Portugal ~ Algarve

[amboseli]

After our week at the Costa Vicentina, we drove along the Alentejo Coast and via Cabo São Vicente (Europe's Land's End) to the Algarve. This was our fifth time in the Algarve but this time we stayed in Carvoeiro, central Algarve, whereas the previous times we stayed in the eastern Algarve.
There are a few big differences!

The Eastern Algarve (east of Tavira, that is) is mainly visited by Spanish and Portuguese and it's a fairly quiet area. No bars/discos, many typical restaurants.
The beaches are on sandbanks off the coast, to be reached with small boats. Hundreds of meters of white sandy beach for ourselves.

Central Algarve seems to be the hotspot for British and Irish travelers. It's full of Irish pubs, bars, crowded and noisy. No typical cataplana do peixe or arroz de tamboril here. Big steaks instead, and a lot of cheap Indian and Chinese restaurants.
The beaches are small, in between the rock formations, to be reached by going hundred or more steps down the cliff. Every beach-goer has about 2m² of golden sand to put his towel on. Okay, I'm exaggerating but you get the picture. Beautiful beaches but some are so small that it felt a bit claustrofobic to be in between the high cliffs.

Anyway, it was far too hot to sit on the beaches so we just drove past them and took a few looks. Also visited the neighbouring towns (Lagos [the mercado] and Silves) and had a nice Sunday Lunch on the golf course in Vale do Lobo.

Here they are ...

[onlyMark]

I had all the school summer holiday one year in Carvoeiro. Really enjoyed it and glad that from your excellent photos, it doesn't seem much different. The beaches especially.

[amboseli]

The beaches are spectacular indeed. It's such a pity that the town is so over-crowded. If you want to eat at a certain restaurant, you have to make reservations days ahead. We have never experienced that during previous holidays in the Tavira area, nor at the Costa Vicentina.

[lagatta]

It is very beautiful, but I'd rather go somewhere I could enjoy Portuguese seafood. I love fish.

Did you get your Bratwurst fix?

[cheerypeabrain]

I am a fan of the Algarve. We stayed in a touristy bit but there was a very good bus service so we got out and about...everybody else was on the (stunning) beaches..we did visit the beaches but only early in the morning when they were pretty deserted...

I love those honey coloured rocks against the sea. Stunning.

[bixaorellana]

Sorry about the claustrophobic beaches, but thrilled that you all drove on and documented all the beauty with your truly stunning photographs.

The storks! The log-lined sandy path! The fish! All those gorgeous shots from above down to the water, rocks, & beaches!

Thanks for this, Amboseli, I need to go to Portugal, but am wondering how doable it is using just public transportation.

[onlyMark]

It'd be a long bus ride from Mexico.
I bet it'd be overnight at least.

[kerouac2]

I remember that in 1971 I took a direct train from Paris to Lisbon. (Such things no longer exist.) I also remember very clearly that travel time was 27 hours. I know that I must have bought provisions for the trip, but I have no recollection of them. However, I do remember that in those days it was impossible to sit in a train compartment for hours without being offered what the other people in the compartment were eating. I have major nostalgia for those days, even though I am happy that travel is now in coaches and not in compartments. Not all of my friends agree.

What is sad is that I loved Portugal (just Lisbon actually) and yet I have not returned since that trip. However, in recent months I have found myself checking air fares to Portugal as well as hotel prices, so I am sure that I will at last return there before long.

[bjd]

Portugal is doable by public transit although, of course, you can't stop where you want and get out to take photos. The first time we went to Portugal, it was as a family and we rented a house in a little town (Ericeira) about 50 km north of Lisbon. Apparently it is now a surfing hotspot but at the time it was just Portuguese tourists. From there we went to nearby towns and to Lisbon on day trips.

The second time was just with my husband in 2007, a week in Lisbon and a week in Algarve (Evora, Lagos & Tavira) ut it was in October so we had beautiful weather and few tourists. We travelled by bus and by train along the coast from Lagos to Tavira, stayed in small pensions and had no trouble finding empty tables at restaurants.

However, I think Portugal, and particularly Lisbon, is getting known as a reasonably priced, nice city, so it is getting more and more filled with tourists. There are lots of cheap flights from many French cities so long weekends are full of French tourists in Lisbon. And, as Amboseli says, the coast is Brit heaven -- although we'll see how that goes.

All this to say that we really liked Portugal, the people were friendly, spoke much better English than the Spaniards (movies are in original version so kids develop a good accent), prices were reasonable. I imagine the south coast is pretty awful in full summer though, especially around Lagos which is known as a party town.

[bixaorellana]

Thank you, Bjd! That information is pure gold and makes Portugal sound even more desirable. Nice idea to avoid the summer season & your October trip sounds lovely.

[amboseli]

During our four previous trips to the Algarve (always mixed with other cities - we have driven from north to south and from east to west) we used to rent a condo in Cabanas de Tavira. It's a tiny fishing village, tourists are mainly Spanish. Probably because it's close to the Spanish border. It's quiet and laid-back, the restaurants are small anbd typical, the total opposite of Carvoeiro and Lagos (mentioned by bjd). Even the city of Tavira (an authentic Portuguese city) is quiet and quaint. If we ever go back (which I doubt, after 5 times), we will certainly go back to Cabanas (or Castro Marim).

[lagatta]

All those are good tips. I definitely to NOT want to go to a party town, and I wouldn't have enjoyed that when I was 20 either (I love wine, but with food, not drinking bouts). In Portugal, with fish...

I'd think the weather would be lovely in October, especially in the south. If I go to Portugal, I'll certainly go to Porto, as I have an old friend who is a professor there; I expect that it is quite a bit cooler up there, with rain from the Atlantic?

I find Portuguese Portuguese (as opposed to Brazilian Portuguese) rather difficult to understand, spoken. It is certainly very different in terms of sound from Spanish, not to mention Italian or French.

Friends in France love holidays in Portugal, and have found quieter places. Of course there are other tourists besides them, but their destinations are not party central.

[kerouac2]

I like all of those little beaches, but I was wondering if all of these places are visible from the coastal road or are indicated by signs or if you just have to be lucky to find them. I myself am not a beachgoer except for walking on them in the dead of winter or during a big storm, but I know that so many people dream of such beaches.

Like Lagatta, I find the seafood to be the main attraction. Lovely fish photographs.

One advantage for French tourists to Portugal is the fact that something like 18% of the Portuguese population has lived in France, Belgium or Luxembourg, so French is one of the most spoken foreign languages. The Portuguese are the largest immigrant group in both France and Luxembourg. In Luxembourg, the Portuguese make up 17% of the population! The Portuguese population of France is 1.5 million, counting the children born in France. (The total population of Portugal is only 10.5 million.)

[amboseli]

lagatta
Porto is my alltime favourite city in Portugal. We have been twice for 5 days and I wouldn't mind going again.
Agree about the language. It's very difficult to understand (reading is OK). The Portuguese 'swallow' a lot of the vowels and a S is pronounced SH. When in Porto, we wanted to have dinner in a neighbourhood called Matosinhos. So we asked directions to 'Ma-to-sin-hos'. We go directions to 'Matshinsh'.

kerouac2
You can easily find all the small beaches. They are mostly not visible from the road but directions are very good.



The small beaches of the western Algarve, though, are not the best if you want to walk 'cause you can't go from one to the next. You always have to cross the cliffs (i.e 100 or more steps). The beaches in the Costa Vicentina were much better (longer) but the best beaches for walking are in the eastern Algarve where the beaches are on long sandbanks (islands), reachable by small boats. Ilha de Tavira, for instance, is 12 km long. Ilha de Cabanas (quieter) is 7 km long. You can walk forever! The scenery in the eastern Algarve is very different, though. There are no rocks, nor cliffs.
The eastern end of the Algarve is also easy to explore by train. The railway line runs virtually along the coast from Faro to Vila Real de Santo António and with a station at Conceição (about 1km from the centre of Cabanas) you can visit Tavira, Luz, Fuseta, Olhão and Faro to the west and Cacela, Monte Gordo and Vila Real de Santo António to the east (.

[lagatta]

That sounds lovely. I've walked along the Flemish coast in Belgium, you know, with the wonderful Kusttram; we actually had some fine weather.

Glad to hear that about Porto. It seems to be increasing in popularity, but I don't imagine that it is as heavily touristed as Lisbon or the Algarve. Not that I'm in the slightest allergic to meeting other tourists, it is just disagreeable when places are overrun. I'll probably run into Portuguese-French who have cousins in Montréal. In Rome a taxi driver from Molise (the southern part of what was gli Abruzzi with what is now Abruzzo), learning that I was from Montréal, said he had relatives on rue Chabot. That was the street I lived on at the time! It is a fairly long street (from Mont-Royal to Crémazie) but still quite a coincidence and far from the only time this has happened.

I don't want to impose on my friends; they will be busy with their academic pursuits during the year, but I'm sure there are accommodations at a reasonable rate.

As for vino, I'm by far more interested in the Douro (dry table wines) more than Porto per se. And obviously, in fish.

portoalities.com/en/what-are-the-best-restaurants-in-porto-for-a-low-budget/

[bjd]

We were lucky in Tavira when looking for a place to stay. Right across from the Bica restaurant there was a sign for a pension. But the lady didn't speak any English. When we said we were French, she was thrilled -- said she had spent 13 years in Perpignan before returning to Portugal, so she spoke French. Rented us 2 rooms with a bathroom for 25€/night.

Oddly enough, when we were looking or an internet café, in Tavira we found some Russians running one, and we heard other Russians on the street.

We took a little old train along the coast from Lagos to Tavira, with a change in Faro.

When we get home, I'll try to post some photos from Portugal, on another thread of course.

[amboseli]

lagatta
Porto is indeed not as touristy as Lisbon, but of course there are tourists. I am one, too! And I don't mind tourists when they're a mixture of various nationalities. But in Carvoeiro (Algarve) all we heard was English. I'm a member of the Carvoeiro group on Facebook and even British members who live there part of the year complain that the town has become too British and is loosing its charm.
Don't expect Porto to be nice and clean. Some areas are really in decay (not sure if that's the correct wording) but the city has a good vibe, difficult to explain.
We love port wine, and also vinho verde on a warm summer day. The first part of the Douro Valley (do visit!) produces the grapes for vinho verde, further down the douro it's all port houses.
We ate the best fresh fish in a small café/restaurant on the beach in Matosinhos. It was 7 euros for a whole grilled sea bream, right from the sea, with veggies and potatoes. To die for! I must check in one of my trip reports i I can find its name.
Another good one (known for its sea bream / sea bass in salt crust) in Matosinhos was O Lusiada, but I though it was a bit pricey and service was rather stiff.

[lagatta]

Well, of course if I should go to Porto and elsewhere in Portugal, I'd be a tourist too, even though I have friends there. Lots of tourists you've mentioned are emigrants with family or friends in Portugal, but they are also travelling elsewhere in the country.

Now I want that grilled sea bream...

[lea]

Wow, your pictures look gorgeous!! I really need to visit Portugal very soon!