These are chambers turned into nests of nature. Scarred driftwood, shaven pebbles and corkscrew pinecones have been lifted from the groves and dunes of the central Portuguese shore and planted into rooms galvanised by the seacoast. A mingling between nature and luxury, the concrete and glass-bound front of this hotel gives way to a futuristic design that might have been plucked from a 21^st-century dystopian novel; plump tree trunks flank the route to the citadel-tall glass doorway. The threads of nature run deep within this hotel, whether it’s within olive tree wrapped terraces and four-poster beds fashioned out of repurposed timber or the greenhouse surely styled upon the Garden of Eden. At once a bow to nature’s majesty and a eulogy to its energizing tonic, Areias do Seixo is an understated boutique hotel in Portugal that delivers luxury stripped back to nature’s basics, with a flair of romanticism and an unwavering vow to sustainability.

With rooms that are wrapped around themes of gold, land, tree, or love, Areias do Seixo is one of the best hotels in Portugal on the beach and a deserving destination for a honeymoon to Portugal. Surrounded by the dunes and steep cove-carved shores of  Centro de Portugal‘s surf-magnetising coast, an hour from Lisbon, nature has left its touch upon the interiors. It has a knack for firmly grounding its guests in the natural world, down to the salt-tinged sea breeze, acoustic bonfires and a garden sprouting with bulbs, herbs and vegetables on the exterior. Meanwhile, indoors, chunky driftwood furnishings, suspended log fireplaces and sheepskin throws mark the rooms. Each stroke of nature is a gentle reminder that simply unwinding in nature’s arms is more than enough.

The love child of owners Marta and Gonçalo, the hotel’s embryo began with the pursuit for a primo place that would create a ménage out of jet-setters. Kindling an intimacy with the natural pleasures of the Portuguese coastal region, they took nature’s essence and worked it into the stitches of Areias do Seixo’s structure and standing. Never straying from principles of sustainability and renewable energies, they were firm in their crusade to create a luxury hotel in Portugal and one of the best hotels in Portugal on the beach where every guest could be baptised in nature’s draught. Built upon what was once an abandoned chicken farm, its ingredients were rehashed for furnishings. As for the architecture, courtesy of Vasco Vieira and inspired by Rosario Gabriel, the design of the hotel coordinates with nature once again, using natural materials such as stone, pebble, glass and driftwood picked up from the shore. Afterwards, interior decorator Isabel Schedel added a sheen of polish to the raw exterior, bringing a pleasant India-Morocco-Africa interior fusion and all the while nodding to nature with olive trees, pinecones and reeds that persist indoors.

As nature is what makes this hotel so whole, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that its core pillars are energy efficiency, renewable power, and the use of natural resources. The spark of this eco longevity first catches light in the soils of the garden, where everything from fennel, cabbage, tea and beans sprout forth in patches tenderly cared for by the staff. The organic produce makes its way into the restaurant, where the herbs, roots and bulbs are plated almost directly from the garden or greenhouse. Prepare to be served cocktails infused with their zest and see how they are incorporated further into the rose ointments and cocoa-based balms in the hotel’s spa. While these factors may seem surface level, sustainability runs deep in Areias do Seixo. The greenhouse and pool are warmed by solar panels, the rooms are heated by geothermal heating systems in place of regular air-conditioning and raw materials are repurposed all around the property. Guests are also encouraged to warm their nests with timberwood-fed suspended fireplaces and let the cool Atlantic drafts from an open window settle the temperature down.

Then, there’s the décor of Areias do Seixo’s chambers, of which there are 14. They follow the threads of four themes: gold, land, tree and love. With recycled elements leftover from construction elsewhere in the property as a base, the TREE rooms bud with rustic log fireplaces, handcrafted wax candles and driftwood chairs. While, Moroccan vases, warming quilts whisked out of the owners’ grandparents’ house and African-inspired steel drums add a finishing touch. Natural scents such as lavender linger over the Jacuzzi bathtub and nature’s influence continues outside onto wooden terraces that empty out onto landscapes of the dunes and sea. In the LOVE rooms, well-suited for a honeymoon to Portugal, your bed may be shaped into a four-poster from spindly driftwood or your bathroom invaded by the stalk of an olive tree backing onto a wall patchworked from beach pebbles. Each room and the hotel’s assorted townhouses and villas each have an original touch, whether it’s a private garden with olive trees in the Jasmine room or the rainfall shower in the Nha Cretcheu.

From greenhouse to plate, chef André Jesus serves all three meals seasoned with herbs and bulbs from the garden and fresh produce from the greenhouse. Tilted towards vegetarian and vegan produce, you’ll find local Portuguese São Jorge’s cheese with almond and pesto from the vegetable garden and on the other hand, freshly-caught fried cuttlefish or oysters from the Centro de Portugal coast paired with a crisp local white wine. The buffet breakfast orbits around the homemade dough, local cheese, ham and a bed of fruit and vegetables, with blended, compressed or extracted juice from berries. These concoctions are born daily from the garden, as each day, the staff venture forth with a wicker basket and precisely select ingredients to go from soil to plate, all from a self-sufficient ecosystem of butterflies, lizards, frogs, bees and birds.

If you ever wondered whether unfiltered relaxation could be truly eco driven, the spa at Areias do Seixo delivers this through tapping into the ‘science of life’. Using Ayurvedic techniques that deliver deep-pore invigoration with the aid of natural products, it feeds into the ancestral doctrines of Hinduism and the belief that the human being is in sync with the cosmos. Hence, the globe’s natural-based elixirs are at the base of this style of aromatherapy and phytotherapy, from essential oils to vegetable oils slicked across the body in massage rooms and a Turkish bath.

Areias do Seixo is a simple reminder that a luxury hotel in Portugal isn’t just a ritzy city hotel or chains from around the globe trying to one-up another. In fact, molten gold luxury is purest in its most natural form. This is low-level luxury in a boutique hotel in Portugal backed by the sand and dunes, powered by renewable energies, and paying homage to the materials that are washed up on the shore.