Armed with plenty of beach recommendations along our route and a 10am checkout time, we were all up and out early, determined to make the most of our day of traveling to the Algarve. However, once again, Lisbon Airport transportation reared it’s ugly head. We got to the airport no problem, but then had a bit of confusion about exactly where we had to meet our car rental agency, which resulted in us walking the length of Terminal 1. We then had to wait for 20 minutes and when we finally were met, we were promptly walked off of the airport, down the street and around the corner to an empty lot full of other folks waiting for a shuttle to the off airport car port. And when I say “folks”, what I mean are very cranky people. As we didn’t was to deal with the drama, we sat, had some snacks and hope the shuttle arrived soon.
The waiting area (slash parking lot) where we waited for ~40 minutes
When we finally got a shuttle to the spot where we could actually pick up cars, over half an hour had passed and we lost another 30 minutes trying to get our car, so what did we decide to do? Crack the last two beers we had leftover and brought with us! (Especially before they warmed up!)
When life hands you lemons, drink beer!
A valuable lesson: on the way back, we’ll absolutely need to leave more than the normal 10-15 minutes for car drop offs! However, we finally sorted everything and were off!
Our exit drive from Lisbon took us across the Vasco da Gama bridge, which starts on the Lisbon side as a suspension bridge then drops down to basically sit just above the river – needless to say, it’s a pretty cool bridge!
Our first destination was the town of Sines, about an hour and a half away. Not because there was anything to see there (though we did climb some castle walls) but because it’s the gateway to the roads that take us to the best beaches! We also needed lunch by this time, and so stopped off at O Castelo (a restaurant at the base of the town castle), where we shared an awesome meal of soft cheese, olives & bread, Dark Pork Slices (our waitresses recommendation, which translates to “Secrets of Dark Pig,” and the best thing we had), Black Pig Pork Chops and grilled Calamari. All this was also accompanied by a big salad and pile of fries. Say what you will, the Portuguese love their french fries! We then wrapped it all up with a truly excellent mango mousse, which was the only thing we had been able to translate out of the many Portuguese-only FourSquare tips. Will full bellies, we mustered the will to quickly explore the castle, then hopped back into our trusty Renault and headed south.
15 minutes later we made our first beach pit stop – Porto Covo – which is just south of Sines’ port and electric plant. It doesn’t sound like the setting for a beautiful beach, but oh boy it is!
We plopped down to enjoy the late afternoon sun, read and, in Grant’s case, swim too far out and end up getting a gentle scolding from the life guards (though honestly the waves were minimal and he was only trying to body surf – can’t a guy catch a break?!).
Grant gets a firm talking to, and only kinda listens.
As the sky started to cloud up, we decided to head on to our second and last stop pre-Lagos, Arrifana. You won’t find this beach mentioned in many (if any!) guide books, and so we were shocked to round the corner and see the view before us, which quickly confirmed that it was 100% worth the detour! They say pictures are worth a thousand words, so we’ll let these snaps speak for themselves:
As you can see we had a great time walking the huge beach, tide pooling and playing on the rocks. The only draw back to a beach encircled by cliffs is that the sun sets all too soon and we soon had to make the hike back up to our car and press on!
We got to Lagos just as the sun was setting and once again had the joy of trying to find parking in an old European town. We quickly gave up and decided paying was better than endless frustration and turned our car over to the local garage for safe keeping. We then dropped our things off at the AirBnB a mere 5 minutes away and headed into town in search of food!
Our hostess had recommended Dois Irmaos as the spot for fresh seafood and it did not disappoint. Grant, Desirae, and Frank shared a few Covina fish steaks and a big fillet from right up near it’s gills (that had us all wondering just how big this fish really was!), while I instead opted for a lighter meal of mussels in white wine and cilantro, complemented by a salad with fresh goat cheese and honey dressing. To end the meal, we shared a traditional Lagos dessert made of egg yolk “threads” covered in honey, almonds, and nuts. It was rich, and very different, in a good way.
Then, sun kissed and full, we trundled off to bed, ignoring the pulsing bars full of youngsters that had only just started kicking up. We’re too old for that nonsense anyway 😉
– J & G