About us

We are Maarten and Celina Schiphorst-Ongenae from the Netherlands who opened a Boutique Hotel in the eastern Algarve in the summer of 2025. Celina is a true Brabantian and Maarten worked for more than 40 years at the municipalities of Aalsmeer and Amstelveen. Our three sons, their girlfriends, and grandchildren live in Amsterdam. 

Guests bring excitement to our retired life. How wonderful it is to let our friends, family, and guests from all over the world enjoy the Mediterranean life here in Portugal! Maarten often cooks (often Indonesian) for our guests.

Quite by chance, during a holiday in the eastern Algarve, our eye fell on this piece of land with an old Portuguese house near the village of Moncarapacho.

We were immediately enthusiastic about the location, the view of the Atlantic Ocean, and the possibility to build there. The plan to build three rental accommodations, a swimming pool, and a jeu de boules court after retirement was born!

In addition to our hobbies such as reading, gardening, yoga, computing, cooking, Portuguese lessons, and enjoying good food and drink, we are each involved in volunteer work in our own way.

Maarten has been involved in Project Seahorse and other initiatives through his membership in the International Rotary. The seahorse lives in the lagoons and was once the largest population here in the nature park of Ria de Formosa. Unfortunately, the population has decreased enormously. It is wonderful to be able to contribute to this project as a volunteer. Read more in our blog seahorse population.

We started construction in March 2024 construction process and the construction was completed in May 2025! Would you like to experience what the eastern Algarve has to offer? Then you can now book a holiday accommodation with us.

For rates and availability, you can use this link to find out about the possibilities or book directly via our booking system on this website. 

Bem vindo or welcome! You can follow us on Facebook and Instagram!

Every future guest receives a link with all activities and sights after booking a stay with us. This way, you can easily see at home where your interests lie. Let us know when you know what you want to do, and we will take care of the rest!