W

ell, there’s something to be said for a name that helpfully spells things out for you. We’d argue that nature should be first, in fact. It’s not that Parque Natural Serras de Aire e Candeeiros, where the hotel is located, is so essential: it’s not a fundamental destination on the must-see-before-you-die list. But it’s a gorgeous landscape within easy reach of a city that is on that list. And Cooking and Nature - Emotional Hotel, with its sleek concrete and glass exterior and its dozen individually decorated guest rooms, is an ideal place to hang your hat during a side adventure into this otherworldly stretch of limestone hills, shadowy grottoes and colossal underground caves.

Which brings us to the emotional aspect. The design of each of those rooms was inspired by one of twelve emotions. The Magic room has a children’s book aesthetic, with candy colors, checkered floors, and fairytale-inspired murals; the Passion room, lined with mirrors, has the look of a Parisian cabaret. Emotions run the range from Adventure to Happiness to Romance. Perhaps the most traditionally Portuguese of these rooms is “Saudade.” It’s an untranslatable word, a concept related to longing and melancholy — here, it’s expressed in the moody color palette and lines of poetry painted directly onto the walls.

But what about the cooking, you ask? Well, it’s not just the cooking you’ll eat, it’s the cooking you can do under the guidance of a modern Portuguese chef. During a cooking lesson, you’ll sample local cheese and olive oil before wading through the garden, wine glass in hand, to source ingredients for your dinner menu. If you’d rather let someone else do the work, kick back with a cocktail — the honesty bar is stocked with indigenous botanicals to mix into your gin and tonic — and take in the scenery while the bread bakes. There you have it: cooking, nature, and emotion, all within an easy drive of the capital city.