The Algarve {Beaches}

We heard there were lots of beaches to explore in The Algarve and each of them different, so I did my research and mapped a few that caught my eye. I was mainly going for scenery when choosing the beaches; I wanted something different that we've never seen anywhere else.  I loved the pictures of the tiny coves, caves, grottos and sea arches, which the Algarve is known for, so we put those beaches high on our list. I also heard they were a bit harder to access because of the stairs you have to climb to get to them, so they don't get overly crowded {not true, still crowded but luckily, we got there at decent times so never had any issues}. There were plenty of beaches with long stretch of sand and water {and no stairs to climb up and down}, but I felt like we could get that anywhere so we decided to pass on that. Out of the five nights we were there, we went to a different beach each day {3 in total, first day was a travel day} and then hung out at the hotel pool our last day. We had a great trip with lots of sun, sand and sea! I won't go into too much details about the beaches since they pretty much speak for themselves, but here are the ones we visited.... My only regret was that we didn't have one of those colorful umbrellas =(

Praia do Camilo - Lagos. Lots of steps to get down to the beach, but once you're down there, it opens up to two small bays. You go through a small cave to get to the other bay. Water was freezing cold, but calm. Very picturesque. Plus: small drink stand at the beach and a very good restaurant at the top of the stairs.

Praia da Marinha - Lagos, Portimao. The is one of the most photographed beach in The Algave because of it's double sea archways. We were surrounded by limestone cliffs. It was the biggest one of the beaches that we went to and although advertised as having calm waters, it had pretty big waves, so I stayed out of the water for the most part. Gerald on the other hand was having a blast! This was his favorite beach. Plus: We found a spot in between two rocks that offered shade when needed. 

Praia do Carvolho - Carvoero. We stopped to check out this beach on the way back to the hotel from Praia da Marinha since they were fairly close to each other. It looked like a pretty beach, but definitely small. Again, surrounded by limestone cliffs and lots of stairs to climb. It looked like a real ocean wave pool from the top!

Praia dos Tres Irmaos - Alvor. This was the closest beach to our hotel and offered a variety of options for visitors. Out of the three that we visited, this was the only one accessible to everyone, since it didn't have steep stairs to climb. You had the option of long stretch of sand beaches, a small cove, or small bays surrounded by rock outcrops. We hung out in the small cove area for a while and then discovered the small bays on the other side of the cliffs, so spent the second half of the day there. This was my favorite beach since the water was so calm, perfect temperature and lots of space. Plus: No waves! You can pretty much walk around in the water with no issues. Hip deep water, soft sand and clear waters.

Bonus: Ponta da Piedade - Lagos. We heard you can take boat trips from here to explore the caves from sea, so we went to check it out. It was beautiful, however, no boats! We saw a bunch of boats pass by but they never came inside the cave to get us so I assume they couldn't. We hung out for a good 15 - 20 minutes to see if a boat would come but realized the water might be too rough or shallow so decided to head back to the hotel. We were lazy to go find another spot to catch the boats.  Plus, water was pretty rough so I probably would have gotten sea sick. Oh wells, it was still pretty to go down there and see the formations up close.

This was definitely a different beach experience for us and I totally recommend it! Enjoy the rest of your SUMMER!

The Algarve {Hotel Bela Vista}

Yay! We finally made it to The Algarve! I'm glad you're still following along our Portugal trip. There are too many good things to write about and it just wouldn't be fair for me to skip out on any of them.  The Algarve is broken down into three sections: Western, Central, and Eastern. We pretty much stayed in the Western and Central regions. We had plans to go East one of the days but decided we wanted to use our time hanging out at the beach instead of driving.

Photo courtesy: Conde Nast article

Our hotel was in Portimao, which sat on the Eastern edge of the Western section, so we were in a good location to explore the Western and Central beaches. It was a bit of a hassle getting to our hotel, but it was all worth it when we arrived. The only way to get into the hotel {by car} was to drive a short while through a "pedestrian only" promenade. Every time we left the hotel and came back, we would have to drive through this promenade and get looks of disapproval from the pedestrians walking by, thinking we didn't know any better. Little did they know, our hotel was behind the gates of the busy promenade and we would enter into peace and tranquility when those gates shut. Don't get me wrong, I loved the idea of the promenade and all it had to offer, but when you're looking for peace and quiet on holiday, that's the last place you would want to be. I wanted to walk down it one night just to see what it was all about but after experiencing a similar thing in a different part of town, I realized I wasn't missing out. Here's the promenade during it's quiet hours...imagine this same street with people packed in like sardines and having to drive through it, no fun!

Gerald and I enjoy staying at boutique hotels and the Hotel Bela Vista was a prime example of it. There were 38 rooms and suites, a pool, beach area on Praia da Rocha, L'Occitane Spa, and a great restaurant onsite. The details in the decor was something else and we enjoyed staying in our separate "Blue House" away from the main hotel area. Breakfast was served with fresh fruit,  juices, pastries, coffee, and an entree every day.  Dinners were always served with amuse bouches and nice treats to end the meal {we ate at the hotel twice during our trip}. Supposedly,  the restaurant is trying to work it's way into becoming a Michelin star restaurant, so I'm interested to see if it ever gets there. One night after dinner, we met the chef and he seemed like a nice enough guy, so I hope he gets the star one day.

Okay, enough with this text, here are the pictures! Enjoy!

The Hotel

The "Blue House"

The Pool

The Beach - we never actually went to the beach at our hotel because we enjoyed the other beaches more, but here it is. 

The Spa - we enjoyed spa treatments on our last day =)

The Restaurant - where breakfast and dinners were served, i love dining al fresco!

Our Favorite Chairs

We essentially could have stayed here the entire time and never leave, but that wouldn't have been any fun, considering all the wonderful beaches we would have missed out on.  You'll want to see these beautiful beaches, so stay tuned!

Portugal Wine Tasting {Setubal}

On the way down to the Algarve, we stopped off at a couple wineries in the Setubal Peninsula wine region. They were the two main wineries in the region and were recommended by our Pena Palace tour guide, Nuno.  Although probably not the best wines I've tasted, if was a neat experience.

The first winery we went to is called Bacalhoa. There was a museum onsite with items from the owners personal collection. He had a collection from Africa, antique Portuguese tiles, and some Art Noveou and Art Deco items. Supposedly, he is an art collector and this was just a small piece of what he has. I can only imagine what his house is like.  After touring the museum, we were taken to the little vineyard  onsite {rest are further away} and then tasted some of the goodness.

The second winery is called Jose Maria da Fonseca, one of the oldest wineries in Portugal. We missed the tour for this one, but was able to do wine tastings from their tasting machine {the whites were poured separately}. I didn't particularly like any one of these wines, but it made for different wine tasting experience.

After the two wine tastings, we got hungry so stopped off at the local cafe for some more wine, cheese {queijo de azeitao}, and dessert {torta de azeitao} before heading down to The Algarve. It was a nice way to break up our drive, even though it was a little bit out of the way =)