There are two ways to take an Algarve trip. The first is the one everyone posts about: Quinta do Lago, Vale do Lobo, a golf cart, copious glasses of rosé, and a tan that requires careful doling out of SPF all the live, long day.
The second is the one your best repeat clients start asking for. That version resides about as far east as you can go without needing a Spanish dictionary, and it just got a major upgrade.
Octant Praia Verde, the pine-forest boutique hotel a short walk from its namesake beach in Castro Marim, reopens this week following the most extensive renovation in its history, Luxury Travel Advisor can exclusively reveal. The glow up introduces the 19-key Praia Collection, the property's first spa, two new pools, a new gym, a rebuilt À Terra restaurant, and a beach bar that now brings table service to your towel.
The move is a step up in category, and the hotel team isn't shy about their new bragging rights.
"The catalyst was strategic, not reactive," Gonçalo Mexia Alves, director of sales for Octant Hotels, told LTA. "We made a deliberate decision to position Octant Praia Verde as the quieter counterpart to central Algarve, a property that offers the same level of design and service, but with more space, more privacy, and a different rhythm."
The Praia Collection
The new lodging sits in a purpose-built wing across three floors. Four ground-floor Terrace Rooms open onto a new adults-only outdoor pool. The middle floor holds eight suites. The top floor is where the sell to clients gets easy: seven rooms and suites, each one with a private plunge pool, including two Master Suites with expansive private terraces and five rooms with rooftop plunge pools and panoramic Atlantic views.
The design directive was a Mediterranean home rather than a resort. Architect Miguel Saraiva of Saraiva + Associados led the expansion, Pureza Magalhães of Pureza Design handled interiors in terracotta, stone, raw wood, and linen, and Teresa Barão of Topiaris did the landscaping. The minibars stock premium spirits and ready-to-serve cocktails (each of Octant's six hotels now has its own signature tea blend).
Mexia Alves is clear about who the new rooms are for, and who they aren't.
"Our long-stay guests were already well served, with kitchenette suites designed specifically for extended stays," he said. "The new suites serve a different function: they're about elevating the hotel's overall positioning and category."
Families keep the kitchenette suites they already loved. The Praia Collection is aimed at couples and a more adult clientele. For matching a client to a room, Mexia Alves offered a simple rule.
"It comes down to two key preferences: the guest who prioritizes a sea view and the guest who values the exclusivity of a private plunge pool," he said.
Octant declined to break out rates for the new categories, saying only that pricing "reflects the upscale move across the collection." Property-wide, nightly rates start at €450 (~$525) per room with breakfast, based on two adults.
Spa, Sand, and the Josper
The spa is a first for Praia Verde: four treatment rooms, a heated indoor pool, sauna, steam room, and a Technogym fitness center. A sneak peek at the spa menu has us already jonesing to book a 70-minute exfoliating salt and fig ritual as well as a peptide-fueled Marine Lift facial.
Down on the sand, the Praia Verde Beach Bar has been rebuilt around Eastern Algarve flavors, including Algarvian tuna salad, red prawn carpaccio, and Pata Negra ham from Zambujal. Beach service now includes buggy transfers, reserved loungers and umbrellas, and food and drinks can be delivered to your spot on the beach. There are also summer programming and a daily sunset ritual.
À Terra, the property’s signature restaurant, got a complete design overhaul, with handcrafted ceramics and locally sourced furnishings. The kitchen cooks over wood-fired ovens and a Josper grill, and the menu leans on Ria Formosa staples like market fish, Santa Luzia octopus, and wood-fired rice.
Why Advisors Get It Wrong
Praia Verde sits about 7.5 miles from the Spanish border and roughly an hour and a half from Seville, and Mexia Alves wants that on your pitch sheet.
"The biggest misconception is that it's 'just another Algarve beach,'" he said. "The real story is the sense of discretion, the more intimate scale, and the proximity to Spain. That's a distinctive positioning that hasn't been sold properly yet."
To the traveler, he frames it as a benefit: "This is the reward for those who already know the Algarve and are ready for the version without the crowds."
To the advisor, the cross-border access is "an extra dimension central Algarve properties simply can't offer," with lunch or dinner in Spain "genuinely part of the experience, not a stretch," per Mexia Alves.
On the trade side, the hotel's consortia benefits currently run through its Select by Internova affiliation on standard terms, with additional partnerships in the works. Fam trips are being scheduled around ILTM Cannes, PURE, and DUCO Spain, including pre- and post-show site visits.
The Bigger Octant Picture
Praia Verde is one of six hotels under Octant, the Portuguese-owned brand that Discovery Hotel Management launched in 2022 and trimmed from eight properties last year in a bid for quality over scale. Octant Douro is an LTA favorite and repeat finalist in our Most Instagrammable Hotel in the World contest.
The U.S. is already one of Octant's top three source markets alongside the U.K. and Portugal, and the brand has previously signaled ambitions for Lisbon and Porto city hotels. Sister property Octant Vila Monte in Moncarapacho underwent its own phased revamp in recent years.
Mexia Alves wouldn't get specific on what comes next.
"Octant is a portfolio that never stands still," he said. "We always have plans in motion."
For now, the plan in motion is a very good one: Send your Algarve veterans east, book the rooftop plunge pool, and tell them dinner can be in Spain if they so choose.
Related Stories
Reindeer on the Menu: How Authentic Is a Hurtigruten Cruise?
5 Tensions Luxury Travel Advisors, Suppliers Still Can't Resolve
Confessions of a Travel Advisor Convert
The Rise of the Gen Z Travel Advisor: “There Are No Rules Now”