MacsTravel Blog

When we woke up it was pouring rain. It rained solidly until noon, let up for a bit, and then, as we pulled into the town of Lagos, it came down in buckets. Just as we thought we might head back to Ferragudo, the rain stopped.

Over the next five hours the skies alternated between bruised and threatening to blue with fluffy white clouds. We got a bit of rain when we sheltered in the late afternoon for a snack under patio umbrellas in town, but otherwise it was terrific weather to explore the old town of Lagos and its spectacular coastline.

Lagos is the largest town in the Western Algarve, and has a long and at times grim history. It was the capital of this region for a few centuries as well as the major slave trading port in Portugal for over 200 years. There is a museum on the site of the original market and Portugal is slowly working towards more fully acknowledging this terrible part of the country’s history.

We wandered through the old town that lies within the original walls of Lagos’ fortifications.

There are plenty of shops, restaurants and bars, typical Algarve fishermen’s houses, beautiful tiles on the streets and a number of interesting murals and statues.

It is a buzzing town in the high season with a surf and hippie culture vibe. Visitors here, even in the late winter, seem much younger than in the other parts of the Algarve that we have explored.

We didn’t linger in town, preferring to get a quick look at the string of beaches that lie west of Lagos.

With a few exceptions (the main beach in front of the town being one) there aren’t many long and sweeping beaches here. They tend to be found in relatively small but breathtakingly beautiful coves, between the sandstone cliffs and a sprinkling of arches and sea stacks.

A beautiful, newly constructed boardwalk with a series of spectacular lookouts is strung along the top of the cliffs, and is part of the 10 km Ponte de Piedade hiking route from Lagos to Luz. We weren’t sure how far we would get before the rains returned but we followed it for about 6km, pausing frequently to take in the views and occasionally following steep staircases down to the beaches.

At the far end, before the cliffs turn sharply north-west, there is an incredible lookout on a promontory, the Ponte da Piedade viewpoint. Below are a series of 197 steps that take you down through the cliffs to water level, offering views of the “grotto” that the sea has carved in the cliffs.

On our way back, during a blue sky interlude, we dropped down a series of stairs to Praia Dona Ana where we claimed a spot on the beach and enjoyed the spectacular coastline, clouds and blue skies and ocean. A few brave souls were swimming but most people seemed content just to soak in the sunshine.

Tomorrow is our last full day in Portugal and we hope to do one more hike here in the Algarve before we head north to Lisbon to get ready for our flight home on Monday. It has been a fabulous trip, but it will also be nice to be home.