness, summer spirit and yes a bit of luxury.

First the beaches. They’re enormous, wide, wild and beautifully unspoilt. They reminded me of the beaches of my childhood but the Atlantic here is astonishingly clear, with shades of turquoise and emerald that I wasn’t expecting. Yes, the water is cool (around 17–19°C), but because the waves pull you straight in, it never feels uncomfortably cold. On a hot summer’s day, it’s exactly what you want.

Leave the beaches behind and you discover a landscape that still feels wonderfully untouched. For kilometres, there is nothing but umbrella pines, burnt-orange earth, rice fields and winding waterways. It is a rare stretch of coastline where nature still dominates, and where the absence of development, for now, is as striking as the scenery itself.

Comporta itself is tiny. It’s really just a couple of streets with a handful of restaurants and boutiques. Most of the action happens in nearby Carvalhal, where you’ll find more holiday homes, beach restaurants and a livelier atmosphere. But don’t come expecting sightseeing. Apart from the beaches, horse riding, a little paddleboarding or kayaking and long lunches, there isn’t much to do—and that’s precisely the appeal.

This is a destination built around slowing down.

It is also undeniably an affluent one. The hotels, restaurants and shops reflect that, as do the people you’ll meet. During our stay, there were plenty of American and German families, surprisingly few British or French visitors, and everyone seemed to be here for the same reason: sunshine, beautiful beaches and an effortlessly relaxed summer holiday.

My only concern is what happens next. One of the reasons Comporta feels so magical is the vast amount of untouched land surrounding it. But development has clearly begun. Sublime Comporta was building dozens of new villas and restaurants on land opposite the hotel. We saw it from the road. It’s now open as Sublime Sand. It’s all being done tastefully, but you can’t help wondering how long Comporta can stay Comporta.

If you’ve been thinking about visiting, I’d go sooner rather than later. Right now, it still feels wonderfully uncrowded—even in August. I’m not convinced that will be true forever.

is very easy! Within an hour and a quarter of leaving Lisbon, you’re driving through kilometres of umbrella pines, orange earth and rice fields, with almost no development in sight. The sense of space is extraordinary and unlike anywhere else I’ve been in southern Europe.

You do need a car, there’s no getting around this region without one.

There are three:

• Comporta itself: two or three streets, a few restaurants, a few boutiques, an indoor market worth a look for artisanal bits. Very calm.

• Carvalhal: more modern with holiday houses, the busier beach, and where you’ll actually run into people. It works like Cap Ferret: families rent houses, spend the day on the beach and meet friends for dinner.

• Melides, twenty minutes further south: the one starting to move, see “why go now” below.

The story explains the place: this whole peninsula was one man’s rice estate in the 1950s, and the villages were built for his workers. So the white walls and blue-and-yellow trims look Portuguese, but almost nothing here is actually old. Comporta didn’t grow from a fishing village, it went from farmland straight to fashionable.

We split our week between two very different hotels. My full reviews will come in the next issues. There were many good things and a couple of caveats which I’ll detail then.

Read my full review

Three nights in a 2-Bedroom Cabana Villa with its own pool behind the pines, enough privacy to feel like your own house, enough hotel when you want it. The biological pool near the spa, 1,805 square metres, no chemicals, filtered by plants, is apparently one of the largest in Europe, and you believe it. There is an outdoor pool (quite cold) and a small heated pool in the spa. You need a car to get to their beach club (which you can access to as part of your booking) but the hotel has a shuttle or you can rent bikes. From €485 in low season but properly expensive in the summer and you have to book 3 nights minimum

Book it

Christian Louboutin’s 13-room hotel, built from scratch, and yet you’d swear it’s an old Portuguese palácio. Behind the heavy front door there’s a courtyard of azulejos, salons with a Moroccan accent, antique tiles he chose himself, and his red on everything: the cushions, the coat hooks, even the wastepaper bins. It’s as beautiful as a museum, and I mean that both ways: I wouldn’t live in it, but for two nights, which is what we did, it’s superb. The garden pool is small, about eight by five metres, but it’s heated which is not frequent in Portugal. From €270 ,again in low season.

Book it

if you want a different base or budget. Hotels first, then rentals for a group:

• Spatia Comporta: a modern resort of 23 rooms and villas in the pines near Comporta, an easy, contemporary base for the area’s endless choice, with high-ceilinged villas and a big pool. My brother is going there this year so I’ll have more of a first hand view when he comes back. From £199.

• Sobreiras — Alentejo Country Hotel: a 24-room country hotel on 25 hectares of cork-oak land near Grândola. Understated, landscape-inspired rooms and a lovely infinity pool, calm and unhurried. From €240.

• Quinta Amala: a newly opened boutique hotel in the wild landscape of Melides, with an infinity pool over the rice fields. Wooden cabana rooms among emerald paddies, a sauna with the same view, Comporta half an hour away. From €280.

• Pateos: four houses an hour from Lisbon, each looking over cork-oak forest, vineyard plots and olive groves. Space, big rural views, the beach a short drive away, for a quiet, low-key stay in the Alentejo countryside. From €450.

• Campo de Arroz: a rental house and separate garden cabin for up to ten at the foot of the Comporta rice fields, with an outdoor pool. Quintessential low-key Comporta, for a family or group who want the landscape and the beaches. From £2,800 a week.

• La Salvada: a two-suite villa for four by Christian Louboutin and architect Tarek Shamma outside Melides, with a private pool set in wildflower fields facing the sea. Rose-hued, Moroccan- and Indian-inflected, a huge skylit lounge, for two couples who want a design object to stay in. From €2,200 a night.

There are not that many restaurants in Comporta so I recommend you book weeks in advance.

• Sado (Comporta village): we did like our meal there, the fish was very good and there’s a nice view over the rice fields. We only realised after that it actually belonged to the Sublime hotel group as well!

• Beach Club JNcQUOI: on the beach, the restaurant is well known for its famous paella. You can have lunch and diner there. We did both and enjoyed them a lot. It is a pricey place but the setting on top of the dune, the view to the sea, the freshness of the fish and seafish make it worth it.

• Cavalariça (Comporta village): one of the best restaurants in the area, beautifully set in old stables. We didn’t eat there but it has very good reviews. Definitely need very advanced booking.

• Mesa Comporta (Comporta village): a similar level, was recommended by the hotel but we didn’t go.

• Almo (Comporta village): looked like a nice easy cafe for brunch.

• JNcQUOI Deli (Carvalhal): is the sister cafe within the village of JNcQUOI beach club. Simple food and snacks and beautiful decor.

• Simone French Bakery (Carvalhal): I’m not a big fan of the pastel de nata so I was glad to stop by this French place for a croissant.

• Sal Burger (Carvalhal): for something casual set in a former school and for when children beg for a burger!

• O Fadista (Melides, three minutes from Vermelho): the local alternative to the hotel restaurant (which is not good).

The reason to come. Enormous, along the whole Atlantic coast, and I have never seen the ocean so clear: real shades of blue and green, clean sand, nothing floating. Yes, the water is cold but as I said with the waves and the quick drop-off you’re in fast, and on a 35-degree afternoon it’s exactly what you want. Mademoiselle and I went quite often in, Mr Big, not so much as he prefers the warm sea of Greece!

The crowd is moneyed, lots of Americans and Germans, surprisingly few French or British, plenty of families. Even in August it never felt packed.

Every beach has a stylish beach club if that’s your thing, but you can just as easily bring a towel and enjoy the beach for free. The only essential is a parasol, the Portuguese sun is fierce.

• JNcQUOI Beach Club, Praia do Pego: quite a fancy beach club (they come and clean your sunglasses regularly!!). You can rent big Bali style beds (I can’t remember the price). BOOK THEM IN ADVANCE via their website. You can have food brought to you but the restaurant at the top is really nice (see my notes above).

• Praia do Carvalhal: this is where the Sublime Comporta beach club is. Seats there were included in our hotel room so we could just turn up and get one. But you can also book it or come and try to see if there’s a free seat without being clients of the hotel. They also have a menu with easy snacks and drinks coming to you.

• Praia da Galé-Fontainhas (near Melides): fossilised sand cliffs dropping to the sea. I had never seen anything like it. You park where the locals tell you and walk down a lot of steps, which keeps the crowds away. There is barely anyone on the beach. You can rent chairs and umbrellas for a decent price. The bedds are way too expensive (300 euros!) There is a laid-back Mexican bar that does tacos with a sea view which was so cool at lunch time.

Do: horse riding on the beach with Cavalos na Areia,. We did look into it and talked to them and they were very nice although there are limited times you can do it.

There is a walk through the rice paddies that leads straight to the sand.

There is probably much more to do (including surfing) but we mostly read and enjoyed the beach!

Sublime has just opened Sand across the road: 43 villas and three more restaurants. Six Senses is coming. JNcQUOI is building its own hotel. None of this will make Comporta ugly, but the emptiness that makes it special is being carved up, villa by villa. So my advice is simple: go soon, and go in September: the families leave, the minimum stays relax, the prices drop, and you’ll have those enormous beaches nearly to yourself.

Would you go? Pines and cold ocean, or does the warm Med still win for you? I’m curious. Happy to answer any questions too as usual.

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