The rich and famous of Portugal have their mansions in Algarve. The golden triangle between Almancil, Quinta do Lago and Vale do Lobo is for the rich and famous. Quinta do Lago and Vilamoura are the preferred destinations and it is not only the rich and famous of Portugal like Christiano Ronaldo but celebrities from other countries have invested here and frequently travel to Algarve. Madonna, Steven Gerrard, Michael Owen, Alan Shearer, Jose Mourinho, Scarlet Johansson and many others have invested here and Sir Cliff Richard’s company makes wine in the region.

I loved the place. It gave perfect vibes. In the month of June if you have a place with such fantastic weather with great beaches, lovely views, charming towns, great nightlife, good restaurants and many golf courses – I am bound to fall in love with such a place. I must confess that I did not play any Golf though temptation was tremendous. Left that for a time to come here with my golf buddies in near future.

The journey from Porto was not directly to Algarve. Our trip had started from the lovely city of Porto but we did go to Lisbon in between. I have already written about the Lisbon and Porto parts of holiday and how much a fun places they were. But if I were to visit 7-10 days in one place, my vote will go to Algarve.

The train from Lisbon getting cancelled didn’t affect the trip much. A bus station was nearby and a bus was leaving in a couple of hours and the tickets were available. We were lucky. The bus was great and it gave us chance to travel by bus and then it dropped us to Faro. Near the bus stand was the waterfront and waterfront had a very nice restaurant, so then first meal in Algarve was in fabulous settings. It is from Faro airport we picked up our swanky rental vehicle and though it took me 10 minutes to acclimatise to driving on right side of road – we were mobile for the next 5 days. This was a big plus to explore a region with several towns and great sightseeing places. It would have been painful doing this with cabs and we would have missed out on several picturesque spots.

Lagos

It was a wise decision to stay in two towns at Algarve. Lagos is on the western side and is quieter than Albufeira and Vilamoura. It is also a fantastic place to stay with some great beaches in proximity. From Faro Airport to our our hotel ‘Belmar beach resort & spa’ it was around 100 km but as the roads were good we reached in around an hour or so. Driving was easy as it was very well regulated and everyone followed rules even though we didn’t see a single cop on the way. The hotel was very good and walk down to the beach was just 5 minutes.

At Algarve you seem to be always walking down to the beach. Much of the area is on the towering cliffs from where you get spectacular views of the Atlantic ocean. Most hotels and resorts are perched on the cliffs. Often you have to walk down steeply to get to the beaches and use the ‘caves’ to access the beaches. Then you can admire the act of centuries of erosion to the cliffs before it is time to climb all the way up ! Thankfully at Belmar the beach was just a stroll away and climb up was not bad at all.

The beaches to visit in this area were Praia dos Estudantes, Praia de Pinhao, Praia da Duna Ana. Not difficult to guess that Praia means the beach. The lovely beaches with the background of eroded cliffs and faced by deep blue sea were a pleasure to spend time on. After a swim it would be time to climb up and have chilled beer and nice food as we did at Sao Goncalo de Lagos.

The main things that we did while staying at Lagos were :

Visit to Sagres : It is supposed to be the South Western point of Europe. You get spectacular views of the ocean and you can just walk around the complex. The view is as good as from any other place but it feels good to touch the starting point of Europe. Just remember that one can only enter the complex after buying a ticket. The place is huge and there are many walking tracks. We spent more than a couple of hours here as there were many nice spots for getting the photographs clicked.

Visit to the beaches

Some of the beaches like Marinah beach (extreme right) are considered to be prettiest in Europe.

Visit the Benagil Sea caves : This was fun. This was quite a highlight of the trip as we bought tickets for a speedboat ride but what we didn’t expect was that the boat would take us through tiny openings inside the sea caves. Often we had to bend down so the head wouldn’t collide with the roof of the cave. The largest of these is called the Benagil Cave. We were taken to several caves and explained about the formation of the caves and erosion process. It was an hour of fun with kayak groups all around exploring the caves in a different manner. And when we were not in the cave the boat would zoom through the sea and we could admire the beautiful landscapes.

The Old Town : We also did visit the old town of Lagos but as we had visited the old town in each and every town I will skip detailing it except that the day we visited the Old town, the pubs and bars were full as the champions league soccer final was underway. It was a nice old town and really nice to stroll around. It also had a beach across the road and you could walk on the path along the beach.

Albufeira and the Eastern part

Albufeira must be the most popular and happening part of Algarve with an unbelievable nightlife. The restaurants were everywhere and the old town was very scenic and very large. We stayed at the Alfagar Village which was a large complex with low rise apartments. On our drive from Lagos we had visited the famous ‘Marinah beach‘ and then stopped at the laid back sea facing town of Carvoeiro for lunch. It was another scenic town on the coast with a lot of restaurants and activities. It wasn’t too far from Benagil caves. The more places we visited in this southern part of Portugal – the more we liked the place. Our resort was full of British families and there was quite a bit of festive atmosphere. The property had 5 swimming pools, spa, tennis courts, car rental and a grocery store. It was a very steep and long hike down to the beach. WE went down the beach where I had a nice swim and then came back from another route which was longer but not very steep. The best part of the resort was that we had spectacular ocean view from our room.

We just had to get out of the complex and there was a line of restaurants and bars. The old town was not very far and it would go wild at night and Albufeira also had another area competing with old town and is said to have beaten the old town as far as wild partying is concerned – it was known as the ‘Strip of Albufeira.’ Just next the resort was a lovely golf course and I can imagine what beautiful views it must be having. Faro was around 40 km’s from here so one day we even spent time at a shopping centre. This is the advantage of staying in a place long enough to enjoy everything that it offers. The upmarket Vilamoura was just 20 minutes away and that also had good nightlife with dance and music.

The old town of Albufeira – full of action all the time but more after sunset.

The 5 days went by quickly at Algarve and it was time to move on to another region in another country. We were off to the Black Forest area of Germany the next day but on the penultimate night at Algarve we met up with cousins who were staying in a different hotel here. It was time to say cheers for the last time together in Portugal. It was a country we enjoyed very much and would recommend highly to others as it has a lot to offer.