ahoyne9The main event of the trip was spending a few days in Algarve. We choose to stay in Lagos because it is a quieter town with a lovely historic center (old town) and beautiful cliffs overlooking the sea.
We hired a car with Green Motion, which turned out to be highly affordable, for 4 days for €230 which included full coverage. The only complaint I have with them is they’re understaffed and no one buys full insurance so they spend 15 – 20 minutes per person trying to get them to buy insurance coverage. Once it was my turn to check in I had keys in my hand and was leaving the lot in under 5 minutes, so that alone was worth the full insurance package.
Day 1 – Drive to Lagos, Portugal 06.27.23
Driving to Lagos from Lisbon was a little under 3 hours on the toll roads, tolls were about €20. Portugal was very easy to drive in, the drivers are not aggressive at all, outside of the city center of Lisbon and everyone has a mutual understanding of what the left lane is for on the freeway. If you’re nervous about driving in Portugal don’t be, this was the easiest country I have ever driven in, outside of Iceland, but that doesn’t count because I could go hours without seeing a car.
We stayed at Iberlagos booking thru Airbnb. I didn’t realize this place could be booked directly or through so many other third-party websites. To avoid my mistake and get the best rate do a bit of more research. The condominium is in a great location and has short walking access to the beach, I wouldn’t stay in the exact room again is there was no ocean view but for the price it was worth it.
For the rest of the day we went down to the beach “Praia Dona Ana” and then went into the old town, inside the castle to have dinner at Ala do Castelo. Which was a Ukrainian-run restaurant with great food.
Day 2 – Beach Day 06.28.23
I read about a great surfing spot in southern Portugal for beginners which was the southern west coast of Portugal, called Praia do Amado. The location is about 45 minutes away from Lagos on a non-toll road and 40 minutes by tolls. If you ever do decide to go, and choose to take the non-toll road be sure to avoid a small shortcut in the city of Budens, it’s a narrow dirt road. You can see in the image below I started driving on it and then turned around.
There is free parking at the beach and at the top of the cliff, there is a restaurant and a surf shop. The surf shop takes cash only but the restaurant takes cards and they own a surf shop at the bottom of the hill so you can make a purchase there to rent a surfboard with a credit card.
I rented a surfboard for an hour and an umbrella with two seats for €20. They do have wetsuits and bodyboards for hire as well. The water is really cold and they did recommend a wet suit. Eventually, your body gets so cold it gets used to the water so it’s okay.
I’m not a great surfer but I was able to get up several times, the ground was sandy with little to no rocks.
On the way back to Lagos, we took the toll road I think it was about €6.
Day 3 – Algar de Benagi 06.29.23
Last full day in the Algarve and my 34th birthday. The plan for today is to figure out some type of event to see Algar de Benagi. Booking the same day I was pretty limited on what I could choose from. I booked a two-hour Benagil and Marinha caves tour for my girlfriend and me with Algarve Discovery. This was okay, and I wouldn’t;t do it again. The cave tours in Albania are far better. The cost was €30 per person.
We drove from Lagos to Portimão, a half-hour drive. Arrived early for our afternoon boat ride so we walked around the city and had lunch at Tasca.
A little bit about the tour, you walk for about 20 to 25 minutes to the boat from the meet-up place and then get on a relatively small boat with small uncomfortable seats and then head out to the coastline. Going up and down the coast the boat goes into some caves, doesn’t dock, and then back out.
You do not dock inside the famous Benagi cave, which would have made the trip better, and looking back I would recommend just driving to Lagoa, parking enjoying the beach, and then hire some kayaks to visit the cave. By all means the coastline is stunning but I think it would be more fun to stay in the cave and swim and hangout instead of just 2 minutes.
We headed back to Lagos, walked around the old town, and picked up some souvenirs. we had dinner at Taninos Wine and Kitchen, a great place I would eat there again.
Back to Lisbon tomorrow for half a day and then a late-night flight to Malaga. Cheers!