Every year Monocle magazine launches its annual survey of the best in class. São Lourenço do Barrocal is part of the hospitality stars that compose this round-the-world ticket and has been featured as the most bucolic escape.

Surrounded by undulating plains and cork trees, São Lourenço do Barrocal lies in the heart of the Alentejo, Portugal's big-sky country and agricultural heartland. Close to fortified Roman towns, Moorish ruins and the vast Alqueva Lake, the hotel is part of a 200-year-old farming estate that is replete with vineyards and olive groves. Its whitewashed stone buildings with terracotta-tiled roofs have been carefully refurbished by Pritzker-winning architect Eduardo Souto de Moura, who has carved out rooms, cottages and a spa for guests in former stables and barns. An idyllic refuge.