Fully renovated, with new dining, the Hilton Vilamoura As Cascatas Golf Resort & Spa, Algarve is a golf and spa resort set in gardens beside the fairways of Vilamoura. The property includes cascading pools and the largest spa in mainland Portugal. The broad sands of Falésia beach are a short drive away, where the hotel offers a beach restaurant. It is the relaxed way to stay within one of the Algarve’s most exclusive destinations, ideally suited to golfers, families, and couples looking for both an active and relaxing holiday.
Algarve, Vilamoura
Hilton Vilamoura As Cascatas Golf Resort & Spa
It’s been some time since I stayed at a Hilton resort. We typically stay at the group’s Conrad and Curio Collection hotels. My visit to the Hilton Vilamoura As Cascatas Golf Resort & Spa, on Portugal’s Algarve coast, was a very positive experience. Set in four hectares of gardens on the edge of the Pinhal golf course, guests can choose from 176 rooms and suites and 40 apartments. It opened in 2007 and was renovated from top to bottom for its 18th anniversary in 2025.
Destination Vilamoura
Vilamoura is the Algarve’s most prestigious address. It has a marina, a casino, five golf courses and luxury villas set among the umbrella pines. The area is getting a makeover too. Arrow Global, the British asset manager that owns Vilamoura World, has committed 500 million euros to the destination, expanding the marina for larger yachts, releasing land for new villas and upgrading the golf offering. The former Victoria course has been redesigned by Ernie Els and reopened in 2025 as Els Club Vilamoura. The Algarve’s first private members’ club, the Dom Pedro Vilamoural, is to become a Hyatt Regency, and the Victoria Golf Resort is a Fairmont.
This reputation of exclusivity might put some off, yet Hilton Vilamoura As Cascatas Golf Resort & Spa is the counterpoint. The same group, through its hospitality arm, manages both this hotel and the Vilamoura courses, the Old Course, Pinhal, Millennium and Laguna, so the resort is at the heart of Vilamoura, yet at an accessible price and with a relaxed, welcoming style.
The arrival
From outside the hotel looks much as it always has. The blocks are pale pink and white with terracotta roofs set among landscaped gardens. The real change is inside. You notice as soon as you enter the lobby, redone in travertine and deep blue, and behind the reception desks stand giant ceramic vessels, each over two metres tall.
The room
We had a King Deluxe Room Plus on a corner of an upper floor. The layout includes a bedroom with a small sitting area beside it, and a bathroom behind a sliding door with a glass window onto the bedroom. Open the curtain from the bedroom side and you can lie in the bath and look through the room to the big square windows of the terrace, framing the pine trees of the Pinhal course. The corner position added a second aspect over Vilamoura towards the sea.
In the room was a welcome tray, with pastéis de nata, a Moorish-style sweet of angel hair wrapped in silver paper, and two small bottles of Barros port.
The overall look is resort style, with pale tiled floors, a blonde wood tripod lamp, a navy sofa, a mini bar, plenty of wardrobe space, an iron and everything else you expect from a big brand hotel. The covered terrace was a real highlight. It has two loungers, a table and that framed view. We enjoyed room service breakfast there one morning, with the sun coming across the pine: a real pleasure.
The pools and gardens
As Cascatas means the waterfalls, you can understand why they are a feature of the gardens, with water falling over rocks into the pools shaded by palms and banana plants heavy with fruit. There is a large family pool and a separate adults-only pool, both refreshed in the renovation with new loungers and a pool bar, as well as four further pools. Aquarela, the poolside restaurant, is where to stop for a caipirinha, made with cachaça and crushed lime.
Wellness and the gym
7Seven Spa has its own entrance, a carved wooden door guarded by standing stone figures. Here one finds an indoor thermal pool, Turkish baths, saunas, and an experience shower. The yoga and exercise space overlooks a zen garden. It is described as the largest spa facility in mainland Portugal, and it certainly feels expansive, with a succession of treatment rooms as well as specialist spa treatment areas. My massage was relaxing and well done, with tea and biscuits afterwards in a relaxation room where water runs down the full height of a glass wall.
The resort runs a weekly calendar of complimentary fitness and wellness classes, and guests simply join in. I did a mat Pilates class led by a friendly expert instructor, while the 30-minute Dynamic Challenge in the 24-hour gym is designed to get you comfortable with the equipment.
The Old Course
The golf is why many people come, and the hotel sits on the edge of the Pinhal course, while the Old Course five minutes away by car. Designed by Frank Pennink and opened in 1969, the Old Course is the second oldest in the Algarve and still its most celebrated, having hosted the Portuguese Open. It is absolutely stunning, with rolling parkland through pines. The clubhouse was relaunched at the end of 2024 with a boutique pro shop and a dining room of dark panelling, green boucle booths, reeded glass and elegant scalloped pendant lights. It should come as no surprise that the World Golf Awards have named the Hilton Portugal’s best golf hotel.
I took a golf clinic with David, the resident PGA professional, which took in the putting green, chipping and a session on the range with the high-tech launch monitor screens. It was a lovely morning, and you do not need to be a golfer to enjoy it. Lunch afterwards was excellent. I had to order the battered fish, which the team will tell you is a Portuguese invention that the English took home as fish and chips.
Cilantro
Cilantro is the dining highlight in the hotel. The restaurant was reimagined in the renovation, with a Mediterranean kitchen of seasonal menus. The indoor dining space has tables under a sculptural lit ceiling that swoops down into the room like a sail. We ate on the terrace under the stars, starting with a Porto Tonic from the aperitif list.
The menu includes Amberjack with sea herbs, Algarve tomato and almond gazpacho, as well as clams cooked à Bulhão Pato with garlic and coriander. There is confit duck on a risotto of smoked sausage with an Algarve orange sauce, and croaker is crusted with herbs and served with the flavours of the Ria Formosa. We chose the tartlet of beetroot and Algarve fig, served with a chilled avocado and spinach soup. The goat’s cheese ravioli with caramelised onion came with a pumpkin, chamomile and lemongrass sauce and was excellent. The bacalhau, served in a copper pan under a crust of broa cornbread with a migas of turnip greens and black eyed peas and a potato and leek foam, was perfectly tender, not too salty. Puddings have a local style too, with a carob tart with almond caramel and orange sorbet, a lemon thyme and honey crème brûlée.
The wine list is organised by Portuguese region, with an Algarve page from Barranco Longo, Quinta do Rogel and Quinta dos Sentidos. The sommelier recommended the Cedro do Noval white from the Douro.
Rubi Bar
Rubi Bar has had the most visible makeover, with its blue marble counter under a wall of arched, backlit shelves. Head bartender Arthur is welcoming and happy to suggest signature cocktails. His Negroni uses Alma, a dry gin from Luz Distillery in the Algarve, with a little white port and a vermouth he has adjusted himself. It was excellent. We also tried the Caribbean Treasure from his signature list, which mixes two Planteray rums with banana, pineapple, orange and lime, clarified with milk so it arrives clear yet with all the tropical flavour intact. The bar menu is snack food and did not particularly impress, and the service was not at the level of the rest of the hotel.
The beach
Falésia beach is three kilometres away. You can reach it within five minutes by car or tale the complimentary shuttle. The beach is very broad and runs for miles. MY.AL.MAR is the hotel’s beach club restaurant here. The building, a big white box with a lot of glass, decorated inside with some plastic greenery, is not inspiring. But we took a lovely table on the terrace boardwalk that runs over the dunes. Service was absolutely top notch and very friendly. The prawns piri-piri, sautéed with garlic and chilli, were superb, accompanied with a glass of So Blanc, Barranco Longo’s Algarve Sauvignon Blanc.
Good to know
Faro Airport is 25 kilometres away, about 25 minutes by car. The marina, the casino and the beach are each three kilometres from the hotel. Underground parking is complimentary. The hotel is also pet-friendly. Hilton Honors members booking direct receive the usual benefits.
Final thought
There is room for everyone in Vilamoura. The ultra-luxury resorts are here, as well as the boutique properties around Quinta do Lago. And also the full resort experience of Hilton Vilamoura As Cascatas Golf Resort & Spa, offering golf, spa and the beach close by. It’s a great way to experience Vilamoura.
