It’s not a stretch to say that The Alfond Inn at Rollins, a boutique hotel in the heart of historic Winter Park, Florida, is unlike any other hotel in the country. Currently celebrating its 10th anniversary, the property unveiled a $36 million expansion last week, including a lavish spa, a chic Café, and 71 additional rooms, totaling 183 guestrooms. A light-filled seven-story atrium connects the expansion with the original building. Guestrooms in the original building have undergone complete upgrades with contemporary interiors, and the existing lobby, library, and bar have also been renovated.
6 Luxury Porto Hotels With Fascinating Past Lives
06.11.2023 - 11:35 / forbes.com
Historic hotels seem to be a dime a dozen these days, from the grand old railway and harborside hotels that have been reinvented for the 21st century to luxury accommodations in old banks and prisons (two especially popular categories, for some reason). But the hoteliers, architects, designers and other dreamers of Portugal’s second city have gotten even more creative in their reinterpretations of some of the city’s heritage sites. (This is saying something for a small city that’s already awash with interesting small hotels.) Here are six places to stay in Porto that have stories and souls.
“Modern spaces in old places” is the tagline of this new five-star hotel on the waterfront in Vila Nova de Gaia (officially a suburb, but in today’s life a thriving part of Porto—and the part with the best views of the iconic Dom Luis I bridge and cityscape of the UNESCO-listed Ribeira district). The heritage buildings of the Rebello were 18th-century storehouses for port wine, but their design today, by noted Spanish interior designer Daniela Franceschini, is bold and beautiful, full of contemporary statements and whimsical punctuation in the 103 guest rooms. Along with the full-service spa, the indoor pool, and the variety of dining and drinking options, it has a rooftop that’s a love letter to the historic heart of Porto, with some of the best views in town.
As the name implies, Saboaria was once part of a historic soap factory. (Sabão is Portuguese for “soap.”) After a thoughtful renovation, it opened as a five-star hotel last year, but it still maintains its ties to the past—the founders are developing a series of books in partnership with a historian to document the story of the building and its surroundings. It was transformed into a 28-apartment boutique hotel by local studio NN Arquitectura in collaboration with Nano Design. The accommodations emphasize natural light and earthy materials like rope, basketry and terra-cotta. Along with the spa, the interior garden, the jacuzzi and heated swimming pool, and programming that includes music sessions and yoga classes, it also offers soap workshops, a nod to the unusual history of the place.
One of the first micro hotels in Porto’s increasingly trendy Cedofeita district, Casa do Conto opened way back in 2011, when boutique hotels were just taking flight and Porto hadn’t yet risen to prominence as a city break destination. The name translates to “house of tales,” and that’s exactly what the six-room hotel is. In the 19th century, the building was a bourgeois house that received visitors who had a strong interest in imagery and culture. The renovation, by Atelier Pedra Líquida, preserves that history, keeping the scars of the building’s decline and rebirth,
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