Six Senses Douro Valley Hotel

Portugal

Six Senses comes to Europe and the Douro Valley in Portugal to combine their no-stone-left-unturned approach to hospitality with wellbeing in a 19th-century wineland manor

At first glance the Douro Valley could be in Vietnam. Verdant terraces dissolve into blazing horizons, except here the slopes are green with vines rather than rice. This is the home of port after all.

Six Senses Douro Valley – the group’s European debut – allows guests to combine hedonism with wellbeing through nightly wine tastings and a spa specialising in treatments made with flowers from the organic gardens.

Housed in a 19th-century manor in a dip overlooking the River Douro, it combines contemporary luxury with a strong sense of place. All 60 bedrooms are furnished in soothing natural materials and many have panoramic views so you can catch the morning mists rolling through the valley. In contrast, the blue and white azulejo tiles and cork ceilings of communal areas root one firmly in a region of Portugal that still has a frontier feel.

Now only a 90-minute drive from Porto, the Douro Valley was a treacherous place to visit until the 1800s; the result is a unique identity that Six Senses celebrates. Wander the hotel’s own woodlands and you might spot its tilemaker painting alfresco, or mixologists from the Quinta Bar scouring the forest floor for herbs.

A wood-fired oven fills an anteroom of the Vale d’Abraão Restaurant with the comforting smells of local favourites such as bacalhau (cod), while pickles are made on-site in the Earth Lab.

Doubles from £282. 00 351 254 660 600, sixsenses.com

Words by Imogen Lepere.

This review was taken from the May/June 2021 issue of Food and Travel.

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