Port Santo - Portugal's best-kept secret
Colombo's Resort on the island of Porto Santo will offer 193 luxury apartments, 12 villas and a luxury hotel & health spa, set in one of the most dramatic landscapes imaginable and just a step away from one of the most beautiful beaches in the world.

It has been a well-kept secret amongst Portugal's cognoscenti for years, where those in the know go to escape the crowds of summer tourists. Now, a tiny island 40km off the coast of Madeira is set to become the latest fashionable hideaway for those wanting to live abroad, with the development of an exclusive 5-star resort designed by famed Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill.

Just 14km long and 4km wide, the island of Porto Santo is one of Europe's finest destinations. Undeveloped as a holiday spot until now, a huge investment by the Regional Government is now transforming the infrastructure to make it a truly exclusive hideaway - untouched by mass tourism, easily accessible from Britain and Mainland Europe and benefiting from the warm year-round climate that has made Madeira so popular for so long.

But where Madeira is known for attracting retirement couples seeking some winter sun, Porto Santo is where the younger, smarter set head. And Colombo's Resort, flanked by a first-class golf course designed by Seve Ballesteros, will appeal to the most sophisticated visitors.
Bofill's design, in keeping with his credo of 'memory and future', is a stylish low-level development, grand in vision but blending harmoniously with its surroundings and employing the finest quality materials and workmanship. Apartments are contemporary, with a passionate commitment to detail, quality and functionality yet responding to the timeless demands of comfort and luxurious styling; and the Luxury Collection Hotel, operated by Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, will provide a discrete getaway for the holiday elite.

Moreover, a population of less than 5,000, strict planning controls that prohibit high-rise or high-density buildings and a government-imposed restriction of 4,000 hotel beds ensure that the island's cultural and ecological balance is preserved and that Colombo's Resort will remain entirely exclusive.