As I mentioned in my last post, Lisbon was my home base during my time in Portugal. Since my experience in Lisbon was broken out, I’m going to be highlighting some of the side trips I did while in the last leg of my trip.
Remember, I didn’t do a lot of research on Portugal, so throughout this whole trip I really let myself be open to any experiences that came my way. I also let my cousin, Paula, be my guide. She had lived there for a year already. She knew way more about Portugal than I did. Therefore, she suggested for all of us to visit Portugal’s Algarve. I naturally was on board and let her lead the way. She hadn’t been to this part of Portugal before, but she heard raving reviews from fellow new Portuguese friends. So, Paula, Rafa and I caught a bus on a Saturday at 6 AM…
The Algarve is a region of Portugal that has a couple of towns with some beautiful beaches nearby. If you own a PC, do you remember that screensaver with the caves and the blue water? Yea, that’s the Algarve. When I say these beaches are beautiful, I mean I was very impressed by the beauty upkeep here.
I have to share, I could not sleep on our 3.5 hour ride there. Since I couldn’t go back to sleep, I ended up seeing a little bit of the sights on our way south. The most interesting fun fact I learned is that leaving Lisbon, you must cross the Ponte de 25 de Abril. This bridge looks like a replica of the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco. Turns out the company that built it was the same company that had built the Golden Gate bridge! Remember that for your next Trivia night.
As we arrived at Faro, we caught an Uber to pick up our rental car.
Tip: I recommend getting a rental car in the Algarve. There are plenty of beaches to see and they are not all nearby. Public transportation is also not that great here given that the population isn’t huge, and places are very spaced out. Most of the activity in this region of Portugal comes from tourists, or people who own vacation homes here.
First Stop: The Benagil Cave
I never heard of this place, let alone think something like this place existed. I mean it’s basically a cave with a hole in the ceiling, but I mean this was cool! Once we parked, we met some people sharing info on how to rent some boats to get to the cave. All of us didn’t know what the process was going to be like: How do we get there? Do we rent a kayak? A boat? Is there a tour? We ended up making kayak reservations for about 5PM. Since we had time to kill, we sunbathed in the nearby beach. It was HOT. I was nervous to get in the water because this time the body of water wasn’t the Mediterranean, it was the Atlantic Ocean. Which in my mind is cold because back home our beaches are on the Atlantic Ocean and the water is always cold. But it was sooooo HOT that I had to get in the water and it was actually very refreshing. It was still cold, but very much needed with the summer heat.
Once we got to our reservation (15 min late) we rowed our way to the cave and arrived on the cave’s “shore.” What a site! Of course, there were a ton of people taking pictures and also just basking in the crazy beauty of it. We joined them. We had our own photoshoot that lasted maybe 30 minutes, haha! So worth it.
So, after pictures, we had to wait until there were less boats in the water nearby in order to jump back onto our kayak and paddle back to the main beach.
Second Stop: Praia do Carvalho
Paula had a list of beaches she had been recommended to visit, so our beach hopping tour commenced! Since daylight was still clear, we drove to another nearby beach, Praia do Carvalho. It was close to the Benagil cave and we figured maybe we could get a picture from the hole above the cave. Either way, this place was Stunning. This is what my screensaver on my work laptop sometimes pops up when it asks me to sign back on. Another photo op! Below are some shots from that quick stop. More shared on IG.
Afterwards, we went to check into our hostel to drop off our bags and then get ready for a quick dinner. Again, we weren’t really prepared and had to search last minute on some food recommendations. We took a while at the main square of Portimão, but we ended up having a good dinner.
Third Stop: Praia da Rocha
After a tasty breakfast, we decided to head to Praia da Rocha. It’s very simple and like many beaches most of you readers might have already visited, or maybe just the northeasterners? Filled with sand, no cliffs, no long stairs and attached to a local small town. I got the impression that this is where some local people of the region might go to get away from the crazy tourists visiting all the greater sights they were already used to.
After about an hour, we headed back to our car with a quick stop for H2O and some free champagne a pop-up was giving out. Classic marketing here!
Fourth Stop: Praia do Camilo
This was yet another screensaver location. What a sight. Also, so many stairs. It was a small beach. We were a little cramped to the side but we sunbathed and freshened up in the cool Atlantic ocean. We were there probably for about 1.5 hours. Afterwards we knew it was time to eat!
I have to say, although 4 beaches doesn’t sound like a lot, Algarve is made up of a few towns. To get from one beach to another sometimes took us about 30-45 minutes. We also have to account for the travel time to our hostels.
I have a separate Mapstr map you can all follow me for all my food recommendations that I have tried myself and some that I have yet to try, but I have to highlight our lunch/dinner. We ate at “Tasca Da Lota.” I highly recommend eating here. Fresh seafood, seasoned deliciously, and good wine. It’s rather very casual, but a perfect place to eat after a long beach day.
Once our stomachs were filled up, we went to check in at our second hostel in Faro. We all showered and freshened up to go out! We met a fellow Peruvian at this bar/restaurant called “Aperitivo” and tasted some decent Pisco Sour. Paula and I felt a piece of home with us. We searched for a bar that Rafa had been to a few years back. Some Whiskey sours, shots of Ginjinha later and we were dancing to a few 70s songs. we made a few friends and wandered the streets of Lagos into the night.
The next day, we packed up and headed to the main part of town for a casual lunch. We killed a few hours lounging at a nearby hotel bar, that was open to the public. Afterwards, we returned our rental car and waited for the next bus back to Lisbon.
I had one more side trip to make while in Lisbon. The next location is coming up soon!
Voyage Checklist 