The Algarve is defined by its eroded limestone cliffs, which form a grotto-like backdrop to its southern beaches. You could easily spend an entire fortnight’s holiday pottering in caves and clambering along cliff paths in between bouts of snoozing on a beach towel and splashing in cool Atlantic waves, but the Algarve has so much more to offer than just its coastline. Inland, you’ll find villages with colourful houses (fishermen painted their cottages the same colour as their wooden boats so they could be easily identified), small wine estates growing neat rows of vines in the ochre soil and an expansive mountain region just 20km from the coast. If you’re only in the Algarve for a short time, here’s how to plan your perfect day.
Main photo: Lagoa, the Algarve (Getty Images)
Morning
You may have decided to shun the beach, but you can’t not see the spectacular coast. A happy compromise is to take a boat tour. You’ll find several to choose from if you head down to Albufeira marina. Try the three-hour Benagil Caves and Coastline tour by AlgarExperience, which will take you west along the coast from Albufeira to the Cave of Benagil, which is the most well known rock formation in the Algarve. This sandy chasm has a perfectly round porthole window eroded in its roof, which frames the blue sky above. You’ll be pleased to be in a boat and not having to jostle with the Instagrammers on the shore. Alternatively choose a kayak tour, which lets you explore the smaller caves that larger boats can’t navigate.
Lunch
Head into the capital Faro for lunch at restaurant Tertúlia Algarvia, a passion project set up by a group of friends who were determined to preserve the traditional gastronomy and teach people how to create the food of their grandmothers. You could just take a table on the sunny terrace and order a seafood cataplana; a steaming clam-like pot filled with a piquant stew, but it’s more fun to cook it yourself. Upstairs in their show kitchen a chef will explain the history of this cooking method. The cataplana pot, which seals to allow the food inside to steam, would have traditionally been placed over an open fire and locals like to take them camping to cook up one-pot dinners. You’ll learn the order to add the chorizo, peppers, onions, garlic, clams, cod, prawns, razorfish, fish stock and wine to the pan, and how not to get a face full of steam when checking to see if it’s cooked.
Afternoon
You’ve done well if you’ve got this far without sampling a glass of Algarvian wine (they’ll offer you one on the boat, and of course with lunch — although Tertúlia Algarvia does a delicious fresh lemonade if you’re abstaining). But now it’s time to head to a wine estate and tasting is definitely part of the experience. The Algarve is often overlooked as a Portuguese wine region, overshadowed by the dominant Douro and Alentejo regions. However, the wine produced by German-owed Quinta dos Vales has been performing well in national awards in the past few years and is putting the region on the map (quite literally, as according to Karl Heinz Stock who runs the estate, the Algarve was missing as a wine region on the map when he went to pick up one of his awards in Lisbon). Stock was able to live out his fantasy of quitting a corporate job and becoming a winemaker and wants to give others the opportunity to experience some of the joy without the commitment and expense of buying an entire vineyard. To this end, he’s developed some winemaker experiences; from blending a single bottle using three different young wines that have already been created, to buying a portion of the vineyard and being in control of everything from the date of harvest to the design of the label.
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Evening
If you’ve had a few glasses of wine, you won’t want to drive any more, so book a jeep safari experience to head into the Monchique Mountains for sunset. Before taking the rugged roads to the peak of Fóia, the highest mountain in the Algarve, your guide will stop off at a family distillery to sample the local firewater, Medronho. Made from a wild berry and coming in at 50 per cent proof, this is eye-watering stuff. The more mild Melosa — mixed with local honey — is more palatable. As you watch the sun go down on the Atlantic ocean, spread out like a blue silk scarf far below, your morning boat trip will feel like another holiday entirely.
For further information on the Algarve, please visit visitalgarve.pt
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