The Algarve is the southern part of Portugal and is famous for its beautiful coastline. We stayed in the town of Portimao which is just East of the bigger town of Lagos. There is a stretch of condos and restaurants on top of the cliffs that are popular with Europeans as a vacation spot. The red cliffs make for some great views and I took quite a few photographs. It reminded me a lot of our bike trip along the Oregon coast last summer.
We had been to Lagos in 2018 but my back was bothering me that week so I didn’t get to see as much as I wanted. We wanted a bit of a redo. As luck would have it…. Meg’s back wasn’t doing so great this week. We were hampered a bit but we still were able to have a good week hanging out mostly in Portimao. We were going to stay in the smaller town of Ferragudo but we met another nomad couple in Cambodia earlier this year who gave us the contact info of a really nice French guy that owns a few units in Portimao. Thanks to this tip from Ken and Daphne (their youtube link), we were able to book off platform and get a great deal for a 2 bedroom apartment. Our 2 story place was huge with a balcony, a private patio, and was right next to the large swimming pool. It was just on the outside of town so we did a lot of walking this week. We really should have used the 5 euro Ubers a bit more to get to downtown or the train station, but sometimes we just get used to walking. Let us know if you would like the owner’s contact info.
There really isn’t that much to do in Portimao except explore the beaches and cliffs. There are a lot of tourist centered restaurants near the cliffs. It seemed like half of them were pizza restaurants and the other half were Irish Pubs. Many of the Irish places had live music at night and attracted many actual Irish people. This town seems to be an Irish favorite. We did go away from the tourist zone and saw the downtown a few time. It has a nice waterfront walk and had some cool pedestrian only streets with restaurants that are less touristy. I also toured the Portimao museum which explained the town’s history as a sardine cannery. And, one of the best things we did was have an excellent lunch meet-up with fellow nomads Dave and Tami Jones – we love meeting new people and sharing experiences, itineraries, and loads of laughs.
We had planned to do some day trips to some other small towns near Portimao but transportation wasn’t super easy. The train station was an uber ride away and the trains didn’t run very often. Meg’s back also wasn’t feeling so well, so we mostly enjoyed our beach. One day, I did take a ferry taxi to the much smaller fishing town of Ferragudo. I explored the small pedestrian alleys that gave off a Greek island vibe. I climbed up to the old church and the old castle but both are closed. Back on the waterfront I watched as a couple of boats brought in their catch of the day.
We were complaining about the throngs of tourists that we were seeing in Lisbon and Porto and were happy to come to a much quieter environment. It is also October now so many places were starting to close up. I’m curous if Lisbon and Porto are starting to feel a bit more manageable because it is now off season. The weather is still in the 80’s but the water is a bit cold. The ocean was 69 degrees F and the unheated pool was 75 degrees.
We wanted a week to rest and that is what we got. Yes, we did walk too many steps on many of the days but that is our fault and being so averse to paying for Ubers. Meg’s back is feeling better and we are ready to move on. Next stop is back to Spain! We will stay for a couple of nights in the small town of Huelva before heading to Cordoba!