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The Algarve is famous for quality golf and with over 40 courses in a 200-mile area, there is something to suit every mood. With excellent year round access to Faro international airport from Europe and all courses within an hour or so from here, getting to them is also very easy.
Serious and hobby golfers alike will not be disappointed. The Algarve has attracted golf tourists for years and the facilities are mature and very well maintained.
The fabulous summer weather and dramatic scenery for which the region is renowned are perfectly combined with warm winters to make year round golf a pleasure - high golf season is from late autumn to late spring.
In addition to golf, the white sand beaches along the entire length of the Algarve coastline are beautiful and rated amongst the best in Europe. Most have the “Blue Flag” classification, awarded for the highest standards of cleanliness.
At the Western end the landscape is rugged and breathtaking and in addition to golf is fantastic for sailing and water sports. The Eastern and Spanish Algarve is the most sheltered part of this Atlantic coastline and the sea in the region is shallow, safe and warm for swimming all year.
Unlike the Costas of Mediterranean Spain there are still miles of completely unspoilt coastline. The Portuguese authorities are very conservative and strict planning regulations mean that over development will never be repeated here.
In general, you will find that the Algarve, with its warm climate, reasonably priced restaurants, breathtaking scenery, friendly people and excellent golf courses all combine to make it an ideal place for a holiday home.
Portugal’s compact size makes it relatively easy to explore quite thoroughly in a short space of time, and the best way to do so - and to experience all of the country’s most favourable elements – is with a hire car. Scenery, cuisine, beaches, golf courses, culture, history, art and nightlife – all are at your fingertips in Portugal, particularly when you are free to go where you like, when you like, in comfort and style with low cost Portugal Car Hire.
The Algarve is the most southern region of Portugal and it's one of Europe's favourite holiday destinations well known for glorious year round sunshine and excellent sandy beaches. These vary from secluded coves with amazing cliffs to vast stretches of golden sand all sea washed by the fresh and clear Atlantic ocean. Inland you will find quaint villages barely touched by tourism. Traces of the Moorish presence are still evident in the local architecture. The orange groves and blossoming almond trees add colour to this fertile region in contrast with the whitewashed traditional houses. Due to the mild nature of the weather the Algarve is ideal for many outdoor sporting activities such as water sports, golf in one of the numerous world-class golf courses, tennis, horse riding, and many more. The Algarve not only known for its cosmopolitan nightlife with many bars and clubs but also for the many waterside restaurants serving fresh fish and "cataplana" (a local shellfish speciality).
The Algarve is Europe's favourite golfing destination for it's many worldclass golf courses, excellent amenities and warm and dry playing conditions. Each golf course offers a unique design taking advantage of the local landscape allowing the golfer a challenging yet pleasurable game. Algarve.org will soon be able to offer you the facility to book any golf course in the Algarve with preferential green fees.
If you have never been to Algarve, it is not really possible to explain what makes it a very special place. A good place to start understanding the uniqueness of Algarve is the weather, but understand that this is like saying that what makes a Van Gogh painting is the colors of the paint he used. Algarve has an idyllic dry climate, created in part by its geography, including the fact that it is surrounded by hills, the sea and the river Guadiana.
The coast of Algarve has numerous spectacular rock formations, that divide the beaches, creating quaint private paradises. Many of the beaches are bordered by beautiful sand cliffs, which merge with pine trees, creating a feast of nature that is unmatched anywhere else.
Complimenting the natural beauty of the beaches, Algarve also offers numerous recreational activities, including: world class golf courses, tennis courts, sailing, horseback riding, wind surfing, deep sea fishing, water skiing, and much more. Algarve also offers a world class night life, including discos, clubs, and casinos.
Albufeira
Albufeira started out at least 2,000 years ago as a small, fortified town which the Romans called Baltrum. Eight centuries later the Moors renamed it Al-Buhera. The Moors turned it into a prosperous port trading with North Africa. The Knights of Santiago led the Christian re-conquest of the town in 1250, but without its trade links Albufeira fell upon hard times and they lasted for hundreds of years.
It suffered a succession of devastating earthquakes - in 1719, 1722 and worst of all in 1755 when the town was not only devastated by a series of earth tremors, but swamped by tidal waves. In 1833 it was first besieged then burnt to the ground during a Portuguese civil war. Prosperity only returned to Albufeira with the tourist boom that started in the late 1970's and gathered momentum in the 1980's. Tourism, pure and simple, is what it's now all about.
Some of the old charm is still there, and it is to be found in the labyrinth of narrow streets, lined with whitewashed houses, apartments, cafes and shops, which lead down the hillside to a central square, Largo Eng. Duarte Pacheco. The square is a good place to sit and watch the world go by. Nearby, next to the tourist information office, a tunnel at the end of a pedestrian-only mall leads on to the town's main beach.
Another section of this long beach is equally easily accessible from the streets leading off the other end of the square. There the beach is known as Fisherman's Beach and it's shared without a shred of self-consciousness by topless sun-bathers and sun-hardened men of the sea far too busy mending their nets to notice the bare boobs bobbing about their boats on the sand.
As a holiday destination, ALBUFEIRA, like Quarteira, is the sort of place you like or hate. An amazing number of people from all age groups like it. Retired couples feel just as at home here as raving teenagers and families with young children.
Albufeira is spread out rather than high-rise. The town itself consists of "old" and "new" sections which merge seamlessly into an extensive holiday-land suburbia, spreading off back east along the coast to Balaia, Olhos d'Agua and Falesia, and west to São Rafael, Galé and the links golf course at Salgados. The whole area, greater Albufeira you could call it, is the most tourist-intensive place in Portugal. It has very little to do with the real Portugal, or with the real planet earth for that matter, but people come here in droves and have the time of their lives.
"New" Albufeira, centred on Areias de São João, is on the east side. Its most famous thoroughfare is affectionately known as The Strip. It stretches from the looming edifice of the Montechoro Hotel, past scores of cafes, restaurants and bars, all the way down to a big busy beach called Praia da Oura. The Strip and nearby streets are a hive of activity from mid-morning, when cheap English breakfasts are served to help with the hangovers caused by imbibing well into the wee hours the night before.
There is an abundance of all sorts of accommodation in Albufeira and the broad area around it, and that includes both good hotels and a good campsite, but without advance booking you may find it difficult to get your head down anywhere in summer. Incidentally, the campsite has a huge open-air restaurant and bar where hundreds of people enjoy live music every night during the summer.
An ancient capital of the Algarve, Portimão is near the mouth of the River Arade, which is crossed by a fine new road bridge. There are many excellent restaurants and shops in the town. On the western side of the mouth of the river itself is Praia da Rocha, the oldest resort in the Algarve.
PORTIMÃO is the Algarve's second most important commercial town after Faro, and its second largest port after Olhão. It is a town of great antiquity but you wouldn't know it. The oldest building is its much modernised parish church. It contains 17th-and 18th-century tiles, but the only really old bit is the 14th century portal. Carthaginians, Romans and Moors lived and worked here, but unfortunately there is no archaeological museum, and there are no relics.
Portimão today is really all about shopping and sardines. One of the best shopping streets is Rua do Comércio, a pedestrian mall which begins from the old market square near the parish church in the highest part of town. Beyond the far end of Rua do Comércio, acres of stalls are set up, as one of the Algarve's biggest and best roving markets hits town on the first Monday of each month. It is to be found down by the railway station.
The river, of course, is and always has been the town's life-blood. The fishing fleet ties up on the far bank, although much of its catch is brought over to Portimão's most popular open-air eating area. This is on the quayside by the old iron bridge. There are more restaurants, in converted boat houses, in the little square, just behind, serving a variety of seafood, from expensive tiger prawns to the cheapest of dishes, a plate of grilled sardines.
If you want to try catching your own fish on rod and line, the Portimão quayside is one of the main departure points in the Algarve for specially-equipped game boats. Various other types of craft tie up along the same waterfront with billboards offering sightseeing cruises along the coast, or up the river Arade to the historic town of Silves.
The Praça Teixeira Gomes, with its cafes next to the waterfront, is a local meeting place during the summer months. Nearby, a smaller square in front of the tourist information office, Lago 1 de Dezembro, is notable for its 19th-century tiled panels depicting 10 of the greatest events in Portuguese history.
PRAIA DA ROCHA is really Portimão's seafront. It was the first place to be developed as a resort in the Algarve, and many would say that it has now gone over the top. It is dominated by massive holiday apartment blocks rising 15 storeys above scores of cafés, bars and restaurants overlooking a vast beach.
At one end of the beach, guarding the entrance to the river, stands the Fortress of Santa Catarina built between 1521 and 1557. At the other end is a tunnel called the Buraco da Avó, Grandmother's Hole, which connects the main beach with several smaller, rockier ones.
The provincial capital of the Algarve, Faro is a thriving university town. There's more to this place than just the airport, and the maze of twisting lanes and marina is well worth a visit.The ancient town of Estói is home to a splendid Palace.
FARO is not a resort town. It is an earnest Portuguese provincial capital. The airport, about 7 km from the centre, is the closest most visitors get to it. This is a pity because it has a number of attractions.
Best of all is the old walled town with its quiet, cobbled streets and its 16th, 17th and 18th century buildings. To get there, follow the centro signs to the Praça D. Francisco Gomes next to the harbour. Here you will find the Manuel Bivar gardens, at the enclosed end of which, next to the Turismo, stands the imposing Vila do Arco. Go through the archway and you are immediately in the old quarter.
The small Cathedral in the centre of the Largo de Sé dates from the mid-13th century and was probably built on the site of a Moorish mosque. The fine old buildings on the perimeter of the square include an 18th century episcopal palace and the current town hall. The statue in the square is of Bishop Francisco Gomes, who co-ordinated the rebuilding of Faro after it was destroyed by the great earthquake of 1755.
A short walk away, but still within the walled town, is a smaller square with a grander statue. It is that of Dom Alfonso III, who conquered the last strongholds of the Moors in Portugal in the 13th century. He is standing in front of the former Convent of Nossa Senhora da Assunção, now Faro's Archaeological and Lapidary Museum full of fascinating artefacts from prehistoric to modern times.
Faro has two other museums. The Ethnological Museum gives an insight into the traditional lifestyles of the region. The Maritime Museum has lots of models, including Vasco da Gama's ship São Gabriel, and an elaborate tuna-catching trap.
The most lavishly adorned of Faro churches is that of Nossa Senhora do Carmo. It is also the spookiest. It has a bone chapel with the skeletal remains of 1,245 former monks. An inscription over the doorway translates to: "Stop here and think of the fate that will befall you."
Just to the east of the friendly town of Lagoa, Porches houses some of the best potteries in the Algarve. The seaside villages of Ferragudo, and Carvoeiro are on some of the most fantastic coastline of the Algarve - a maze of cliffs, caves and grottos set in clear blue waters.
The village of PORCHES has two potteries, Porches Pottery and Olaria Pequena, producing their own hand-painted pieces.
LAGOA, a typical, small provincial town, is best-known for its winery, the most productive in the Algarve. Strong, rough and ready red and white table wines, and a little fortified wine as well, are produced from grapes grown in a wide radius around Lagoa. Visitors are welcome, by arrangement, to tour the adega, see something of the wine-making process and sample the end product. Lagoa's banks and shops draw tourists but its not really a tourist town.
No village along the South West coast is totally untouched by tourism, but FERRAGUDO is far less affected than most. Sitting within the eastern breakwater at the mouth of the river Arade, it maintains an air of unpretentiousness. There is a somewhat shabby serenity about it. Unenviously it looks across the river to Portimão and Portimão's beachside satellite, Praia da Rocha.
PRAIA DO CARVOEIRO is the place. Its name is nowadays usually simplified to Carvoeiro. To those who peruse the holiday accommodation classified ads in British national newspapers, Carvoeiro may be one of the best-known places in the whole of Portugal. Apart from its far-flung reputation, it has managed to keep a low profile, having spread sideways rather than upwards.
Suburbs of good quality villas, many of them with private pools, have been built to the east and west of the village. There are a few good hotels in the vicinity, but essentially this is holiday villa land. It is very active in summer, but the villa shutters come down with the first signs of winter in early November and most of the neighbourhood goes into hibernation.
There is one notable area of continued activity throughout the winter and that is west of the village where the upmarket Carvoeiro Clube development maintains two excellent golf courses, the unique double nine-hole Quinta do Gramacho, and the pristine 18-hole Vale de Pinta.
Armação de Pera is a grwoing tourist resort with a fine beach and many good bars and cafés. Don't miss a visit inland to the ancient town of Silves, overlooked by a spectacular castle, the scene of many battles during the Middle Ages.
SILVES is at the heart of one of Portugal's best citrus growing areas. It also has factories processing cork. Although now an agricultural centre, its fascination for visitors is historical. The town's two most visible buildings, its red sandstone castle and the red and white cathedral next to it, are reminders that in medieval times this was the most strongly fortified and most strenuously fought over place in the Algarve.
The Romans had a secure settlement at Silves, but it was the Moors who built it into a fine, prosperous town with gleaming minarets and bazaars brimming over with merchandise. They called it Xelb and made it their regional capital. It was a place of peace and plenty in the 12th century. Then in 1189 Portuguese Christian forces, aided by thousands of English, German and Flemish Crusaders on their way to the Holy Land, attacked the town. They razed everything outside the town walls and lay siege to the castle.
The siege lasted six weeks and ended with an agreement by the Muslims to surrender if they were allowed to leave for the Moorish city of Seville taking with them whatever possessions they could carry. Portugal's King Sancho I agreed. To his horror the Crusaders, all mercenaries, stripped the defeated and departing Moors of everything of value and then went on a looting rampage through what was left of the town. After three days of this, the King was so appalled that he ordered the Crusaders back to their ships moored in the river below.
The following year, England's Richard the Lionheart helped defend Silves from a counter-attack by the Muslims. The year after that, yet another attack and a month-long siege by the Muslims exacted revenge for the 1189 humiliation. It was 1231 before the castle finally capitulated to the Christian forces of Afonso III, whose statue stands, sword in hand, just inside the castle gates today.
The castle is open to the public, but its ghastly past is lost amid well-tended jacaranda trees, oleander shrubs and flowerbeds. The cistern, which held sufficient water to last out a year-long siege, is permanently closed. Apart from bits of the walls, the only Moorish feature left in the castle is a well, originally Roman, 65-metres deep. Another Moorish well is the central feature of a small, modern museum in a side street not far from the castle.
Armação de Pêra was originally a small fishing village where tuna used to be caught and brought up onto "Fisherman’s Beach".
The net that the fishermen used to catch the Tuna in was called "Armação" and as it is very close to "Pêra", the village was named Armaçao de Pêra. The resort boasts one of the most beautiful beaches in the Algarve with pretty coves around the coastline and there are an excellent choice of Fish Restaurants, especially in the "Fisherman’s Beach" area of the town. It is a great place for a relaxing holiday and has that certain something about it that you will really love.
The beach of Armação de Pêra is perfect for children as it is very calm and the slope is gradual, and in the daytime the Fishermen will take holidaymakers for a trip along the coastline where you can see the fascinating rock formations, caves and grottos.
Also in the area there is the tiny Romanesque Chapel of "Senhora da Rocha" (Our Lady of the Rocks) which is where fishermen used to pray before setting off for a nights fishing. This is apparently the area where there was a vision of the Virgin Mary. The beaches that the Chapel overlooks are some of the prettiest in the Algarve and it is a wonderful place for taking photographs.
Silves is a place a great many tourists visit for an hour or two. Not many stay overnight, though you can do so comfortably.