The Algarve’s Quinta do Lago is famous for golf, but growing wellness activities and a stunning nature reserve draw non-golfers too
Quinta do Lago? Seriously, you’re going to Quinta do Lago? But it’s a golf resort – and you are terrible at golf!” My brutally honest golf nut of a nephew is clearly nonplussed by my impending trip to what he regards as Europe’s premier golfing destination. It’s easy to see why.
Set in Ria Formosa Natural Park, where lagoons, barrier islands, sandbars and beaches stretch for 40 miles along the Algarve coast, Quinta is famous for its three world-class, award-winning courses – but it also has a fast-growing range of wellness and sports activities and classes, 14 restaurants and a uniquely bucolic setting.
Which, as I explain to my cheeky nephew, is why I’m going. What I discover when I get there is that as well as the activities, it also manages to give guests something else: a welcome sense of peace and wellbeing that creeps up as the days unfold.
Sports at Quinta do Lago
The tranquil vibe is largely driven by how quiet and calm the resort feels, beginning at Quinta’s lovely retro motel-style boutique property, The Magnolia Hotel. Across a diminutive space with a nicely personal feel, 74 rooms are laid out in two small blocks bookended by a quiet pool area, restaurant and bar at one end, and seven wooden family cottages at the other. Pale pastels give it all a very 1950s Palm Springs vibe, but rooms come with all mod cons and are wonderfully quiet and comfortable.
That means I’m well-rested for my morning transfer to The Campus, the multi-sports hub where sports camps and tournaments are held across a site housing tennis and padel courts, a full-size football pitch, 25m pool, fitnesss studios, gyms and a hydrotherapy suite.
Again, the activities aren’t overwhelming, and during a blissfully relaxing yoga class the wider site melts away. The session is just one of a huge choice focused on improving strength, flexibility and mobility – new additions include Ballet Sculpt, Yin Yoga and Mindfulness Meditation – and we follow it up with a padel lesson and lunch at Dano’s Sports Bar before setting out to tread the nature reserve’s boardwalks.
These criss-cross the lagoons, inlets and marshes of the reserve for a few miles, sometimes leading to salt pans and ancient Roman salting pits, sometimes to beachfront restaurants and bars like Q Beach and Gigi’s, where imaginative cocktails use local ingredients such as salicórnia (similar to samphire). Plus the beachfront, barrier islands and umbrella pines stretch as far as the eye can see.
A walk opens our eyes to crabs seemingly synchronised in a mating dance, and large turtles sunning themselves on the rocks of a freshwater lake filled with migratory and endemic birds like the galinha-sultana (sultan hen), although the symbol of Ria Formosa Natural Park eludes us today.
Ria Formosa Natural Park
My guided walk through the reserve – a route that can also be done by bike – is just one of the activities connecting Quinta guests with their wider surroundings and the local environment. Others include clam fishing in a saveiro (traditional wooden boat), repopulating native species or returning rehabilitated animals to the wild.
Such activities are part of an understated but appealing approach to sustainability – as is a visit to the market at Loulé with chef José Botelho, who has recently led a shift from fine dining to more traditional Portuguese cuisine at resort restaurant Casa Velha.
We “ooh” and “ahh” over razor clams and oysters, vast trays of squid and all kinds of locally caught fish, then head to Quinta’s farm to see organic produce grown here. This island of productivity surrounded by golf courses, mini-golf and nearby ice-cream parlour Koko makes for a surreal sight, but reinforces the relationship between Quinta and the natural world in a way that can’t help but make you smile – particularly when some of the produce from the market and farm appear on chef José’s fabulous tasting menu at Casa Velha that night.
As a bitesize version of the cooking class and wine masterclass he offers, it’s perfect, and a very fitting end to a trip during which, as I tell my nephew on my return, I didn’t touch a golf club – but did have one of the most action-packed, yet most relaxing, stays imaginable.
Book it
EasyJet holidays offers five nights at The Magnolia Hotel on a bed-and-breakfast basis for £546 per person based on two sharing, including 23kg of luggage, transfers and flights from Luton on April 6, 2025.
easyjet.com
Ask the expert
Mark McSorley, general manager hotel and residences, Quinta do Lago
“The Magnolia offers affordable access to the luxury resort of Quinta do Lago, leaving more to spend on resort experiences.
For families, there’s a nice swimming pool area, bar/ cafe, chill room and cinema; and in the wider resort, the lake and beach boardwalk are great for watersports, a nature stroll or bike ride.
There’s also mini-golf for little ones looking to try their hand! We’ve added new sunloungers and three daybeds in the pool area, a very cool pool table in our bar area, and we’re renovating guest bedrooms, completing 20 rooms in total (10 standard and 10 standard plus). We’re also linking 16 of them to create eight connecting family rooms by January 2025.”
PICTURES: Rodrigo Bimering; Jeronimo Heitor Coelho
