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Where to Base Yourself in the Algarve (and Where Not To)

The Algarve, PortugalJuly 13, 20252 min read
By MASA Editors
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A wooden dinghy resting on the sand at low tide in front of Ferragudo, the whitewashed village stacked up its hillside across the still estuary in warm evening light.01
A wooden dinghy resting on the sand at low tide in front of Ferragudo, the whitewashed village stacked up its hillside across the still estuary in warm evening light.Photo: Nick Andreas / Unsplash

The coast runs 150 kilometres and its towns could hardly be less alike. A candid guide to the Algarve resorts and old towns worth booking, and the ones that will disappoint you.

The Algarve is not one destination. Its western end is wild, windy and Atlantic; its eastern end is warm, flat and lagoon-fringed; and the busy middle contains both the region's best hotels and its least appealing developments, sometimes within sight of each other. Pick wrong and you will spend the week driving.

The quick version

  • Best all-round first visit: Lagos
  • Families and calm coves: Carvoeiro and Ferragudo
  • Golf, marinas and serious resorts: Vilamoura and Quinta do Lago
  • Quiet, authentic, lagoon beaches: Tavira and the east
  • Surf and wilderness: Sagres and the southwest coast
  • Nightlife, if that is the point: Albufeira
A natural rock arch frames a small sandy cove with turquoise water on the Algarve coast.
A natural rock arch frames a small sandy cove with turquoise water on the Algarve coast.Photo: Paula Sotomayor / Unsplash

Lagos

The best-balanced base in the region: a walled old town you can actually walk at night, real restaurants alongside tourist ones, a marina, and the cliffs and sea stacks of Ponta da Piedade at the edge of town. It is on the train line, which matters if you want a day in Faro or Tavira without driving. Busy in August, still pleasant in May and October.

Carvoeiro and Ferragudo

Small, cliff-backed and family-friendly, with coves reached by steps and a slower rhythm than anywhere further east. Ferragudo, across the river from Portimao, is the prettier of the two and one of the last coastal villages that still feels lived-in.

A hiker crosses a wooden boardwalk along an Algarve headland above crashing surf.
A hiker crosses a wooden boardwalk along an Algarve headland above crashing surf.Photo: Artem Zhukov / Unsplash

Vilamoura, Quinta do Lago and Vale do Lobo

The manicured end of the Algarve: golf courses, a large marina, and the region's flagship resorts, including the long-established Vila Vita Parc near Porches and the Conrad at Quinta do Lago. Superb if you want a resort holiday with tennis, spa and dining on site. Characterless if you were hoping for Portugal.

Tavira and the eastern Algarve

The east is the region's quiet reward: a genuinely handsome historic town on a river, the Ria Formosa lagoon, and beaches on sandbank islands reached by small ferries. Warmer, calmer water than the west, far fewer crowds, and prices that have not caught up. The trade is distance from the dramatic cliffs everyone photographs.

Yellow wildflowers bloom on a rock ledge overlooking blue sea and distant cliffs.
Yellow wildflowers bloom on a rock ledge overlooking blue sea and distant cliffs.Photo: Tom Lorber / Unsplash

Sagres and the southwest

Wild, wind-scoured and beautiful, at the meeting point of the south and west coasts, inside a protected natural park. This is surf and hiking country. Come for that, not for a sun lounger; the Atlantic here is cold and the wind is constant.

Areas to skip, and why

  • The Albufeira strip. The old town has charm; the nightlife quarter inland from it is a night-out destination that has little to do with the Algarve. Fine if chosen deliberately, grim if booked by accident
  • Faro as a beach base. Excellent for the airport and a lovely old town, but the beach is out on a sandbar and the city is not why you came
  • Praia da Rocha's high-rise front, unless you want a specific kind of package holiday. The historic Bela Vista, in a restored early twentieth-century mansion, is the exception
  • Anywhere inland "with a sea view" that turns out to be a twenty-minute drive from the water

Tip: In July and August, book anywhere with parking included. Coastal town car parks fill by mid-morning, and a hotel space is worth more than a sea view when you are trying to leave for the beach at nine.

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