Then I went to Portugal with two people who are confident drivers and can drive stick and my whole view of transportation while traveling changed.

Cars are fun! You can go wherever you want! You don’t have to wait for buses that might never come! You won’t be on a bus where everyone else speaks Chinese and you have no idea where you are or when you’re supposed to get off!

Having a car made exploring the region so much easier than public transport would’ve and while I eventually warmed to Albufeira, it wasn’t a place I wanted to spend every day of my vacation. It turned out, though, to be the perfect base for exploring the Algarve. We hit the road for two full days, the first day spent going west and the second going east.

If you’re wondering where to go in the Algarve, here are 6 town to check out.

Lagos

Lagos is everything I imagined a Portuguese seaside town to be like. I was no longer wondering whether I was in Florida. I was definitely now in Europe. Though Lagos is probably most famous for its beautiful beaches and distinctive karts, we stopped here for lunch and a wander through the historical center.

There are just as many tourists as Albufeira, but the architecture, both crumbling and restored, make it feel completely Portuguese. I fell in love with the brightly colored tiled buildings, laid back atmosphere, and tasty fresh sardines.

Sagres

Known as ‘The End of the World’, Sagres is a sleepy surf town at the southwest corner of Portugal and it’s home to some impressive cliffs and turquoise water.

We followed the signs to the praia and soon found ourselves overlooking a an almost empty stretch of sand. Gone were the chairs, umbrellas, and restaurants that line the beaches further east. Here, instead, there were a few sunbathers on sarongs, people practicing paddling out on their surfboards, and a dreadlocked American selling beers out of cooler.

Carrapateira

The Praia da Bordeira in Carrapateira on the western coast of Portugal is one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever seen. This isn’t a place to swim, though. This beach belongs entirely to the surfers. With cliffs and sand dunes surrounding the beach, this is rugged natural beauty that’s barely been touched. While there isn’t much to do here, it’s a great place to watch the waves crash and the surfers hang ten.

Monchique

From Carrapateira we headed inland toward the Serra de Monchique, a mountain range about 20 km from the sea. This area is popular for hiking, and there are also apparently some nice hot springs, but we were tired and short on time and didn’t really do any research so we pretty much only drove up to the viewpoint where you can see Foia, the highest peak in the range.

There are also some beautiful small villages on the way up to Monchique, that are worth a stop for a few snaps. These places were almost entirely deserted, except for a few locals who were wondering what the hell we were doing there. In the nicest way possible, of course.

Loule

Loule ended up being one of my favorite discoveries, somewhat surprisingly since it’s another town away from the coast. Home to a town market that’s over 100 years old, we arrived in the morning for some food sampling (a lot of piri-piri inspired products) and a cappuccino (with whipped cream, natch) and pastel de nata.

After filling up we spent some time walking through the narrow streets, chatting with some friendly locals, and climbing to the top of Loule’s 13th century castle from the Moorish times.

Faro

We hadn’t really planned on spending any time in Faro. It’s home of the airport and is filled with high rise apartments and American sized chain stores. But when you’re driving in unfamiliar places, sometimes you end up in the wrong place. Over and over again. We were trying to follow Google Maps to Quarteira and kept making a wrong turn at this one roundabout in Faro. Finally, we said screw it and parked at the first beach we came across.

All the beaches in Faro are ilhas, small sandbars that form the border of the Ria Formosa. While we were expecting the beach to be crowded and kind of dirty, we were surprised to find neither. We lazed away the day on the sand with breaks for ice cream and vinho verde when we got too hot. Doesn’t sound too bad, right?

Do you like exploring new places by car? 

Road Tripping Portugal’s Algarve is a post from: Farsickness

Then my flatmate peer pressured me into coming with her.

“I don’t have the money,” I said.

“You can pay me back,” she replied.

“I need to write this final project so I can graduate,” I said.

“They have Internet in Portugal,” she replied.

A couple glasses of wine later and I had confirmation of a flight to Faro in my inbox. I was going to Portugal whether I liked it or not.

With the stress of a project worth half the total grade for Master’s degree weighing on me fully I didn’t have time to do any research at all. I think I Google imaged search Faro once. I knew it was southern Portugal and I knew there’d be beaches. That was about it.

Our flight landed in Faro at nearly midnight and after waiting ages for our bags and wandering the airport looking for the company we’d booked our transfer through, we finally made it to the apartment we rented in Albufeira at nearly 3 am. Cloaked in darkness, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this seaside city.

A few hours later, sun light streaming through the windows, we woke up, threw on out bathing suits, keen on seeing what Albufeira was really like.

For starters, it kind of looked like Florida. Our apartment was between a large supermarket and a rather dated looking hotel and sat a few hundred feet off a six lane highway. It didn’t have the sort of European charm I was expecting. But I wasn’t deterred.

We began our morning with coffees and pasteis de nata, Portuguese egg tarts that became a daily part of my diet that week, and then wandered toward the beach.

It soon became apparent why people came to Albufeira. The beach, while crowded, was beautiful and full of amenities. We rented beach chairs and spent the day reading in the sun, eating ice cream, and cooling down in the frigid Atlantic. My heart was full of that happiness that comes from 8 hours spent in the sun and a warm ocean breeze.

While I spent most nights in our apartment researching and writing, I ventured out a couple times in search of good food and good times. There are two main areas of Albufeira where you can find bars and restaurants: Old Town and New Town. New Town has a very spring break in Cancun vibe and is filled with sunburned Brits and drink specials. While Old Town is similarly filled with foreign vacationers, there’s also a tad more culture. As the name suggests, the architecture is more traditionally Portuguese and this is where I found my European charm.

We happily wandered down narrow allows and up the steeps stairs that led to the top of the cliffs in search of fresh seafood and crisp vinho verde. Sure, maybe everyone else at the restaurant was a tourist too, but the service was friendly, the food was decent enough, and the views were killer. I was happy and on holiday. The worries about whether this was the most authentic cod preparation suddenly didn’t mean much anymore.

When I woke up on my seventh and last morning in Albufeira, I felt a little sad. Some of it was because the end of this vacation meant my days in Europe were numbered, but also because I’d fallen in love a bit with this seaside town. In a way it reminded me of childhood summers spent on the Atlantic beaches in the United States, and I’d gotten used to our laid back days on the beach and nights spent writing or wandering the Old Town.

And if nothing else, Albufeira also provided a great base for exploring some of the Algarve’s more beautiful and remote towns, something I’ll cover more of on Thursday.

Have you ever found yourself loving a place that is completely touristy and mostly charmless? 

Albufeira: An Interesting Introduction to the Algarve is a post from: Farsickness