The famed Pine Cliffs Resort, by Marriott’s Luxury Collection, is popular for good reason: set by Europe’s top-ranked Falésia beach and its orange-hued limestone cliffs, golden sandy sweep and Atlantic deep blues, it’s an utter dreamscape. As a family resort, it is gold-standard and designed so that guests never need or want to leave. There are six different accommodation categories spanning rooms, suites, apartments, private residences and townhouses. We stayed in one of the 148 light-filled Pine Cliffs ocean suites with a luxurious summer beach house vibe and brilliant white, caramel and terracotta hues, which was huge and perfect for families with older children. There are an incredible 20 restaurants and bars in the resort, yet everything is as smooth as silk in terms of the customer experience. Even the powerhouse breakfast buffet service at Lemon Square was outstanding: a banquet spread of fruits, juices, yoghurts and patisserie, plus hot made-to-order stations, with table service also.
The amount of activities on offer at Pine Cliffs really impressed us as a family with teens, with moods that change like the wind. The hardest part is choosing from the countless options — there’s golf, football, padel and tennis coaching at the Annabel Croft Tennis & Padel Academy, an escape room, a pirate ship-themed playground with a bouncy castle and mini-golf for wee ones, and activities such as face painting, aquaball, free birds of prey shows, and paintball target shooting (for kids aged 8-12 years). Then, there’s a treetop climbing circuit with a zipline, the biggest kids’ club in the region, a calendar of daily hotel events including food tastings, culinary workshops at MIMO and Portuguese tile tours around the hotel – and that’s before you’ve gone for a swim at one of the eight pools. There’s even an arcade room, and the hotel has an array of bespoke local tours to book. Rachel Everett
Price: Rooms from around £260 per night.