Stay
Four types, 88 keys
Nothing at Dunara rises above the pines, so the accommodation steps sideways instead of upwards. Each rung buys more floor, more shade, a wider opening and, higher up, water of your own.
- Interior
- 42–236 m²
- Keys
- 88
- Arrival
- from 15:00
The ladder
What separates one rung from the next
Area, aspect, bedding, water. In that order, and all four written as numbers rather than implied by a photograph.
A Dune Room is 42 m² with 14 m² of covered terrace. A Lagoa Villa is 236 m² with 118 m² of terrace and its own pool of 12 × 4 m. Everything between those two figures is on the table below, including the things a brochure usually leaves out: the width of the glazing, the depth of the loggia, the compass bearing of the terrace and what is actually in the view.
84 of the 88 keys sit in the nine pavilions. The pavilions are single-storey, poured in situ in board-marked concrete, lime-washed, and set into the dune with planted roofs, so from the ridge you see woodland and water and very little building. The other four keys are the Lagoa Villas, which stand apart beyond the pine stand, each behind a 2.4 m lime-washed wall with its own gate off the sand track.
Because the planning condition that shaped the estate said nothing could stand taller than the trees, no key here has a better floor than any other. There is no upper tier to buy into. What the higher rungs give you is room, a longer opening, deeper shade at midday and — from the Atlantic Suite upwards — water you do not share with anyone.
The four types, compared
| Dune Room | Pine Suite | Atlantic Suite | Lagoa Villa | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Interior | 42 m² (452 sq ft) | 58 m² (624 sq ft) | 96 m² (1 033 sq ft) | 236 m² (2 540 sq ft) |
| Terrace | 14 m² (151 sq ft) | 26 m² (280 sq ft) | 48 m² (517 sq ft) | 118 m² (1 270 sq ft) |
| Interior and terrace | 56 m² (603 sq ft) | 84 m² (904 sq ft) | 144 m² (1 550 sq ft) | 354 m² (3 810 sq ft) |
| Sleeps | 2 adults | 2 adults and 1 child | 4, or 5 with an extra bed | 8, or 10 with two extra beds |
| Bedding | 1 × 200 × 200 cm | 1 × 200 × 210 cm and a daybed of 90 × 200 cm | 1 × 200 × 210 cm and 2 × 100 × 200 cm | 1 × 200 × 210 cm, 2 × 200 × 200 cm, 2 × 100 × 200 cm |
| Rooms | One room and a bathroom | Sitting room, bedroom, bathroom | Living room, two bedrooms, two bathrooms | Living, dining and kitchen, four bedrooms, four bathrooms |
| Aspect | Pine canopy, north-west | Dune ridge, west | Open dune, south-west, sea beyond | Walled estate on the lagoon, south |
| Glazing | 3.2 m, one sliding leaf | 4.8 m, two leaves | 7.2 m, three leaves | 12.4 m, four leaves |
| Outdoor water | The estate waters, three minutes on foot | The estate waters, three minutes on foot | Private plunge pool, 4.2 × 2.9 m | Private pool, 12 × 4 m |
| Keys of this type | 40 | 30 | 14 | 4 |
| From, indicative | €480 | €680 | €1 240 | €3 900 |
Rates are indicative. Each is a nightly figure in euros for two guests, with breakfast at A CASA and value-added tax at the Portuguese rate included. Service is included and no service charge is ever added. The figure you are offered depends on the dates, the length of stay and the rate plan you choose; where a municipal tourist tax applies it is shown in full before you confirm anything.
The four types
Each page carries the dimensioned plan, the full schedule and an honest account of what the room is like at four points in the day.
Dune Room
One room of 30.2 m² with a bathroom and a terrace covered across its whole depth of 3.2 m. The pines stand 8 to 14 m from the parapet, which is why this is the coolest terrace on the estate at two in the afternoon.
- Terrace
- 14 m²
- Aspect
- Pine canopy
Pine Suite
A sitting room with a concrete fireplace, a separate bedroom, and 26 m² of terrace in two parts: a loggia 3.6 m deep and 11 m² of open paving facing the ridge. The sun arrives on it at about four in the afternoon, every month of the year.
- Terrace
- 26 m²
- Aspect
- Dune ridge
Atlantic Suite
Two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a living volume 3.6 m high at its apex, with 7.2 m of glazing that stacks entirely into the wall. A plunge pool of 4.2 × 2.9 m is set into the open terrace, heated to 30 °C from October.
- Terrace
- 48 m²
- Water
- 4.2 × 2.9 m
Lagoa Villa
Four bedrooms around a gravel courtyard of 7.2 × 7.2 m, inside a walled garden of 1 240 m² with a pool of 12 × 4 m held at 29 °C all year. Four of these exist. Two dogs are welcome in each.
- Garden
- 1 240 m²
- Pool
- 12 × 4 m
Four aspects, defined
This is the vocabulary we use internally when we allocate a key, published here in the same words. A view is the one thing a photograph can flatter, so it is worth a definition.
| Aspect | What it means | Types |
|---|---|---|
| Pine canopy | The terrace looks into umbrella pines standing 8 to 14 m from the parapet. The view is trees, sand path and cistus; the estate waters are three minutes away on foot and out of sight. Shade holds across the whole terrace until mid-afternoon. | Dune Room |
| Dune ridge | The terrace faces roughly 300 m of marram grass rising to the ridge line. The Atlantic is audible from the bed with the glazing open, and comes into view from the ridge path above the suite rather than from the terrace. | Pine Suite |
| Open dune, sea beyond | A continuous band of Atlantic sits above the ridge line, occupying about the upper third of the view from the terrace and visible from the bed when you are sitting up. Dune grass and two or three wind-cut pines occupy the rest. | Atlantic Suite |
| Walled estate on the lagoon | The villa faces the brackish lagoon across its own walled garden. Water is in the view from all four bedrooms, the kitchen and the pool terrace. From October to March mist sits on it until about nine in the morning. | Lagoa Villa |
If a season, a parasol or the growth of a tree changes what you can see from a particular key, we would rather you read it here than find it on arrival. Ask at enquiry and we will tell you which key you have been given and what stands in front of it.
Policies, written out
Arrival, children, dogs, access and what every rate carries — answered here in full, so that an enquiry can be about dates rather than about terms.
Check-in is from 15:00 and check-out is at 11:00.
Arriving before 15:00 is normal — the morning flight from most of Europe lands early. Luggage goes to the key as soon as it is ready, and until then there is a changing room and a shower at the Athletic Club, and breakfast at A CASA until 11:00.
Late check-out until 14:00 is offered whenever the day's arrivals allow it, and carries no charge. Beyond 14:00 the day is charged at half the nightly rate. Both are settled at the desk rather than booked in advance, because both depend on who is arriving after you.
Children are welcome in all four types. A travel cot of 60 × 120 cm, with its own linen, is available in every key at no charge.
A third sleeper in a Pine Suite is made up on the daybed of 90 × 200 cm in the sitting room. The Atlantic Suite takes one rollaway of 90 × 200 cm, which moves it from four to five, and the Lagoa Villa takes two, which moves it from eight to ten. The Dune Room sleeps two adults and takes a cot. What an occupancy above the one the rate covers costs is set out in the booking terms.
The children's pool on the water terraces is 0.5 m deep throughout. A CASA, the all-day house kitchen, serves from 07:00 to 23:00, which covers both an early supper and a late one.
Two dogs are welcome in each Lagoa Villa. The villa gardens are walled to 2.4 m and planted with rosemary, lavender and cistus, which survive a dog; the pavilion terraces open straight onto nesting dune, which does not. So the villas are where dogs stay.
A bed, two stoneware bowls and a towel for the pool are in the villa on arrival. Two of the four surveyed running routes on the estate double as the dog walks and are marked as such on the estate map in the villa.
The entire resort is single-storey. There is no lift anywhere on the estate because there is no upper floor to reach.
Four of the 88 keys are specified for step-free use: two Dune Rooms of 42 m² and two Pine Suites of 58 m². In each, the threshold to the terrace is flush, the bathroom is a wet room with level access, a folding seat, two grab rails in aged bronze and a lever mixer within reach of the seat, there is a clear turning circle of 1 500 mm beside the bed and in the wet room, and the mattress top stands at 480 mm with 150 mm clear beneath it for a mobile hoist. Each of the four also has a door to an adjoining room.
The main routes between the pavilions, the restaurants, the spa and the Athletic Club are bound gravel, 1.8 m wide, with passing places every 25 m, so a wheelchair or a pushchair runs on them; the loose sand paths through the pines are an alternative rather than the route. A fixed-mast hoist serves the 25 m lap pool and the thermal pool, and a mobile one can be brought to the terrace pool and the children's pool. The boardwalk crosses the dune with a ramped section of 38 m at 1:12 and two level landings; beyond it the sand is soft, so a beach wheelchair with balloon tyres is kept at the dune gate.
Four accessible keys out of 88 is a small number and they go early in the season, so ask for one at the point of enquiry rather than after a confirmation. The full statement, including the gaps we still carry, is on the accessibility page.
Breakfast at A CASA, served 07:00 to 11:00, taken at a table or on your own terrace.
Resident use of the nine bodies of water, the eleven-station Long Circuit in the spa, and the floor and class timetable of the Athletic Club. Membership exists for people who live along this coast rather than for guests, so there is nothing for a resident to join.
Wi-Fi 6E throughout, one access point per key. The minibar refilled daily with still and sparkling water filtered and carbonated on the estate, in returnable glass. A hand grinder, a brass stovetop pot and beans from LUMAR. Bicycles at the pavilion heads. Bread from the LUMAR bread room delivered to the terrace at 07:30 if you ask the evening before.
Treatments in the spa, dinner at MIRANTE and at BRASA, the spirits library at THE BAR and the padel and tennis courts are charged separately, and all of them are priced on their own pages.
Tell us the dates and who is coming
The planner takes the dates, the number of guests and whether you want water of your own, and comes back with the types that are actually free, with the indicative rate for those nights. Every enquiry is answered by a person on the estate, in writing, at [email protected].