The government of Portugal has been campaigning to encourage residents to vacation this summer within the country. So, we decided to travel a bit and take advantage of the lack of tourists due to covid. Following all covid rules, of course, we took the train down and spent 9 days in July in the Algarve region which is the most southern part of Portugal. This region is a very popular destination for international tourists and Português holiday-makers alike. In normal times, we would never visit this area in the height of tourist season. It is often the location of choice for expats moving to Portugal – especially Brits. When we went, the UK was still requiring their citizens to quarantine for 14 days if they returned from Portugal, so we saw almost no Brits while there and very few tourists from anywhere. Business throughout the entire region is suffering terribly due to the decimation of tourism.

We never considered the Algarve region when deciding where we would live in Portugal. For us, there were three major negatives to the area: 1) Too hot for me. I will gladly tolerate damp cool winters in Porto in exchange for the totally amazing summers. 2) Not enough public transportation. There are buses but no metro system. We really appreciate the connectivity that a major city offers and did not want to live where a car was needed. 3) Too many tourists. We do not want to live in an area that feels like a vacation resort, or closes up in the winter, or has more expats and tourists than locals. Having never visited the area, however, we thought it was time to check it out.

We found that there is a lot of natural beauty along the coastal parts of the Algarve. It is definitely an area worth visiting.  We rented a car and covered the whole region from the eastern border with Spain to the western coast and had an enjoyable time. The boat ride out of Carvoeiro to see the caves and coastline was definitely a highlight. Below are just a small percentage of my photos from the trip.