Visting the Algarve - Portugal

i've just booked a last minute, 7-day vacation (hotel, flight & breakfast) in the algarve in portugal. i'm not a big fan of all-inclusive trips, but this deal was too good to be true @ only €319 a person. and i need to get away so bad ASAP & didn't want to bother about anything. my only criteria was a tennis court & swimming pool!

anyhow, we'll definitely get a rental car too so we can see something. has anyone any tips or recommended sites to see?

You just missed the Algarve Cup for women's soccer. Schade.

i know, i just saw parts of it on t.v.

go to Cape Vincent the most Western Point of Europe it's amyzing scenery you'll love it!
try some of the Atlantic beaches, one of which is called Castelejo head towards Vila de Bispo it's sign-posted from there...the cliffs are spectacular and there's a nice family restaurant on the beach you can watch the waves crashing around.
Silves has a beautiful castle and a little museum.
Sagres is a nice little holiday town too lots of fab restaurants and pubs but not yet trashy like Albufeira.

enjoy! I love Portugal!

Make sure you give a review when you get back. I have as of yet make it to Portugal and I want to.

precisely why we didn't choose Albufeira. i made that mistake when i did one of these package deals to Creta! luckily we planned the 2nd week on our own.

anyhow, our hotel is 2 km from the beach & 3,5 km from the town, so we might have to drive first to get our jog in on the beach, but what the hell!!

@ perdido: so you'll be coming back then

Oh I am coming back to Europe, but I am moving to Italy. that last trip to Florence showed me the errors in my life. Although the expat bars sucked..well actually the only expat bars I have liked have been in Munich.

Muito bem! Hope you have lots of fun. I've yet to make it to Portugal.
Axé,
UA

t minus 13 hr 18 min. i am so f*cking ready for a vacation! this time tomorrow, I'll be slurping my first port wine.

do try and spend a couple days in Lisbon - if you have the car its worth the effort

Hope you have a good time. Make sure not to pack that many shoes!!

am back, relaxed and with terribly sun-burned thighs. out of the 7 days were were there, only 2 were fit for lounging at the pool/beach, getting a tan. the rest of the time it was either 18° and sunny, overcast, or rainy, but the hotel we were at (Casa Domilu, just east of Carvoeira) had a great indoor, salt-water bath and jacuzzi & sauna (all free of charge). i even got my first "sport" massage. my buttcheeks were not happy with that!

didn't get in any jogging, but played tennis 4 times. bought 7 balls, came home with 4! found a good jogging beach at Alvor (near Portimao & Lagos), but it was overcast & cold that day, but good enough for a stroll.

if you go to the Algarve, definitely rent a car. the new and improved tollway gets you to lissabon is probably 2.5 hours. we met someone halfway in Sines and needed 1.5 hrs. set us back €11, exit at Grandula.

i was, sadly, not so impressed with the food. you get fresh fish everywhere & it's cheap, but i got sick of having to filet it myself (and avoiding the innerds). they also don't believe in vegetables or salad unless it's an octopus one, so i was craving some greens when i got home. i ate swordfish, monkfish, cod, salmon and some non-translatable portugiese types. i like fish, but preparing to eat them was tiring. oh yeah, also had stone steak. mmm.

we didn't make it to cape vincent on the very southwest tip of portugal because we only had 7 days & i didn't want to drive too much, but like i wrote, we made it to sines on the west coast maybe 150 km south of lissabon. there we had our best meal (fish again!). was a refinery city, but had an old fortress which gave you a great view of the coast.

visited silves (forgot my camera), lagos, portimao. lissabon was just too far. flew into faro (hapagfly is terribly for those 175cm or taller).

lots of brits and germans, mostly older types, but our package deal brought us to a higher class area. but we are off to thailand in the fall...

Hmm... sounds like you were unlucky with the fish there. Never been to the Algarve, as we were doing a road trip type thing and wanted to avoid tourist areas (and didn't know which parts of the algarve were touristy and which weren't) but every time we bought fish at the supermarket, the guy asked if we wanted it gutted and filetted, and that was despite the fact we didn't speak a word of portugese!
Glad you had a good time generally though!

unfortunately all of algarve is touristy. there just isn't anything else around, but some areas are more touristy than others (avoid Albufeira on the southern coast just west of Faro!). we were outside a small, brit-invaded vacation spot at one of many small hotel-like areas, so it was quiet. that is the only way to go. there were lots of villas around so if i went next time, i would look at an apartment so i can cook.

because we were the youngest pair at the place, we got friendly with the kitchen staff (one guy actually lived in Switzerland for 10 years, the other was Swabian!) and they told us that eating the fish like it's caught is quite normal. it was a challenge, but yeah, all in all, we had a nice time.

Not sure whether I should start a new thread, but will give it a go here, and let the mods decide. We are soon going to Portugal for a week. We will be staying with some of my relatives in Lisboa and then will probably drive south towards the Algarve. I think I have an idea on what to do in Lisboa (plus I was there for a few days in 2003 ), but I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions for the best way to take from Lisboa to the Algarve? Last time I simply drove south, and ended up in Praia da Galé (only for a day). Anything else that is worth taking a look at on the way to the Algarve?

The tollway is really nice. Good wide roads. You'll get from Lisboa to Algarve in no time quick. We didn't drive all the way up, but about halfway to Lisboa and there was nothing along the way. Lots of open space.