Areias Do Seixo Charm Hotel, Lisbon

Less than an hour away from Lisbon, the Areias Do Seixo Charm Hotel is nestled deep into the dunes of Portugal's shoreline. Algrave-based architect Vasco Vieira dreamed up a magical place where originality, comfort, and sophistication move in perfect synthesis with the land. The eclectic hotel is full of an array of charming decorative accents and maintains an environmental conscience philosophy.

When the owners purchased the property to build the Areias Do Seixo, they found that the land was riddled with the ruins of an old aviary. In an eco-minded response, Vieira made sure that the rubble and ruins from the old aviary were recycled into the foundation of the new hotel.

The 14 dreamy rooms are extraordinarily unique, taking the bold colors and designs of exotic destinations like India and Morocco as a starting point, and blending them with modern minimalism and imagination to create beautiful color pallets, earthy aesthetics, and irresistible bathrooms. Beds are framed with driftwood; warm gold Chinese cabinets; pod-like woodburners suspended from the ceilings, and burnished silver lamps. For those wanting privacy, there are 4 self-catering villas, each sleeping up to 7.

The overall experience that the hotel wants to give to its guests is a a trip filled with smells, tastes, and colors - a chance to reconnect with earth. The upmarket eco design doesn't just come in the form of bed sheets and recycling, the food served at the hotel comes fresh from the hotel's garden each day. The insulation of the building was conducted using cork on the wall cavity. The heating and cooling of water is done through the use of Geothermia, an ecological system that allows the efficient usage of the temperature existent within the earth. Circuit of compost transforming the organic matter produced in the unit into natural fertilizer for application to agricultural land to explore in the unit. To top it all off, the company is being completely transparent with their consumption data as they have implemented an Eco Clockon their website where anyone can check how much water, gas, and energy the hotel is using at the moment.

Photography courtesy of Fernando Guerra and Areias Do Seixo Hotel