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We visited the Algarve for 6 nights in late March 2024. We had a rental car, which made things much easier to get to than public transit. While we found 5 full days enough, we imagine you could easily spend more time here if you were hitting the beach (something we couldn’t do due to terrible weather). The towns are small and don’t need a ton of time to wander around each one, so we were able to spend a morning or afternoon in each town and felt this was enough time. We stayed in Portimão at an AirBNB for 4 nights, and in Tavira at the Ozadi Tavira Hotel for 2 nights.
One activity that is not in our itinerary is a tour of the Benagil Caves. We had a tour booked but it was cancelled and rescheduled multiple times due to high winds. You could add this to any of the days with some minor rearranging. We originally had it on Day 2, but it would work on Day 3 easily as well.
There is a map of all our suggestions at the end of this post. If you don’t want a pre-planned itinerary, but just want guidance of what to do and where to stay in each city, check out our Algarve guide.
Here is what we did during our 5 full days in the Algarve:
Day 0: Arrive in Portimão, explore Portimão
Day 1: Sagres Fortress, Luz, Lagos
Day 2: Ferragudo, Carvoeiro, shopping (optional)
Day 3: Benagil Caves, Albufeira
Day 4: Arcos Naturais, Faro, drive to Tavira
Day 5: Tavira, Santa Luzia, Pego do Inferno
Day 6: Depart the Algarve
DETAILS:
DAY 0:
Today will be your arrival day in the Algarve! You will be starting in Portimão, where you will stay for 4 nights. You may choose to stay elsewhere in the Algarve, but we recommend starting with somewhere central or to the west (you’ll say on the eastern side for your last 2 nights).
We arrived via car and made our way to our AirBNB. Once you have checked into your accommodations, explore the town you’re staying in and get something to eat. Rest up for a long day tomorrow!
DAY 1:
Today you’ll be heading west in the Algarve. Your first stop today is the Sagres Fortress. It is only 3 Euros per person to enter (cash) and is well worth the small fee. The views from the grounds are fantastic. There is a small museum on site which tells the history of the Spanish and Portuguese explorers travelling to the Americas.
Following the fortress, make your way to the tiny village of Luz. Your main stop here is the promenade along the beach (Praia da Luz). There are a few restaurants and cafes along the waterfront you can stop at for food if you like. We wandered around for a bit, but didn’t spend a whole lot of time here.
Lagos will be where you’ll spend the rest of your day. This is one of the main towns in the Algarve and may even be where you’ve decided to base yourself. Spend time exploring the Old Town, with its colourful buildings and tiled streets. There are many souvenir shops, boutiques, and cafes. Pass by the Castle of Lagos, across from the Forte da Ponta da Bandeira. The fort is right on the water, and you can go inside. If the weather suits, visit Praia da Batata (also known as Potato Beach). There are many restaurants in Lagos, so this is a great town to have dinner in. Around sunset, visit Ponta da Piedade. We got rained out, so sadly didn’t get to experience this popular sunset spot. Apparently, you can get boat tours to Ponta da Piedade to explore the cliffside as well.
DAY 2:
Today you will spend the morning in Ferragudo and the afternoon in Carvoeiro. If you want to do a tour of the Benagil Caves or other type of tour, today is a great day to fit it in!
Begin your morning by driving to the fishing village of Ferragudo, where you can explore everything on foot. There are beautiful cobblestone streets with whitewashed buildings. Find the church up on the hill for a wonderful view of the water and of Portimão. Have coffee at one of the charming cafes.
Next, make your way to Carvoeiro where you will spend the afternoon. Start at the Carvoeiro Boardwalk. Once you’ve found parking, walk east along the boardwalk (you can do the other half later). The boardwalk is a long wooden walkway that makes its way alongside the cliffs. The views are beautiful, and towards the eastern side of the boardwalk you’ll find Algar Seco. These are rock formations that are well worth seeing, and there’s even a restaurant where you can enjoy the view a little longer. Once you’re done at the boardwalk, make your way into town to walk along the main street and explore the shops. After the main town, you can make your way towards Forte de Nossa Senhora da Encarnacao back up on the cliffside, and join the western end of the boardwalk to continue back towards your parking spot and complete your loop of Carvoeiro.
We had extra time at this point in the day since our Benagil Caves tour had been cancelled, and it was pouring rain. We decided to make our way to the Designer Outlet Algarve and MAR Shopping mall. However, if you have done a tour today or if you have nice enough weather for the beach, shopping is not at all a “must-do” while in the Algarve.
DAY 3:
Today’s main stops are the Benagil Caves and the town of Albufeira. Start your day by spending the morning at the Benagil Caves and the natural park surrounding it. It is quite hard to see the cave from above, which is why most people opt for a boat tour that takes you right inside the cave. However, the area is still stunning and worth a visit. There is a trail that leads you along the cliffside with panoramic views, and there is the Praia da Corredoura (a beach) nearby if you have favourable weather. You can also try stopping at Farol de Alfanzina lighthouse, which is open daily in the summer for tours and Wednesdays only in off-season (closed the day we tried).
For the afternoon, you’ll head to nearby Albufeira. While this wasn’t our favourite town, it is still worth a visit. We found the town very touristy and more of a “party town”, but we’re glad we at least stopped by. Parking may be difficult, so depending on where you are located you may want to rearrange the order of the stops.
Start your time in Albufeira at the Igreja Matriz de Albufeira. We just passed by, but you can go inside and apparently the interior is quite beautiful. Next, make your way to Largo Engenheiro Duarte Pacheco. It is worth wandering through the streets of Albufeira Old Town as you make your way between these two locations. Tons of souvenir shops, restaurants, and cute streets. Once you’ve had enough of the busy town, make your way to Praia dos Pescadores, one of the main beaches in town. You’ll find beachfront restaurants, possibly live music, and a relaxed atmosphere.
There are a couple more stops in Albufeira before returning to your parking spot. From the beach, take the escalator up to the Miraduoro do Pau da Bandeira. Here you’ll find panoramic views of the water, a café, and possibly buskers. This is a busy area, so move on once you’re done. We walked back through the Old Town towards Miraduora Rossio as it was close to a gluten free café we wanted to eat at. We enjoyed this lookout spot as it was significantly less busy than other areas in town.
Finally, we returned to our car and drove to the Marina de Albufeira. This is a colourful spot full of restaurants and things like an arcade and boat rentals. There are also lots of tours that leave from here, so if you wanted to do something like a cave tour, dinner cruise, or the like, this is a great spot to look for one last minute. If nightlife interests you, you may also want to visit “the strip” while in Albufeira. You may choose to do this instead of the marina, or before or after the marina. We skipped this, but it is a main street to find nightclubs and restaurants on.
DAY 4:
Today you will check out of your accommodations in central/western Algarve and make your way east to Tavira. You’ll have a few stops and points to explore along the way.
After checking out, make your way to Marinha Beach. While you can spend some time at the actual beach, you’re here to make your way to the Arcos Naturais, natural double arches in the cliffside. We didn’t visit the beach, just viewed it from atop the cliffs, and we got rained out at the arches causing us to leave a little earlier than we planned. We arrived in the morning, but by the time we left the parking lot was packed. Arrive early if you want a spot. A heads up that there are no washroom facilities here. This is a worthwhile stop!
From Marinha Beach and Arcos Naturais, you’ll drive almost an hour to Faro, the capital city of the Algarve. Here, you can explore for however long you’d like. We enjoyed walking along the tiled streets, having lunch at a cute café, and checking out the farmer’s market. You can stop by the marina, the Memorial dos Pescadores Farense, and the Arco da Vila. Faro wasn’t our favourite town, but it was worth stopping for a short visit. We spent just under 2 hours in Faro.
Lastly, you’ll complete your drive to Tavira, another half hour from Faro. You’ll be staying in Tavira for the next two nights. We stayed at Ozadi Tavira Hotel, which we would highly recommend. Fantastic breakfast, ample parking, beautiful rooms, and a pool! A note that you’ll want to make sure you make reservations for dinner while in Tavira. We didn’t and stopped at five restaurants on a Saturday night before finding one with space for us!
DAY 5:
Explore Tavira today! A note that we skipped the beach (Praia de Cabana) due to rain, but apparently it is beautiful, so fit that in today if you can. You do need to take a water taxi to get to the beach, however, so be prepared with some cash.
Start your day passing by the Tavira Old Bridge on your way towards the main town plaza, Praca da Republica. Attached to the plaza, you’ll find a beautiful garden where you can sit and enjoy a coffee or gelato, and people watch. Continue to explore the cute, tiled streets of Tavira at your leisure. We spent at least an hour just popping in and out of shops, hidden alleys, and colourful tiled buildings.
When you’re ready to move on from exploring, make your way to Castelo de Tavira, which are more like ruins than an actual castle. There are free washrooms here, the castle is free to enter, and you’ll find beautiful views of the city. Right beside the castle is a large church that looked quite busy, so it seems you can maybe enter there too if you’re interested. Once you’re done in the castle area, make your way back down towards the town center. If you haven’t had a chance to cross the Old Bridge to the other side of the river yet, it’s worth a quick walk across to explore the opposite side of the river.
At this point, we felt like we were “done” exploring Tavira. Since the beach wasn’t in the cards for us today, we drove to the small fishing village of Santa Luzia. This is only about 10 minutes by car, and we spent half an hour walking around. Unfortunately, everything in the village was closed except one restaurant as we were here on Easter Sunday.
We still had some energy left, so we chose to drive 15 minutes north of Tavira to Pego do Inferno. We had read there was a beautiful waterfall here. We found the waterfall difficult to get to, but it also was much smaller than we expected. However, the surrounding area provided a beautiful stroll in the countryside and the surrounding area filled with orange trees and rolling hills was very picturesque. Unfortunately, the rain started back up, so our walk was cut short and that was the end of our day of exploring!
DAY 6:
Today you will depart the Algarve. It’s time to return your rental car and make your way to wherever your travels take you next! For us, this meant driving about 3 hours to Seville, Spain and continuing on our journey in Spain.
MAP of our Algarve Itinerary
HOW TO USE THE MAP: Click on the Wanderlog logo in the bottom right corner to open the full-size map up in a new tab. There, you can choose to just look at one type of activity at a time or see all the activities on the map at once (click the 3 squares in the top right to choose). You can also export the map to Google Maps, share the map with others, or save the map.
Helpful Planning Tips
I rely on these tools when planning my trips:
- Get Your Guide – book skip-the-line or timed entry tickets for experiences like the Benagil Caves, boat cruises, and more!
- Airalo eSIM – get Portuguese mobile data instantly on arrival, without roaming charges
- Stay22 – compare hotels across the Algarve, near towns like Lagos, Portimao, and Tavira
- Wanderlog – organize your itinerary and map your Algarve days efficiently
