Faro Car Hire

You can rent a car on arrival at Faro Airport or take a taxi transfer to your hotel and then collect your rental car later during your holiday. Cheap car hire is possible in most of the major resorts and you will find a variety of car sizes and types to suit every party and budget.

Faro is the capital of the Algarve, with a medieval wall and a large number of monuments: Cathedral (Roman-Gothic origin), Nossa Senhora da Assuncão Convent (Renaissance), São Francisco Church (16-18th centuries). Museums to visit include: Infante Dom Henrique, Regional Ethnographic, Ramalho Ortigão and Antoniano (next to the Santo António do Alto Hermitage). Also worthwhile visiting are the beautiful churches of São Pedro da Misericórdia and Nossa Senhora do Carmo. Roman ruins of Milreu in the suburbs.

Faro is near Loule that is a rural administrative and active market town with some remains of a castle dating back to the 12th Century. The Arab castle has been virtually destroyed leaving some walls still standing that are now surrounded by modern buildings. Like most other towns in the Algarve, most of the older, potentially interesting buildings were destroyed in the earthquake that occurred in 1755.

Within the remaining walls is a museum with an explanation of what was in the past the grandeur of the castle. The various earthquakes that it has suffered through its history have damaged the 13th Century Church of São Clemente. However, its Gothic arches and side chapels which remain from the 16th Century have survived.

On the other side one of the Algarve´s main fishing ports, Olhão has square whitewashed houses with flat roof terraces and chimneys that are evocative of Moorish architecture. Behind the parish church of Nossa Senhora do Rosário, from the 17th century, the chapel of Nossa Senhora dos Aflitos is where the wives of fishermen gather to pray for their safety when the weather is stormy. But the town’s main attraction is its market, one of the most animated and picturesque of the Algarve, with an enormous variety of seafood but also local farmers selling such products as fruit, honey and live chickens. Nearby, the village of Fuzeta is like Olhão on a small scale.