Herdade da Corte Turismo Rural — Hotel in Tavira

If you're looking for a great place to chill Herdade da Corte is where you need to go. A Rio Grande style and feel about it, surrounded by fabulous hilly views, orange, lemon trees, olive groves, and pure adulterated silence. You hear the whisper of the breeze throughout the outdoor areas which have casual seating dotted about, a sweeping view, and a to die for salt-water pool. If you want 5 star service and a butler this isn't the place for you! Our favourite time of the day was a leisurely hour and half munching our way through the buffet breakfast, consisting of 4 different freshly made juices, a good selection of local produce, bread, rolls, pastries and cake, cheese, cold meats, fruits, yoghurt, and natural cereals - while idly looking out to the hills. There's also an array of teas, and the coffee is via a machine which is good - but goat's milk!|We've travelled the world extensively and it's rare to find such a place. If you want to jazz up your time there Tavira is charming, along with Tavira Island. You do need a car if you stay at Herdade and want to visit many areas, however, we had read other reviews and knew that - but we just wanted to relax there and do nothing! We stayed 4 days and did venture out 1 afternoon to a restaurant in St Luzia. Local taxi, very nice driver. 20 euro each way (same prices to Tavira) about 15 minutes journey. The owners Joao and Francisco are cool, interesting guys, very helpful, and knowledgeable about the area , local produce, wines, and activities to do there - hiking, etc. Good massage also available in relaxing room. €50|Personally speaking, we dossed (an English word for lazing about) around the pool , helping ourselves to the well-stocked honesty bar, with the occasional beer/glass of wine, absorbed in a few good crime novels. Please note: after breakfast there is NO food available until 7pm. We knew that and brought along our own snacks, nuts etc. The evening menu is mainly cold, very good local produce - oh, please try the prawns (they hot). We tried almost everything on the menu during our stay - couldn't fault anything.|My husband arrived completely knackered (another old-school word for tiredness) and after almost 4 days rooted to the place said he felt like the Six Million Dollar Man!|Thank you Herdades, we will be back....

Seriously unimpressed with the attitude of the owner. They had hired out their restaurant for a party for, in his words, 80 to 100 people. At a small rural property selling itself on tranquility this is unacceptable. You should be professional and close your hotel to other guests.

He claimed to have tried to let us know in advance but couldn't get our details from the booking agent. We weren't convinced as this information was only volunteered after we aired our dissatisfaction that he had not given us notice about this party.

After a protracted discussion he offered to move us to a room separate from the main building which while we had less noise at night we were in a rather bland house you have to drive to. Billed as suites these have absolutely no sound insulation and we got to hear party guests coming back at 0200.

We decided to check out one day early and we asked the front desk staff member to call the owner to ask for a refund of at least one night if not both. He refused to refund anything, even when pursued through the booking agent. Apparently this was due to it being a non-refundable booking. While I would expect no refund had we simply not turned up being made to endure someone else's party when you want a peaceful holiday and then refusing to refund due to booking terms is a cheap trick and...

A quiet country retreat in an old hunting lodge, with excellent service and attention to detail. A good buffet breakfast and excellent dinner that never failed to impress. The honesty bar fitted the spirit of the place really well and the owners were nothing but helpful. Room quality was excellent, they used high quality bed linen and mattresses to add to the relaxation of the stay, and the aircon was useful when it got too hot, but the thick walls also kept the rooms much cooler. Couple of things to remember when staying here, you need a hire car unless you plan to laze around the pool and drink beer for your whole trip. Also, they do not serve lunch, so you will need to get something yourselves, so that is at least an 8 km round trip by car to visit one of the local restaurants. Personally, I loved it as I wanted a quiet trip, but don't expect a huge number of activities apart from walking and swimming in a really nice pool, I wouldn't hesitate to book...