Ritz-Carlton Assumes Management of Golf Resort

PORTUGAL, SPAIN-The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. LLC has assumed management of an historic resort here in the Estoril coastal region. The new management has sparked a new name and a $20-million makeover slated to start next year.

The upgrade will include more guest rooms and a 16,000-sf spa by spring 2006, according to the Chevy Chase, MD-based hotel company. In advance of that, the resort has been renamed the Penha Longa Hotel and Golf Resort.

The 177-room resort is located in the National Park of the Southern Sintra Mountains, in the historic Portuguese town of Sintra, declared a World Heritage site by Unesco. As for the golf, the resort includes two courses designed by Robert Trent Jones, Jr.–the Atlantic, an 18-hole championship course, and the Monastery, a nine-hole executive course.