If you’re looking for a holiday hideaway that's the very definition of quiet luxury, you can stop searching. You’ll find it in the tiny village of Melides in Portugal’s Alentejo region, located 25 minutes from the trendy beach bars of Comporta (where the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are rumoured to have put down a deposit on a home) and a 90-minute drive south of Lisbon.
That’s where shoe designer Christian Louboutin has built his first hotel, Vermelho, which means “red” in Portuguese, in homage to those famous scarlet soles. As someone who has lusted after his shoes – my love of Louboutin can be traced, as many designer obsessions can, back to Sex and the City and those beautiful Big-date worthy pink petal sandals – when I was offered a chance to spend a long weekend there, I started packing immediately.
This is a trip where the hotel is the destination. Warning: you’ll want to tile your whole bathroom when you get home.
The magic of Melides
The hotel can be found nestled amid the single-storey, traditional blue and white houses of the tiny village of Melides, surrounded by the windswept pine forests, endless sand dunes and rice fields of the region. The area is home to architects, artists and designers including Philippe Starck and Louboutin himself (he’s currently building a beachfront sister hotel and finishing work on two beautiful private villas nearby). It feels exclusive, refreshingly unspoilt and the perfect place to unplug.
The hotel sits unassumingly on the corner of a narrow winding road in the tiny hamlet. There's little indication of what lies behind the imposing wooden door.
The hotel itself is very boutique, with just 13 rooms, and has been designed in the traditional powder blue and white of the region, in collaboration with the Portuguese architect Madalena Caiado and many of Louboutin’s creative peers, from textiles designer Carolina Irving and ceramicist Giuseppe Ducrot to Greek artist Konstantin Kakanias.
Endlessly inspiring interiors
Once through that giant door, you’re struck by both the tranquility – the only noise is the quiet chatter of guests and the chiming of the nearby church bells – and the eclectic blend of design influences inspired by Louboutin’s travels and inexhaustible curiosity – from the framed Bollywood posters in the dining room to the shimmering sea urchin chandelier and Versailles-esque chaise lounge in the first-floor hallway, all of which you just stumble upon as you explore.
Many pieces come from the designer’s own collection and it feels less like a hotel, more like a home (if your home happens to be achingly trendy and filled with beautiful artefacts).
Every space will have you opening your phone camera, starting with the shimmering silver Indian Giada bar where you can perch atop red velvet stools in your red-soled Louboutins and order a porta sour or a glass of the local vinho verde. There’s a gold-tinged spa where Joel will treat you to one of his life-changing massages, and a beautiful sky blue pool where you can lay your red striped ‘Loubis on the beach’ towel (free for your stay, €300 to take home).
I stayed in one of the ground floor rooms with a seating area outside (just ask if you want to move your breakfast there), and steps out to the gardens and pool. The rooms are more pared back than the maximalist communal areas, with stylish but subtle Venetian, Moorish and Indian influences, and the simple, king-sized bed delivered a great night’s sleep.
But a moment for the bathrooms…The beautiful tiled bath was as big as my London kitchen, more like your very own plunge pool, and using the giant shower was probably the most relaxing experience I've had standing up. I could have happily spent my whole stay there.
Throughout, the interiors have been carefully curated and overseen by Louboutin himself (a curtain fabric can’t be switched without his sign-off and even the red flowers in the gardens adhere to the colour scheme), yet it somehow feels like some sort of natural alchemy. It made me want to go home and redecorate my flat with rich red and chartreuse velvets, along with traditional Portuguese blue and white tiles immediately.
Food worth staying in for
The on-site restaurant, Xtian, which is housed in the striking powder blue building with red trimmed windows and doorways, didn’t disappoint. There were pancakes, French toast, Eggs Benedict and tiny pastries and mini pasteis de nata for breakfast.
For lunch, I had a deliciously fresh gazpacho while others enjoyed the delicious club sandwich (all hotels should be judged by the quality of their club). The seasonal dinner menu offered a take on the traditional bacalhau (Portuguese salt cod stew), a deliciously rich beef cheek or a curried cauliflower steak, among other exquisitely presented dishes.
As for dessert, one of my party had the melting salted caramel pudding three days in a row, which is really all you need to know.
Shopping and slow living
If you do decide to leave your bathroom, I recommend the five-second walk to Vida Dura, a little homewares store that Louboutin is also an investor in. It sells a lot of the crockery, linen, lamps and vases you’ll spot around the hotel and, yes, I did bring some home in lieu of 1,000 tiles.
If you want to explore the local area, you can borrow bikes from the hotel and spend a leisurely afternoon cycling through the rice fields and pine trees down to the lake and onto the beautiful golden coastline beyond.
I also recommend taking a drive to nearby Comporta to enjoy its more buzzy beach vibe. Dine on paella and salt cod right by the beach at JNcQUOI Beach Club and browse the designer fashion and interiors at Fashion Clinic, which had a Zimmerman pop-up when I visited.
But that’s all assuming you can drag yourself away from the tranquility of Vermelho itself. If White Lotus is looking for its next picture-perfect destination, we think we’ve found it. Jennifer Coolidge's Tanya McQuoid would have loved those baths.
Vermelho Melides is for over-16s only. Rooms start from 400 euros a night including breakfast.
