Portugal - Exploring the Algarve and a little bit of Lisbon

November 12, 2023

For Sarah's Fall Break we decided to visit Portugal, a place all of us had on our bucket list, and it did not disappoint! We all loved the Algarve, the southern coast of Portugal. Lisbon on the other hand, was mixed reviews (thumbs up for me, thumbs down for Josh, something in between for Sarah).

We flew into Faro and rented a small car for about 20 Euro/day (with drop off in Lisbon). We had a 1/2 day to check out Faro, which was plenty of time:

This place had the yummiest Brushetta: Merceario Sao Pedro:

It was so amazing we had to place a second order!! Sardines on orange sauce and orange slices and tomato.

Faro is THE stork place! There were several nests on this old church and many other places:

One thing that stood out in Faro is an excessive amount of graffiti everywhere. It actually looked somewhat good on these shacks:

One of several churches in town:

Next Stop was Albufeira: A cute, but touristy town where art hits the streets with its mosaic decor (actually everywhere in Portugal we went the streets were decorated with mosaic tiles).

Albuferia by night:

We stayed overnight in Albufeira for our first night, in a nice large apartment for only £60!!

(Alfagar Cerro Malpique on booking.com)

Next day we got to explore Albufeira by day:

The beaches here are stunning, with ultra soft sand.

The water was about 17 Celsius, so, pretty nippy but not bad for end of October! Outside temp was a perfect comfortable 20 C.

We went on a speed boat ride from Albufeira to Benagil to see the beautiful coast. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to go into the famous Benagil cave because there has been some rockfall in that area.

In the afternoon we drove to Praia da Marinha to start the famous Seven Hanging Valleys hike. That was one of the most beautiful hikes I have ever done! We hiked about 4.5 miles round trip, but the prettiest part was right at the beginning.

Well, we couldn't see Benagil Cave from below, but we could see it from above!:

For the second night we stayed in this 700 year old restored Hakuna Matata Airbnb home for £116. It was pretty cool to stay in a very typical Portuguese home:

Nearby there was a cute town where we had some fancy food. Look at this skewer!

The next day we drove to Lagos and went to church. We weren't expecting to understand anything, but impressively they had headphones available and a translator for the few non Portuguese speakers.

Afterwards we drove to Pointe da Piedade for another beautiful hike by the coast:

Back in Lagos we explored the cute town, and its many delicious restaurants. All the restaurants had outside seating with rain cover. Here we are trying out this restaurant's tasty tapas collection:

Lagos was our favorite Algarve town. It was not as touristy as Albufeira and quite a bit cleaner than Faro. The shops were a bit more expensive than Faro, so we were glad we bought most souvenirs in Faro. We stayed in an Airbnb for one night for $85. So another cheap place, and very nice and in the centre of town (only downside is that parking was farther away).

The next morning we got up early to see the sun rise and we're so glad we did!

Here's the Moors' Castle

Praia dos Estudantes

My very favorite activity we did in Portugal was sea kayaking. We started in Praia da Batata in Lagos and kayaked to Ponte de Piedade (where we hiked the previous day) and back. Funnest part was kayaking through tunnels and into caves!

After kayaking it was time to head to Lisbon, about a 3.5 hour drive.

On the way we stopped in Portimao and had the most authentic Portuguese food we could have imagined: Cod fish head, mushroom over pork and dessert for 11 Euro per person. All very delicious.

Driving to Lisbon was very easy, driving in Lisbon on the other hand NOT!

To park near the airbnb would have been quite difficult with lots of tiny streets, one way roads and a very chaotic road system (if you can call them roads.) We parked a bit further in a car park and walked over what it seemed like the seven hills with our backpacks to the airbnb in the middle of Lisbon's Alfama district.

Here's the view from our airbnb:

The next day, we drove towards Sintra and checked out the Inferno -

(much more impressive in person):

The nearby town of Cascais was worth a visit, wished we had more time:

Our main goal that day was to see Sintra. Well, we learned that there is a reason most people take public transportation there. We missed a turn to a parking lot and ended up on a one way road up the mountain.

We ended up visiting the Castelo dos Mouros on top of the mountain, but had to come back up at 4 pm when we had entrance tickets to the nearby Pena Palace. So the whole day was a bit chaotic and not enough time to see everything. Not recommended! However, all 3 main sites were amazing!:

Castelo dos Mouros (Castle of the Moors):