MacsTravel Blog

Booking a spot in the off-season in Portugal’s famous Algarve was trickier than one might think. Our visit here was in the final stretch of a six week trip, and we really wanted something that would allow for some downtime and some coastal hiking. I had read a number of blogs about hiking in the south of Portugal and the consensus was that the western part of the Algarve offered the biggest bang for your buck. And so we booked into the Hotel Bricia de Mar just up the hill from Ferragudo, a little village across the river Arade from the much larger and busier town of Portimão.

We zipped down from Lisban in our rental car along the toll highways in three hours and checked in. I asked the woman at the front desk where we might go to pick up some groceries and find a restaurant to grab a late lunch and she shook her head gravely, indicated that nothing was open in the off season in the village and told us we needed to go to Portimão. Uh oh.

We took her at her word and went to Portimão to find groceries. We ended up at a British supermarket called “The Food Co.”, which was dreadful: the nutritional deficit in the British diet, if this supermarket is anything to go by, explains how they lost the Empire.

After some looking we found a decent Portuguese grocery store (the Pingo Doce chain is reliable) which had actual food and then headed to the waterfront to grab a bite to eat. Lunch was fine, and the riverside boardwalk was nice, but Portimão felt a bit gray and we left with the feeling that this visit to the Algarve was going to be a disappointment.

This feeling wasn’t helped by the weather forecast, which at first promised a “coastal event” (sounds intriguing!), and then a “severe coastal event” (uh oh). The forecast called for significant amounts of wind and rain every day of our stay in the Algarve.

We headed back to Ferragudo and on a whim decided to check out a small beach down the road from our hotel, the Praia dos Caneiros. It was small but spectacular, tucked in between craggy cliffs with a sea stack formation just off shore.

We noticed a trail marker for the Caminho dos Promontórios (Trail of the Headlands) which was one of the trails we had hoped to explore, and crossed our fingers that we might get that opportunity. The weather forecast now promised an “extreme coastal event”. It wasn’t looking good.

We woke up Thursday morning to clear skies and after an excellent breakfast decided to take advantage of this unexpected break in the weather. We headed down to see if anything was happening in the village of Ferragudo before going to explore a few local beaches. It was a 20 minute walk into town where, to our surprise, we found a number of small grocery stores, shops, restaurants and coffee shops open for business! Ferragudo is a lovely town, positioned just at the mouth of the river Arade where it meets the Atlantic, with cozy and colourful little streets and a busy waterfront full of small fishing boats and stacks of crab traps. So much for the advice from the woman on the front desk at the hotel.

We wandered around the town, stopped for a drink, did a little shopping and then headed off to explore the beaches Praia grande and Praia da Angrinha, just up the river from Ferragudo, which are divided by the photogenic  Castelo de São João do Arade. We found more dramatic cliffs, arches and hollowed out caves, which are the main features of this coastline.

At the very end of Praia grande Robin found a disused set of concrete steps that led up through a thicket of overgrowth to a cliff side trail. We followed it along and soon found ourselves (accidentally) on the first section of the Caminho dos Promontórios.

We followed the stunning coastline for about 45 minutes and found ourselves back at the Praia dos Caneiros, the beach we had visited the day before. Conveniently the charming seaside restaurant was open and we enjoyed an overpriced but extremely satisfying lunch watching the pounding waves.

We walked back to our hotel just before the skies opened up, feeling fortunate to have had one nice day outside. With the forecast still ominous for the next two days we realized it might be all we would get.

Friday started the same way: a great breakfast and blue skies. We decided to seize the day and do the last part of the Caminho dos Promontórios, a 10 km out and back hike along the coastline. We drove down to Praia dos Caneiros and set off up the hillside to the trail.

It was a spectacular walk. Dramatic cliff side scenes, pounding surf (thanks extreme coastal event), soaring sea birds and the percussive, kettle drum sound of the waves carving out caves and swirling in the sinkholes that dropped down through the rock to the sea below.

Most of the walk is notable for the incredible views and fascinating geology. Limestone and sandstone cliffs feature fossil studded rocks and are susceptible to collapse due to their porous qualities.

The cliffs are carved with caves which become arches which become sea stacks (lone columns of rock surrounded by water formed when the arches collapse).

Here and there are sinkholes, fenced off to prevent hikers from falling in.

The only human feature is a brick and mortar silo which served as a lookout tower to alert coastal communities to the encroachment of pirates or raiders, typically from Africa.

The hike was certainly nerve wracking in places, particularly near to the edge of the cliffs, although we felt slightly silly about feeling anxious when we noticed a fisherman scrambling down a cliff side with a bucket of bait and two rods before occupying a narrow ledge 60 feet above the ocean and casting a line. My goodness.

The walk took a while, partly because the footing slowed us down in places but mostly because we kept stopping to take in the views and to take more pictures.

On the way back we noticed countless tiny spring wildflowers that had seemingly bloomed since we first passed. It was a magical walk.

We have two more days in Ferragudo but feel like we have made the most of our stay already.