A Visit to the Algarve

This was our third major "target" for our week in Portugal; We had heard stories from Celeste's parents about how beautiful the Algarve is, and how good the food was, so our expectations were high and our zeal to start our exploration there was at a high level!

Our use of the word "target" was meant to point out that we had spent time in Northern Portugal in the Douro Valley, and a week in the Lisbon area exploring Lisbon, Caiscais and everthing in between. Driving to the Algarve and exploring that area, would allow us to round out our Portugal adventure.

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Departing our Lisbon Condo: Our condo was located near the intersection of Calçada Galvão and R. Gen. João de Almeida which is pretty much suburbia north of the Jeronimo Monastery. After packing up our rental car, we drove north on the Calçada Galvão to where we could access the A5 and then merged onto the A2 to get to the 25th of April Bridge. From the bridge, it is 275 kilometers to the Algarve.

Getting There: The freeway from Lisbon to Portimão was easy to navigate and had very little traffic. We stayed on the A2 until it became the E2. Leaving the E2 onto Portugal A22 to Portimão, exited onto the N124 to enter the city. As the Tivoli Hotel & Marina was perhaps 10 miles away, we traversed Portimão on local streets with numerous round-a-bouts and traffic. Typical for Europe, but a little challenging for many Americans! Diligence & discipline in driving & navigation is required !

NOTE 1: Once you pass over the 25th of April Bridge and proceed south on the A2, there is a lot of wide open space and very few villages or cities. Rolling hills, cork trees, and the occasional cow or horse, but not much else!

NOTE 2: Keep your Mapping App out and have it displaying the route, because the Portimão city streets are narrow, crowded with lots of traffic!

IMAGE CREDITS: Both images above are the property of the Tivoli Marina Portimao Algarve Resort

The city of Portimão is off to the left in image # 1, and the Tivoli Marina where we were staying is at the far end of this beach view. The entry to the Arade River can be seen in the top center of this image.

Image # 1 was taken from the top of the Viewpoint of the Three Castles ("Miradouro dos Três Castelos") on an early morning hike we took. As you can see, there are very few people on the beach, that will change as the day progresses.

Image # 2 is looking westward from a lookout point on Viewpoint of the Three Castle (Avenue Tomas Cabreira of Tres Castelos beach). You can see all of the beach chairs and lounges ready to be rented!

Image # 3 was taken from the other side of the rocks, where we descended to the beach to find a spot where we could play paddle ball, and were amazed at the cliff rock formations.

In image # 4 the rock formations & cliff on the west end of Praia da Rocha beach, you can see how small the people are in relation to the cliff. We took this picture early in the day, and the beach crowd had not yet started to arrive. After we spread our towels out and hung out for a while, the crowds were starting to build up.

The motivation to go here, comes in two parts, ie; This was where Prince Henry the Navigator built his school of navigation in the 15th century. Part two is that the cliffs in this area are fantastic, and the waves coming in from the Atlantic will frequently be massive.

Beside the historical signficance of the Sagres area, the drive takes you through a larger part of the Algarve area - taking you into pretty villages, amazing coastline and then you arrive at the farthest southwest point in Europe!

Take a look at the map link above; we first drove to the Fontaleza de Sagres, and explored there first. We then drove over to the Lighthouse of Cabo de São Vicente and explored there.

Lighthouse of Cabo de São Vicente

We were standing in the Sagres Fortress area, looking over at the next peninsula which has a lighthouse on it (images # 1 & 2). That lighthouse was built in 1846 and was constructed on the old ruins of a Franciscan monastery. It now belongs to the Portuguese Navy. The lighthouse is the second most powerful in Europe (after Phare du Creach in Brittany) and the light beam can be seen 60 kilometers away.

The cliffs in the Sagres area are astounding, and the Atlantic Ocean pounds away at them constantly. Cliff heights here can reach 75 meters! As is usual in Europe, there are no walls or signs telling you to stay away from the cliff edges, Europe expects you to be smart enough to already know that!

NOTE: Image # 1 (the large image above) is the property of Dr.G.Schmitz using the CC BY-SA 3.0 license. All other images are the property of Just Traveling Thru, LLC unless otherwise noted.

We had a great dinner at the Restaurante Almeida, located on the water front adjacent to the Tivoli Hotel where we were staying. The food there was fantastic, and the vibe of being next to the beach, with good wine, and excellent seafood, provided us with a memorable dinner experience.

I am having cataplana (Portuguese Fish Stew) - named for the vessel it is traditionally cooked and served in, the stew gets lots of flavor from the Portuguese linguiça & shellfish. I can honestly tell you that it was an amazing dinner!

NOTE: Below are some useful links where you can find even more information about the areas we have described on this page. There are of course, many other useful websites & pages, so for something specific, we would suggest using Google Search.