Our 10 days adventure in Portugal begins in the Algarve. The perfect place for surfing, exploring caves and relaxing on some of the most beautiful beaches in Europe. I may not find the perfect description for this place, but I promise you will fall in love when you get there.
Bom Dia! (let’s get a little into the Portuguese spirit). Find below our itinerary:
- Day 1 – flight, way from Lisbon to the Algarve, Lagos city-center
- Day 2 – Praia de Porto Mos, Ponta de Piedad, Praia do Camilo, Praia do Vou, Portimao city – center, Praia dos estudiantes
- Day 3 – Catamaran & kayak trip `Portimao – Benagil Cave` (3h), Praia do Marinha, Albufeira city-center, way to Evora
- Day 4 – Capela Dos Ossos, Placa do Giraldo, Aqueduto da Agua de Prata, Cuevas Mira de Aire, Coimbra University & city-center, way to Porto.
Day 1:
In the first day, we landed in Lisbon and in front of the airport, we waited for the van of Centauro to go and rent a car. The airport was full of young people with surfboards and we promised that soon, we really have to try it :D. The process was quite easy, so after an hour, we set the GPS to Lagos. At the exit of Lisbon, we crossed Vasco Da Gama bridge, which besides being gorgeous, it is also the longest bridge in Europe.
Accommodation: Hotel Lagosmar
Parking: Here it is a free parking in Lagos
I still believe that the best accommodation in the Algarve is in Lagos, even that Albufeira is their top and famous city. Very welcoming people at Hotel Lagosmar, upstairs you have a large terrace where you can relax and in the morning you can enjoy your breakfast in bed. The pandemic has its good things, right?
We spent the evening in their old center, with a lot of nice places, especially, being the weekend, there were many tourists. In terms of restrictions, the bars closed around 2 o’clock, but you could still walk through their small and chic streets.
Day 2:
- Praia de porto mos
- Ponta de Piedad
- Praia do Camilo
- Praia do Vou
- Portimao: city-center
- Praia dos estudiantes
If you want to stay longer at the beach and not be in a hurry, just remove from your list Praia de Porto mos and Portimao because it is not such a spectacular city.
Spoiler alert: You will love Ponta de Piedad because it is much more beautiful than in the pictures, and at Praia do Camilo you will find a tunnel, so you can walk from beach to beach.
Day 3:
- Catamaran & kayak trip `Portimao – Benagil Cave` (3h)
- Praia do Marinha
- Albufeira city-center
- Way to Evora
ALGARVE FUN are the ones from where I bought online tickets for this trip. The price is 40 euros, a little bit higher than others, but considering that it lasted 3h; Worth it! 1h will be with the catamaran, enjoying the beautiful coast, in the next hour, the adventure starts with the kayak to Benagil Cave and around 30 minutes are reserved for exploring caves (Benagil & Esmeralde). I warmly recommend them. I really like this kayak activity, it’s super fun and if you haven’t done it before, believe me it’s nothing dangerous, not to mention that you don’t even have to know to swim, if in case you thought that.
Praia do Marinha is another beautiful beach, where I stayed for about 2-3 hours. Before going down the stairs to the beach (typical Algarve) you will find a sign with the number of people and the occupancy rate on the beach.
In Albufeira we went more to see their famous street “The Strip”, the same as the one from Las Vegas. If you are a big fan of crazy parties, this is your place for sure :D. What I think is nice here, it is their old center that we didn’t get to see, but if you have enough time, don’t miss it.
#FOOD ALERT
I was thinking about adding some restaurant recommendations, from the Algarve and guess what; smart me, I didn’t note anything :)) The area is known for see food of course, so I advise you to open Trip Advisor, set it up nearby and you will surely find a portion of shells or an excellent octopus. About drinks: most likely you have heard of their specific Pastais de Nata cake, let me tell you some insights, we first drank Pastais de Nata :)) and only then did we eat it. There are many nice places in Lagos and you will find shots with this name.
The last part of the day, we spent it in Evora after 3 hours of driving.
Always on GPS we check how much we do on toll roads and on toll-free ones, so because the difference was relatively small, we said to choose the one without toll…in this way we will have the opportunity to see some Portuguese villages, why not?
What caught our attention on the road is that from place to place, in the middle of nothing, we saw a traffic light, which was red and more than that, without any crosswalk. The first one, then the second … and after google-ing, we found out that this is their mechanism to make u reduce the speed. It’s called VELOCIDADE CONTROLADA and if you exceed the legal speed, the traffic light will turn red.
Also on the way to Evora, I saw many trees that besides being “naked”, meaning they no longer had the bark layer, were also numbered. With the help of Mr. Internet, I found out that Portugal is the largest producer of cork in the world. Once every 9 years, the first layer of trees is taken and used for production. So when you will see a lot of cork souvenirs in the cities, now you know why: D.
Accommodation: ZOETIC sustainable rooms (parking included)
The best host, I found it here. We really appreciated that she offered us a map of the city and told us a little about the history of the place. We spent the evening wandering through the center and admiring this museum city, very old and with a calming rhythm.
#FOOD ALERT
The area is famous for their black pig called ” pata negra ” or “porco preto”. You will find it only in the center-south of Portugal and I read then, it is a pig that feeds only on acorns. Nice places: O Combinado ; Guião ; 1 / 4 pras 9
Day 4:
The day started with a homemade breakfast. The fruits were grown in the yard, the tomato jam and pumpkin jam were homemade and everything seemed to be wrapped in a story.
Then we went to visit the highlights of the city and especially the church built of skulls and bones at the initiative of 3 monks. They wanted to convey the message of the fragility of human life. At the entrance you will see the message “We bones that are here, for yours we wait”
- Chapel of Bones
- Templo Romano
- Placa do Giraldo
- Apeducto Da Agua de Prata
More interesting things to visit in Evora are on the map below. The city teleports you a long time, it is also included in the UNESCO patrimony, and if you want a pit stop on your trip, a night here is such a good idea.
Around noon, we continued our adventure to the largest cave in Portugal: Mira de Aire. The entrance here is made every half hour, costs 7 euro / person and you will spend about 45 minutes. It is very impressive you will go down many stairs and I understood that eccentric portuguese also do weddings here)
Coimbra:
The purpose of the vacation was to visit as many small cities as we can. We initially hesitated between Aveiro or Coimbra, but after a bit of research Coimbra was the winner. It is the city with the oldest university in Europe, here live a lot of young people, many of whom are from other countries. I think an Erasmus experience in Coimbra would have been very interesting. Oh.. someone is missing college period. Back to Coimbra. Regarding the roads, wow .. get ready because they are extremely sloping, many stairs, you are practically in a continuous workout, if you live in this city :)).
#FOOD ALERT
Toca do Gato is not a typical restaurant, they don’t have a menu because they only have 3 or 4 dishes cooked in that day and it’s so good that you will always remember it. Caldo Verdo is one of their traditional soups (with cabbage, chickpeas and carrots, don’t panic because it is terribly good), and as a main course: goat, pork and octopus. Ever since Evora we have been told that the further north you go, the bigger and richer your food portions are, so .. brace yourself :)) Beverage category: Vihno Verde. It really has a slightly greenish color, but it is also made from white grapes, not very ripe.
Next, check it out Part 2: Porto and Braga. Wine not? how was our experience in Porto.
1 thought on “Part 1: Paradise in the Algarve”
Thankfulness to my father who stated to me about this weblog, this website is in fact awesome.