Is there a security deposit at Villa Branca?

€2,000 for the week, taken by bank transfer and held by the villa's management company. It is due 45 days before you check in, rather than when you book. It is returned within 72 hours, once the villa has been checked after your stay.

When do we arrive, and can we book a shorter stay?

Check-in can be any day, with a minimum of seven nights. Tell us your dates and we will confirm with the villa.

Which airport do we fly into for Villa Branca?

Lisbon (LIS), about an hour away by road. Add the Driver and you are met at arrivals and driven in.

What comes with the villa, and what can I add at Villa Branca?

The whole villa, yours alone, 6 suites for 14. Add the concierge, a driver, a chef and a coach and we plan the week and come back with one price.

What is added to the rate at Villa Branca?

€8,800 for a shoulder week with the clean in it: €1,200 per night, €8,400 for the seven, then a final clean at €400 a booking. These are set by the villa, and each is itemised on your quote. The Concierge, Driver, Chef and Coach sit outside it, and we quote those with the week.

When do I pay for Villa Branca, and what if we have to cancel?

50% of the week and the cleaning confirm the booking, and the balance is due 45 days before you arrive. Booked inside 45 days, it is the whole amount at once. Cancelling costs half the rental at any point, and the full rental within six weeks of check-in or if the group does not arrive.

Villa With a Padel Court in Comporta, Sleeps 14

The Villa for a Group

Sleeping: Six suites and eight bathrooms sleep a group of fourteen: one king, two queens and the rest singles. One bedroom has its own building and bathroom across a walkway, for extra privacy.
The long table: Your whole group can eat together at the pergola table, and there's a barbecue for cooking outdoors.
Flow: There's room for everyone to gather indoors or out: the villa covers 310 square metres, with living and dining in one room and a covered terrace.

White sofas under the terrace pergola, the garden past them

The living room, a woodstove under the blue artwork

White sofas in the living room, a dome lamp over them

The living room, antlers on the wall and a yellow rug

Living and dining in one room, antlers along the wall

Straw hats hung the length of the hallway

The living room sofas, the television across from them

The living room under its vaulted ceiling, the coral sculpture on the wall

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The Setting

Seclusion: Sand tracks in, pines on every side, a fenced garden of your own. The view is trees, and it is enough.
The light: Pine forest and rice-field light; the evenings go gold over the garden.
Quiet: Away from the road, a café a kilometre off, the town ten minutes on. Stand still at night and you hear storks settling.

The pool and its striped cabana, the pine forest behind

Sun loungers under blue striped parasols, among the pines

The dining terrace, striped loungers along it

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The Padel Court

Private: A private court inside the boundary, reachable only through the grounds. Nobody overlooks it and nobody else can book it.
The surface: Laid true and kept, framed by the pines rather than a car-park slab.
Floodlights: Floodlit, so the evening games are yours too. Shaded down the side as well, which matters more than it sounds: the half of the group that is not playing has somewhere to sit and watch.
Where it is: It reads as part of the garden, the pool a few steps off.

The padel court in the pine forest, under floodlights

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The Kitchen

The kitchen: No villa chef, and we say so plainly. The kitchen is easy to run, and we can set a chef for a night the group wants one.
Eating out: Comporta town is ten minutes: grilled fish, rice from the fields you drove in past, tables that take a full group. Mercearia Gomes is the grocer there, an old shop that still works like one, and the run for bread, cheese and whatever is good that morning is worth making yourself before the first dinner.
The wine: Alentejo whites, and growers close enough to drive to on an afternoon that has nothing else in it.

The dining table, rattan pendants hung over it

The kitchen windows, the garden through them

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The Relaxation

The pool and the beach: A pool past the pergola, heated on request for a nightly charge, and Praia do Pego a quarter of an hour down the road. It is the beach we send people to: wide enough to walk for an hour in a straight line, and quiet once August is out of the way. JNcQUOI has the beach club at the far end of it.
Sauna and spa: Not at this villa, and it is not pretending otherwise. The pool, the sea and the quiet do the recovering, and a massage on the sand at Pego is a message to us the day before.
Sleep, and room to do nothing: Dark, quiet rooms, and a lounge built for the afternoon that goes nowhere.

The pool, the striped cabana under its pergola

Loungers on the poolside terrace beside the cabana

The striped cabana tent, towels folded at the pool

A concrete vanity beside the walk-in shower

A skirted vanity against botanical wallpaper

A skirted vanity, the stone shower beside it

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The Service on Site

Housekeeping: Daily housekeeping, quiet and included. No live-in host: Branca is not run for you, it simply runs.
The grounds: Garden, pool and court kept by the owner's team between stays.
What it asks of you: By Tuesday the group notices nobody has organised anything, and nothing has slipped.

A striped bedspread, the garden through the window

A blue throw on the bed, a yellow lamp beside it

Blue lamps either side, a grey throw across the bed

The ensuite concrete vanity, the garden door open

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The Feeling

Arrival: The sand track does the work; by the time the court appears through the pines, the phones are down.
The week: Shoes off by the first evening. Nobody wants the Saturday.
What it feels like: Whitewash, timber and pine air, the straw hats along the hallway, and the outdoor boma and its bar for what happens after dinner.

Loungers under a white parasol on the pine terrace

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Villa Branca