Faro Travel Guide

Praia de Faro sits on a long, narrow sandspit just beyond the Algarve's capital, Faro — open Atlantic on one side, calm lagoon on the other, joined to the city by a long bridge. The sand is soft and the sea breeze generous, drawing surfers, windsurfers and birdwatchers; along the lagoon edge of the spit you may meet migratory birds and fiddler crabs. At sunset the flamingos across the water glow against an orange sky, making this one of the most relaxed coastal scenes in the Algarve.

The Arco da Vila stands at the entrance to Faro's old town in Portugal's Algarve — a Neoclassical city gate built in the early 19th century under an Italian architect. Above the arch sit a clock tower and a chapel to the Virgin, and the passage links the quiet lanes within the walls to the breezy square outside. Stepping through the arch carries visitors from the defensive memory of a historic port into the whitewashed, blue-tiled, unhurried everyday life of the Algarve — the gentlest of prologues to the old city.

Ria Formosa Natural Park stretches along Portugal's southern Algarve coast — a protected lagoon system of barrier islands, estuaries and tidal flats extending some 60 kilometres. At low tide the vast mudflats host flamingos, avocets and many rare aquatic species, while boats reach unspoiled islands such as Tavira. As one of Europe's most important wetlands, it is both a stopover on migratory flyways and a superb destination for birdwatching, walking and unhurried coastal travel.